Yesterday was an interesting and somewhat exhausting day. Interesting because I found out that my city has an airport. There was an airshow at the airport so there were all manner of prop-driven aircraft flying over the neighborhood. None of that really makes me take a quick turn at what’s flying overhead. Having spent a large portion of my life on military bases, I’m quite accustomed to the sound of jet engines flying overhead, being warmed up on the tarmac and runway, and the testing of engines being repaired at the AGE shop. But it was a few moments where I paused and thought “what the Nine Hells was that?” It had been a while since I had remembered those sounds.

It was exhausting because I inadvertently wandered into a political fray on Twitter. An individual asked a poll question about whether right-wingers had a place within the Pagan community. My response was easy. They do. I don’t agree with right-wing Pagans. Given a choice, I wouldn’t want to be in a ritual with them. And I do have a choice. I posted about the poll and my feelings on it…and caught the lower level of the Nine Hells from so many folks. I was called a “Nazi Republican,” told that I was a traitor to the Pagan community, slammed as being “out of touch” with the “correct” way to be a Pagan, excoriated as not being in touch with the Gods, and on and on. Anyone that knows me well is very well aware of my center-left positioning within politics, as well as my opinion that politics is not a significant part of my spiritual beliefs.

Much of what I have seen and read over this issue of shoving the right out of Paganism is understandable though. The overturning of Roe V. Wade has a lot of folks – Pagan and not – extremely upset. The removal of federally protected rights and handing the discernment of how to manage those rights to the states is extremely concerning. I completely grok how people are so angry and upset. I also grok the anger and backlash against the perceived political subset of people that caused this to happen. I can also grok why people are upset with my point-of-view concerning all of this. This is why I have not responded to a single insulting message aimed at me. People are venting – I grok it. I’ve read the messages…and deleted them. I have no desire to get into a debate with people on either side of the issue.

Following the direction that my Druidry takes me, I’m not here to argue politics. I am here to comfort and aid thos that need someone to be there for them. I am here to stand between the oppressor and the oppressed. And I know that by taking that center-left positioning will earn me the anger and loathing of people from both sides – even from some of my friends. All I can do is take my position, as I should – and hope that it doesn’t cost me the friendships I have cultivated over so many years. Hopefully, they can understand enough to see that I am not trying to combat anyone. But right now is not that time.

Honestly, I am not here to fight for the liberals and against the conservatives. I am not here to advance the cause of the Democratic party over the Republican party. None of that is my fight. My fight is for the Constitution and its EQUAL application to all within this country that I live in. I handed over eight years of my life in the defense of the principles set forth in that document applied equally to all. I think a second civil war in the United States is stupid. We’ve not run out of ideas or the ability to work within the principles of the Constitution and the freedoms it embodies for all. But from what I’ve seen, what we – as a collective society – have run out of is patience. So I have to ask myself a simple question – if we’ve run out of patience over an equal application of law for all, does gate-keeping our religious beliefs become our new norm? I certainly hope not. But I am nothing more than a single wolf howl in the wilderness. And seemingly, our society is more about mob-rule than it is about the guiding principles of the Constitution. Seemingly, our democracy inches closer and closer to mob-rule where the rights apply to a single political side, and a complete disregard for the rights and freedoms of others. Yes, many can see the far-Right wing in that statement….but there’s plenty of room in that for the far-Left as well.

So, I’m going to end this with an apology to everyone that reads this. I don’t post about politics all that often. Politics is not a part of my religious beliefs. One informs the other, but neither will replace the other or have a place of domination of the other. Through the course of this weekend, I have come to find that there is far less common ground for the Right and Left to occupy in this country. I’m also finding a far greater degree of loneliness here in the middle. I beg your forgiveness for bringing a topic like this into the blog. I thought it important enough to discuss it for a bit…

–T /|\