                                MATERIA DIANICA

                          "Green Buttons and Ghettos"
                                Copyright 1987
                                      by
                           Leannansidhe of Moonbeam
                     and the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal

    A few new scabs have appeared since last issue.  Let's pick at them a
little and see if we get any blood.

    Several pages of the August/ September RMPJ were devoted to the controversy
concerning the wearing of green buttons as a means of identifying ourselves as
Pagans.  DAWN has endorsed the plan.  Gary Dumbauld would just as soon deep six
the whole business.  Members of the community have expressed -- in public and
in private -- views that range from "Sounds great!" to "over my dead body."

    My opinion?  Hang on.  I've got things to say.

    Possibly the primary cause of the disagreements has to do with the intent
of the original plan.  This is, as I read in the letter from the "Come From the
Shadows" folk, a combination of internal networking and external outreach; that
is, reminding one another that we're all here and establishing Paganism as a
real presence in the community.

    Coming out to each other is nothing new: we've all been doing this for
years at Pagan parties.  What is different about the green button plan is that
it involves coming out to our society at large, either later (Winter Solstice
1990), or sooner: when you get asked about that green button you're wearing. 
In this we have the most sparks of dissent.  Gary is quite right in stating
that conservative Christian factions are going to be scared, since we are the
enemy they see in their worst nightmares.  One of my acquaintances proposed
that we wear the green buttons but not tell the cowan what they mean, but this
defeats the entire issue, turning Paganism into merely another secret club. 
Perhaps we should issue Theban decoder rings.

    The coming-out-to-the-world is a sticky business, but it is also the raison
d'etre for the whole plan.  At present, we gather together in our homes, or in
National Parks, and we live our fantasy world of ritual, of Lords and Ladies,
of strong High Priests and loving High Priestesses.  But we live only shadows. 
When we subject our religion to the harsh brilliance of fluorescent lights, it
turns to dust.  The magic goes away.  And then, on top of that, we have the
neighbors to consider.  

Doesn't sound good, does it?

    In day to day life, we are all Uncle Toms.  We shuffle our feet, bow to
"massah", and cause no trouble.  Our jobs and our comforts are grounded in the
furtherance of a system which would gladly eradicate us.  The green buttons
propose to strike what could be a lethal blow to this ghetto in which we live,
a mind-set that colors our perceptions of the world, that either forces us to
pass as "white" or makes us appear as alternately laughable and dangerous.

    In a true ghetto, a geographical location exists in which the common law of
the enclosing society is, in part at least, suspended.  The Jews were reviled
during the Middle Ages, but nice Christian boys and girls stayed out of Jewish
territory.  Mostly.  Today we have Five Points, and Watts, and sections of
Detroit and other cities where white folk do not go.  For good reason.

    Pagans have a ghetto mentality, but no turf.  We exist at the sufferance of
laws framed by people inimical to us.  When our practices are at variance with
theirs, we have no place to which to retreat.  We inevitably lose the
encounter.

    One possibility for a solution involves a return to strict secrecy, the
ways of the Burning Times.  But it is doubtful that such a return could be
achieved, for there are too many vocal Pagans who are dedicated to visibility. 
This has already resulted in our exposure, and--let's face it -- people are not
going to shut up.

    No, our necks are out.  On the chopping block, in fact.  We have caused
Jesse Helms and Jerry Falwell to pick up their axes, but, unfortunately, we are
not visible enough so that our sheer presence in numbers makes them think twice
about taking a swing.

    Does this sound as though I'm pushing for the green buttons?  Nay, not so. 
This article -- I'll warn you all now -- is raising questions, some of which
have no answers, some of which can only be resolved with the passage of time. 
Probably years.  Probably not by Winter Solstice of 1990.

    So, what do we do?  Reaching out to the larger community is an obvious
answer.  Is it a viable one?

    Consider:  There has been little attention paid to the rather knotty
problem of transcending our immanent but parochial religion and its concurrent
worldview.  Many, in fact, do not desire such transcendence, since for them
Paganism is a refuge from the "real world", a place that, like the Society for
                                                          <continued next page>
Creative Anachronism, provides a shield against a harsh and incomprehensible
reality as well as the potential for high status within a structured and
accepting cultic population.  But even those who are not loath to face
technology and its problems seem content to live in a cryptozoic existence at
the edges of society, feeding on the blood of the fat, European-American
civilization.

    If the green button campaign is to be successful, however, it must be
pursued with dedication, by everyone, beginning now.  The ghetto must be razed. 
All of it.  If we continue passing with our smiles and our Steppin Fetchit
routines, we not only have no hope whatsoever of changing the situation, but we
also contribute to our eventual undoing.

