The Ms. Conover issue – update
This is a follow up to “Human rights or not – reactions to the Ms. Conover issue”.
Ms. Murray is going to have a rude awakening.
Though I wonder if in some way this is adding more fuel to the fire that originally sparked Ms. Murray to write a nasty mean letter to Ms. Conover regarding her hobbies, reiki and tarot card reading. While I agree that what Ms. Murray wrote to Ms. Conover was bigoted, we must realize that although the letter has been made “public”, it was a private letter to begin with. Much as I support the cause of religious freedom, a cause dear and near to the hearts of my pagan/Wiccan acquaintances, I also support all forms of human rights. Ms. Murray has the inalienable right to express her opinion, which she did (although in one of the more nasty ways possible towards a Wiccan) in her originally-private-made-public letter to Ms. Conover. If we as a society are going to vouch for one form of human right, we must also hold to other forms as well. Otherwise, why bother having them? Sadly, this does mean that in private correspondence, Ms. Murray can write what she wishes, even mean and nasty words. Had she gone and written this on a public message board forum or blog, there may have been more legal recourse possible. This is not the case. Ms. Murray’s letter was originally private. (At this point, I must ask, “How did the letter become public? Who made the letter public?”)
Returning back to the fire… clearly Ms. Murray has strong opinions against reiki (though I feel I must state here that there are Christians who also do reiki; “Ms. Murray if you happen to read this perhaps you should do some research before you start venting your views”) and tarot card reading. Clearly, she lacks knowlege of what is really involved in either of those practices. That being said, would picketing her precious little pageant change anything? Not sure. She may very well be one of those die-hard (emphasis on “die”) Christians who relish the thought of being a martyr for their god. For all we know, this is her biggest battle and it’s her chance to show her faithful duty to her god. Lovely. Then what we have is another Christian martyr for others like her to look up to. The flip side, of course, is that pagans/Wiccans and most sane people out there will think Ms. Murray is well… just a little insane (not that people don’t already think she is).
In any case, what I see here is something spiralling hopefully not out of control – yet. Let’s hope it doesn’t.
In the meantime, I choose to sit back and let my dear friends do what they must do. I must do what I must do. I believe in human rights. This means that I must see both sides of this issue and I cannot take sides. Doing so would mean that I believe that one human right (right to freedom of religious choice) outweighs another (right to freedom of opinion), which is not the case. I believe in both equally. (Think about it? I’m a pagan who also loves writing!)
Here’s hoping that something good comes out of all this and not the scenario I presented above. Mediators be ready, this is a tough one.
