Chymical Wedding

I’m personally sick of the collective amnesia of the people of this nation. While I am not superior in this regard, the only way to fix it in my own mind is to start making changes in my own behavior. To that end, I wrote a (possibly slightly vitreous) letter and e-mailed it to my three congressional representatives (in both the House and Senate). That letter follows.

Dear [Senator Isakson, Senator Chambliss, & Representative Linder],

I’ve written to you before, and nearly every e-mail I’ve sent to you has been returned by an automatic response telling me respectfully but firmly that you disagree with whatever it is that I happened to be talking about at the time. I understand that you’ll probably have a similar response to this one, but I insist on speaking nonetheless.

In this country, we have a frighteningly short memory about cataclysmic events on all planes of experience. It’s as if we’ve been afflicted with a massive case of ADHD, but only where it concerns things of political, intellectual, social, and spiritual import. While I am as prone to it as anybody else, I have made the conscious decision to at least attempt to hold in mind certain events which hurt and kill my fellow humans, and which continue to cause suffering.

I will not get into the politics and economics of the present war in Iraq, as that’s an area in which I know that you and I already disagree and probably forever will. Suffice it to say that the commandment is “Thou shalt not kill” and not “Thou shalt not kill certain people under certain circumstances, but anybody else is fair game.”

My main point here is concerning Hurricane Katrina and the continuing aftermath. I’m sure that whichever one of your aids reads this will immediately think, “Wait, did I get this on the right date? Is he talking about THAT hurricane even now?” Yes. On July 19, 2007 I am bringing up Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of Louisiana and Mississippi. The fact is that before we concern ourselves with the many issues abroad (whether they be terrorism or poverty), perhaps we should instead look within. While I would love it is you took that literally, and looked within yourself to your own spirit, what’s really at issue here is within the borders of these United States of America. We are, as a nation, spending so much money in killing all of those dreadful brown-skinned people around the world that we have narry a penny remaining to maintain the health and safety of those right nearby (even if they are brown-skinned).

Why is so much money being spent abroad, and why does congress keep signing the checks, when there is at least one entire city to be reconstructed? The only work which has been done so far in New Orleans was a rebuilding of the business sector. While that is effective in bolstering city and state income from tourism, none of that income has gone to rebuilding the homes of long-time New Orleans residents, many of whom have had to relocate indefinitely to far-flung regions of the country.

I encourage you to rethink all of the federal budgets, and I pray that you search the depths of your very being to find that compassion which is so necessary and yet so lost to the world of public duty. America has forgotten that you, as our representatives on the federal level, are our employees and not our bosses. This is not a threat, but merely a reminder from one citizen to another: keep your duties to us in perspective.

In Divine love,
Nicholas G. [last name removed]

An ad trying to tell me that Wicca and Paganism are spiritually dangerous, courtesy of an evangelical Christian website, showed up earlier on my LJ. I’ve sent an e-mail as well as an ad feedback form about it to LiveJournal, and that e-mail follows. I may be the only one here who cares about this, but it really does offend me that this could show up on my blog.
Avete LJ Engineers & Sales Department,

I’ve been using LJ for years now, using various usernames (including fraterachdae and my current hermeticalchemy). I was at first a little upset to see ads appearing, but soon thought better of it; I understand why it’s necessary and respect the decision to run ads without pop-ups. However, tonight I caught an ad on my LJ which outright offended me. I’m not generally one to crusade in matters that don’t directly affect me, so believe me when I say that writing this e-mail is something of an extreme measure for me. I already sent an ad feedback form, but feel that I need to make sure that this matter is addressed.

The ad in question was for www.expagans4christ.com and I don’t mind telling you that I am a Wiccan and an occultist. Regardless of my spiritual leanings, however, I do not believe that it is the right of anybody to proselytize in MY online “home”, or anybody else's for that matter. If Christians want to get ads for websites like this, that's their business and I fully support their right to choose to do so. However, I did not make that choice and I cannot support advertisements on my own blog which cut against everything I feel to be sacred. Imagine, for example, a Jew who sees on his or her LiveJournal and advertisement which states, “Jews killed our Lord! Read interviews on the dangers of Judaism!” It's the same thing, and I would be equally offended to see any such thing (or an anti-Christian ad, for that matter).

It is not in my power to tell you what to do with your own website, but I think that it would be more than a sign of good faith if you ceased running such ads on the LiveJournals of people of non-fundamentalist and dominionist faiths. I can say for certain that most Buddhists, atheists, Neopagans, Voudoun, Jews, Theosophists, and mainstream Christians would be bothered if such a thing showed up on their own blogs, where they shared their intimate thoughts and spiritual experiences with their friends. The only other thing I can say is that there is a rather large population of Neopagans, Hermetics, occultists, Theosophists and other members of “unorthodox” religions and spiritual systems using LiveJournal. We're there because it’s a good place to network, a useful and enjoyable service, and generally protective of our right to talk about darn near anything we want without censorship. I think that I can speak for many others when I say that I don't want my enjoyment to be cut into by religious bullying, even if it is just in my margin.

In Peace Profound,
Nicholas Graham

P.S.: I’m copying this as an open letter to my LJ and will be following up there with whatever information I get from your response.