    It is all very well and good to don your green button and imagine that you
are furthering the well-being of Paganism, but, fact is, you are really doing
nothing unless you actively contribute to a future environment in which the
green buttons (or, for that matter, pentagrams, crescent moons, and -- Goddess
help us! -- Thor hammers) are known, tolerated, and understood as a legitimate
and non-threatening choice on the part of the wearer.  This means
confrontation, communication, and risk, but any other approach is parasitical:
someone else will do the dirty work, and we can feel all warm and fuzzy for
having helped out.  Don't kid yourselves.

    The societal context in which we live is deeply entrenched.  "Witch" is a
dirty word for most everyone outside of Paganism.  The worship of the Old Gods
is seen as backwards... or as thinly disguised Satanism.  If we take the risk,
if we come out to the world, will it make any difference?

    Depends.  I want to examine some paradigms.

    When the Christian Church rose to power, Jews were very definitely on the
losing side.  Confined to poorer parts of the cities, to low paying and
undesirable trades, they were an easy target for superstition and prejudice. 
If things were not going well in the kingdom, the monarch had only to blame
everything on the Jews and the riots would take care of the matter... or at
least distract everyone for a while.

    This is not so much the case now.  While pockets of anti-Semitism still
exist, such prejudice is frequently seen as evidence of low breeding...
something nice people do not do.  At the very least one does not find too many
books and newspapers with casual slurs on the Jews.

    What happened?  Well, you say, there was the Holocaust.  Six million Jews
were systematically exterminated.  

    Six million?  We lost nine and a half million during the Burning Times! 
How come we still lose custody of our children because we're Pagan?

    Think: Jewish Defense League.  They're not quiet.  You don't want to mess
with them.  Jews in general have gotten quite vocal.

    Another example.  Does anyone remember the 60s?  Seems we had a little
problem with civil rights.  Things like voting, eating at the same lunch
counter, the back of the bus... 

    Things are better today.  Not better by huge leaps and bounds, but black
people have made enough of a mark on our culture that politicians are not going
to ignore them.  Yes, Malcolm X lost his life in the fight.  So did Martin
Luther King.  No one ever said that progress was easily won, or bloodless.

    And another.  Ever hear of the Stonewall riots in New York?  Homosexuals,
finally fed up with constant police harassment, began to fight back.  The
battles fired the spirit of the gay communities, and today...   Well, it's a
shaky truce that has fallen over the no-man's-land between gay and straight,
but did anyone notice that, last election, some of Denver's mayoral candidates
campaigned in a few gay bars?  Interesting.  

    What these examples have in common is action and activism.  The three
social groups found themselves in a situation that had to change.  They did not
retreat into fantasy, internal hierarchies, or backwoods festivals.  On the
contrary: they fought, violently when necessary.  Today we have Israel, black
mayors and representatives to Congress, active gay communities with liaisons to
local politics and police forces.  They all keep pushing, they all keep the
pressure on.

    What do we Pagans have to offer?  With what do we intend to save our way of
life as it is threatened by bigotry and media ridicule?  Dragonfest?  Don't be
silly.  Circle Farm?  Come on, get real.  DAWN?  The Billy Graham Crusade got
its phone number in the News without even having to ask; DAWN couldn't get its
P.O. Box listed for love nor money.

    The possibility exists that, like the Jews, like the blacks, like the gays,
we will have to get a little ugly about our presence and our rights.  We will
need skilled teachers and communicators.  We will need action.
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The question is: Are we ready?

    Sadly, I think not.  The same ghetto mindset with which we seal ourselves
off from the world has contributed to an environment in which minimal training
is the norm, leadership deficient.  Our High Priests and High Priestesses are,
for the most part, under qualified, frequently mistaking authoritarianism for
knowledge, prejudice for careful thought: complacent big fish in very small
ponds.  We have no widespread criteria for the ministry or for teaching.  In
fact, the slightest mention of standards raises a shout of condemnation. 

    But how can we expect to be taken seriously if we do not, in turn, show
ourselves to be serious and worthy of attention?  Like it or not, in spite of
all our altruistic New-Age sentiments, we live in a world of appearance.  True,
the media is at present a rose-colored filter that allows Ronald Reagan to
maintain his illusion of leadership, but it can also be a merciless scalpel of
the sort that dismembered the lies surrounding Richard Nixon.  Should we pursue
a path of civil rights and activism, its gaze upon us will be prolonged and
withering.  How many among us can dress and act powerfully enough to stare it
down?  Or speak with conviction and intelligence enough to give the lie to
sarcastic interviewers?

    Strange... there were a bunch of hands raised just a minute ago.  I wonder
what happened to them all.
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