Blogtrek

Wiccan Invocations

I heard in the paper that Chesterfield County, Virginia rejected a Wiccan priestess' request to perform invocations for them. This shows that Chesterfield County's officials don't bother to find out what Wicca stands for or what Wiccans believe. They have this old image of witches on brooms. The county attorney, says, "Wicca is neo-pagan and invokes polytheistic, pre-Christian deities" and for that reason he rejected the Wiccan's request. He should not reject Wicca for what it is but should consider what Wicca does and what Wiccans do. Further, what if I object to a non-pagan, monotheistic Christian deity? I would find an invocation to such a deity offensive to me.

I think Chesterfield County should either reconsider its decision and allow the Wiccan to give invocations in Chesterfield County, or do away with invocations altogether. It is hard to do an invocation without breaking the principle of separation of church and state stated in the First Amendment.

Further, I feel that the Richmond Times-Dispatch this time has disgraced itself with its report of the incident. "Chesterfield gives witch the broom." That shows that the people on the staff of this newspaper have brooms in their brains. They are imprisoned by the witch stereotype. They should have simply said "Chesterfield rejects Wiccan's invocation request".

Sputnik

2002 October 5 was the 45th anniversary of the launching by the Soviet Union of Sputnik I. I was 11 years old when this occurred. I was in the living room of my parents' house, and they were watching TV. All of a sudden a special alert came on the black-and-white TV. The "Russians" had launched an Earth-orbiting satellite in orbit called Sputnik I and it was giving off a beeping sound: beep, beep, beep... The first thing I said was "shoot it down", for we were all trained to hate the Soviets and their Communist form of government. But my father said that they won't do that because the satellite will do good for everyone.

But it was a shock to people. Headlines persisted for some time after the launch of Sputnik. People became afraid that they may develop continental missiles capable of sending nuclear warheads to the United States. In some ways this event resembles Planeattack, the terrorist attacks of 2001 September 11, in that both events were jolting reminders that our country was no longer secure within its borders. Interest everywhere in mathematics, science, and engineering skyrocketed. This increased interest in the sciences and space led to the US space programs and Kennedy's moon challenge, which was successfully met in 1969.

And Sputnik ushered in humanity into the Space Age, into a world where we casually use satellites for such things as locating your place (GPS), cellular telephones, and cable television broadcasts. It was our first step into space.

Virginia Association of Astronomy Societies

I attended this conference in Ashland, Virginia today and heard several good talks, including one wherein the presenter showed how a picture in a darkened room can show up rather easily in today's CCD equipment. It was followed by a picnic and skywatch near Ashland in which I located several interesting objects in my telescope. I regard this is a summertime conference, since the temperatures were in the upper 80s. It may be the last day of summer. Highs in the low 70s are called for next week.