Please read this article: Jason Pitzl-Waters' "A Pagan at Work"

Short version:  Please read this article.  It will take you two minutes, and it will help you understand the reality of my life, and the lives of many other ordinary Pagans, a lot better. 

Explanation:

I've written here, and spoken on many other occasions, about the discrimination many Pagans face in daily life. 

What always gets me is when non-Pagans just plain don't believe me.  It's as if some folks think I, and other Pagans, just make this shit up. 

On Monday, MSNBC broke the story of Carole A. Smith, whose firing from her job with the TSA seems to involve all sorts of things:

• outright religious bigotry;
• different treatment on the basis of religious identification ("If someone complains to you, he's Jewish, and refers to a stereotype about his Judaism, go to mediation and work it out? Is that management's response to that?" "No. That would not be management's response to that");
• retaliation for whistle-blowing;
• sexism ("She was emotional");
• union-busting;

...just to name a few.

But the most public part is her being a Witch.

Smith's situation has resonated with a lot of Pagans in the US, for a lot of reasons. 

Including the fact that almost all of us have experienced at least some of what she has at work. 

I certainly have.  On more than one occasion.  

But... there's more. 

Jason says it better than I do. 

Jason Pitzl-Waters, a regular writer at the Washington Post's "On Faith" (Religion and Politics) section, has an excellent piece in today's paper about what's happening to Smith -- and what happens to us all, at work every day, and in the rest of our lives, every day.

Thank you, Jason.

Please, take a minute and read Jason's article.  I, personally, would really appreciate it.  

A Pagan at Work
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/a-pagan-at-work/2011/03/29/AFk3jhAC_blog.html