Incident

I’ve been debating about whether or not to write about this. It doesn’t specifically pertain to the main topics of this blog, but it is indirectly related. After much thought I decided to go ahead and write about it. An incident occurred yesterday that had left me much shaken and I am just now getting over it.

I have long postulated that as things got worse there would be an increase in the incidence of hate crimes, harassment, and other things relating to protected categories. Crime in general tends to go up during bad times. I have lived in the south all my life and have only experienced direct discrimination for being a lesbian once and until yesterday had never actually experienced a problem because of my religion. I’ve heard stories about both and know they happen, and I’ve also heard by word of mouth that the number of such incidents is on the rise.

I have been very open about my beliefs on this blog, but before I go any further I want to be sure it is made clear that I do not care what anyone else believes in. You can be a Christian, Buddhist, atheist, Jew, or a worshipper of a two-headed purple polka-dotted space alien named Zeus from the planet Nylon for all I care. I am cool with it as long as two stipulations are met: the first is that you don’t harm anyone (if you have a religion that promotes ritual human sacrifice, for instance, you and I are going to have a problem) and the second is that you respect my right to do the same. Don’t try to force me to convert, discriminate against me, start a holy war or otherwise try to impose your belief system and we are fine.

What happened was this: I wear my pentagram just about everywhere (save work). It is a large part of who I am, and that symbol means a lot to me, in the same way that a crucifix means a lot to Christians. I was walking my dog and this guy starts talking to me. He’s a little crazy anyway and he sees my pentagram and recognizes it. Now, nine out of ten people never notice it and the ones that do usually have no idea what it means. But then you get the nuts who thinks it’s a symbol of Satanism. This guy was one of these. So he starts shouting at me and ranting on about the devil and Satan and hell and all of this crap and he starts following me. He followed me halfway home. I nearly had to mace him. (Yes, I carry mace and I’m thinking of getting a gun and a permit –I have no problems with self-defense, and this being Alabama, its easy to do.)

The incident left me a bit shaken, and very, very angry. I do not care if this man believes in Christ, hell, the devil or the afore-mentioned Zeus, but I have the right to be left the fu*k alone to believe whatever I care to believe. I was telling someone about this today and she suggested I should stop wearing the pentagram because it is ‘not prudent’ and ‘might offend’ someone. I do not care whether or not it is prudent or if someone gets offended. If someone gets offended, that is their problem and not mine; they need to deal with their own insecurities. As far as prudence –I’ve spent too much of my life on my knees and crawling through muck to please others. I will not hide who and what I am. I am my own person and intend to remain that way. The most important thing in this world is freedom and I intend to keep mine. I’ll pay whatever price I have to, but I will do so. As Patrick Henry once said ‘give me liberty or give me death!’ And, to quote someone else I’ve read on the blogosphere ‘I’ll die on my feet before I live on my knees’.