SLC Pagan Pride Day 2008

SLC Pagan Pride 2008
Originally uploaded by Gwen Wolfrose

It has taken me most of a week to get to a point where I feel like typing. This is when having fibro gets on my last nerve. I also over do it at PPD. I like to take photos which means I'm not going to sit around and just take it easy. I'm up all day wandering around taking pictures the whole day. I do this to myself and then pay for it after. Will do it again next year too. lol

This year we decided to try something a little different. We took it back to the roots and decided to not have vendors. We did have a food booth run by SLCPP and that was a phenomenal success. Not having vendors turned out to be a good thing too. People actually congregated at the information tables and all the workshops were very well attended. The day flowed well.

Our workshops this year were:
Paganism 101 by Parker J. Torrence Draig Sidhe priest and author of Sea, Land, Sky: a Dragon Magick Grimoire.
Queer Mysteries by Duirin High Priest of Draco Lupa Luna.
Myths and Legends by Daniel Halacy.
Essences of Magick by Talea.
The Circle and the Staff by Aisling DreamRange High Priestess of DreamRange Dynamic.
Pagan Drumming by Panthea.

The Kids Zone this year was a hit and there were children there all day long except for the two times that they were all sitting around Mother Goose listening to her spin tales of wonder and delight. The children just adore Mother Goose.

Altarscapes was beautiful. I hope next year we get more people volunteering to display an altar. The year we had seven and each was just beautiful and inspiring.

We also had a concert by a local duo called Hidden Truth. They are an acoustic band of a guitar and a wooden flute. Their music is just beautiful. Visit their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hiddentruth5040

Our closing ritual this year was presented by The Mountain Shadow Clan of the Toteg Tribe sponsored by Aspen Grove. There was a great litany involved in the ritual where all the groups past and present in the valley were named and honored. We truly did Celebrate our Roots this year.

Over all we had 370 attendees, collected 412 pounds of food for the Utah Aids Foundation, raised enough money to pay for our space for NEXT year and educated some people about what Pagans are.

Health Care

So the same old lame scare tactic used to argue against universal health care is that there will be a bureaucrat in between you and your health care. So let's look at the definition of bureaucrat.

bureaucrat
Main Entry: bu·reau·crat
Pronunciation: \ˈbyu̇r-ə-ˌkrat, ˈbyər-\
Function: noun
Date: 1839

: a member of a bureaucracy


bureaucracy
Main Entry: bu·reau·cra·cy
Pronunciation: \byu̇-ˈrä-krə-sē, byə-, byər-ˈä-\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural bu·reau·cra·cies
Etymology: French bureaucratie, from bureau + -cratie -cracy
Date: 1818

1 a: a body of nonelective government officials b: an administrative policy-making group
2: government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority
3: a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation

Oh my! Sounds a lot like an insurance company to me.

Not so long ago my aunt had a blood test done that showed positive markers for pancreatic cancer. One of the things needed for further testing was an MRI study with and without contrast and the most important one being the one with. The insurance paper pushers decided that they would allow her to have the one without contrast but not the one she needed the most. They have also recently denied her another test that her doctor told her was needed. I will not even go into the medications the doctor prescribed that the insurance company will not approve.

So you see, that old scare tactic isn't a what if, it's an already is. Universal health care would be better because your doctor would have more say about what you need for your health care. Paper pushers who work for the insurance companies are there to make sure the insurance company makes money. They do not really care whether or not you are sick and need an expensive procedure. Or rather they do care, because they stand to lose money if you actually need the health care you gave them money to insure you would get when you needed it... and they will drop you like hot potato if it looks like you're going to start costing them money.

Just sayin...

GingerSnap

DSCF2025
Originally uploaded by Gwen Wolfrose

This is the new puppy that we've named GingerSnap. She's ten weeks old in this picture which I took a few hours ago.