News

Peace Corps, Peru and Pachamama: One woman’s journey

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TWH – Imagine for just a moment giving up life as you know it. You put your career on hold, sell most of your possessions, and move thousands of miles away to a remote world as foreign as anything could be.  Scary?  Exciting? That is just what Alane Brown did. In the summer of 2012, she sold or gave away most her possessions, rented out her home, took a leave of absence from her job at Fort Lewis College and joined the Peace Corps. Alane was sent to Peru and has been living high in the Andes Mountains ever since.

Paganism

Between Two Worlds

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Throughout the 1930’s, Hoovervilles dotted the landscape of the Willamette Valley, just as they did throughout most of this country. The Great Depression sparked a wave of homelessness throughout the United States, a wave that triggered mass migrations and the proliferation of shantytowns that popped up everywhere from Central Park in New York City to a nine-acre settlement in Seattle on the mudflats of Puget Sound. Hoovervilles were generally tolerated throughout the Depression until the advent of WWII, when an economic resurgence triggered the eradication of the shantytowns. With the demise of the Hoovervilles, homelessness left the public spotlight but it never truly went away, hovering out of sight until the recession of the 1980’s fueled a resurgence of the visibly homeless across America. The historic parallels between the Great Depression and the Great Recession are rather illuminating in terms of understanding the patterns, attitudes, and social tendencies that are at the foundation of modern homelessness.

Canada

The Quebec Values Charter: religious freedom or “militant secularism”

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On September 17 a Mcgill University student released a video taken of a man and woman engaged in a heated argument on a crowded public bus. According to a Huffington Post report, the argument began when the woman who was wearing a hijab boarded the bus.  Almost immediately the man began to harass her, demanding that she “remove her headscarf or return to her country.”  The unpleasantries continued for almost ten minutes. The man accused her of being associated with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and “criticiz[ed] the lack of Muslim integration into society.” In his “rant,” he said that Quebec’s Premier, Pauline Marois, would make her remove that “hat.”

The altercation on the bus is not an isolated incident. CTV, local Canadian television, reports that “more victims are coming forward” and the victims are not always individuals. On September 2 the Mosque in Saguenay was attacked and allegedly sprayed with pigs blood.

Paganism

Column: Diversity and Underrepresentation at Pagan Pride Events

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September is often referred to as Pagan Pride month. Official Pagan Pride Day (PPD) events are a part of the Pagan Pride Project’s mission to “foster pride in Pagan identity through education, activism, charity and community.” According to the Pagan Pride Project website, “PPD Inc had 95 events happen across the USA; Canada; Mexico; Brazil; Columbia; Bolivia; Argentina; Chile; Costa Rica; Panama; the Dominican Republic; Rome, Italy; Vienna, Austria; and Plymouth, United Kingdom. Our 2012 attendance was 44,825.”
And while the Pagan Pride Project stakes claim to the PPD brand, many organizations are holding community events in September and marketing them as pride events for the Pagan community. September has become the official and unofficial month of “Pagan Pride” and events are held all over the United States to celebrate Pagan spirituality, educate the community at large, and to be a resource for networking, shopping, and entertainment. Every year these events happen and some may walk away feeling the enjoyment of a day in the sun with community, while others feel excluded or disenchanted with the outcome of the event.