Nevada Gets It Right — Now It Is The VA’s Turn

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Nevada state officials have approved the use of a Wiccan circle-and-pentagram for the memorial plaque of a Nevada soldier killed in Iraq. Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan on Sept. 25 when the Nevada Army National Guard helicopter he was in was shot down. He was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize and so prohibits on veterans’ headstones in national cemeteries. However, Nevada state veterans officials said they had received a legal opinion from the Nevada attorney general’s office that concluded federal officials have no authority over state cemeteries. As a result, they intend to have a contractor make a plaque with the Wiccan pentacle — a circle around a five-pointed star — to be added to the Veterans’ Memorial Wall in Fernley. The VA still has not determined yet if a Wiccan symbol can go on the headstone; they only permit “approved” symbols, and they haven’t approved anything for Wicca yet.