GROVE OF THE UNICORN
P. O. BOX 13384
ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30324

Hi there:

Finally--an update on happenings in Atlanta. Sorry to be so long in
getting this out, but all of us have been so very, very busy. With no
urgent news to dispense, and the holidays claiming their share of time
and energy, time quickly slipped away! (Then the flu bug struck!)

The furor here has calmed down and we are almost back to "normal"
(whatever that is!). The things that have transpired since our last
letter have been, for the most part, favorable.

Lady Galadriel appeared on a number of local talk shows during the
"Halloween" season, including "Sound Off", which covers about 40 states. Listener response was encouraging, and, to be honest, a bit surprising,
for the majority of calls, both while Lady Galadriel was on the air and
after she left (the program continued), were positive. Many may not
have agreed with our beliefs, but they stood up for our right to follow
then. There were also a number of newspaper articles about the group,
and several about individual members of the group. We were pleasantly surprised when media interest continued past Halloween, with a newspaper article on our "resident herbologist" and TV coverage of our Samhain
rite. (We follow the astrological, rather than the calendar, dating of Sabbats.) The reporter and cameraman observed the rite, had us
"re-stage" parts of it for filming and it was shown later that evening
and the next day. Numerous small positive incidents have taken place,
such as neighbors of those identified as Wiccans dropping by to offer
support. And, most surprisingly of all, we have received only one
anti-Wiccan religious tract at our P.O. box!

We can't deny that there have been a few unpleasant incidents, but they
have been so outnumbered by positive ones that we are very encouraged
and feel more strongly than ever that we did the right thing in going
public with our protests against the desecration of our sacred site.

On that subject, our efforts to deal with the situation through the
legal system were both frustrating and rewarding. We received token
support from the local police, but they didn't go out of their way to
help us identify those who actually desecrated the site. We did take
warrants against three of the men who were involved in the second
incident, when we were accosted and threatened by the group of drunken
rednecks who were tresspassing on our property.

The case was scheduled to be heard in November, but at the last moment
was postponed until December. And guess when they scheduled it?
Friday, the 13th..... We found that rather interesting, and still
aren't sure if it was just a "coincidence", or if someone at the court
house has a sense of humor!

It went well, and most of the spectators (the courtroom was packed) were obviously pulling for our side. However, because of a small legal point
which our attorney was not familiar with (even the judge was a bit
surprised when the defendant's attorney pulled this one out of the
depths), the men were let go with a stern warning and a public injunc-
tion was made to the effect that we are guaranteed the freedom of
worship without harrasment and that anyone doing so would be subject to prosecution to the full extent of the law. The legal point? Falure to
file notice of the posting of the property to the courthouse. A very
obscure and unknown law which meant that even though we had posted the
property and put chains across the driveway, the posting was not
official because we had negelected to file a notice of same with the
county authorities...

We feel that even though we "lost", in one respect, as the men were not officially punished, we still "won", for they were punished in other
ways. The suffered the indignity of being arrested, spending time in
jail, and having the newspapers report these facts. They spent money to
make bond, and money on attorneys who were some of the more expensive in
the area, which means they were frightened of what the consequences of
their acts could be. And the worst punishment of all, they had to spend
all that time listening to their wives and mothers berate them for their
"evil ways"!

All of the events, from the original desecration through the court case,
were reported by the media, and the majority of their reports were very
slanted toward our defense. We feel that much was accomplished through bringing our views into the light, for many discovered that "witches"
aren't what they thought we were!

We sincerely thank all of you who sent us so much support. We were very
aware of the inflow of positive energy, drew on it, and know we couldn't
have made it through all of the turmoil without that support. All of us
at The Grove of the Unicorn say "THANK YOU!".

We have debated the subject of pursuing these matters further, through
court cases against the police, individuals, etc., but reached the
decision that no real purpose would be served. The persons who
desecrated our site did so more from ignorance and fear than anything
else, and the police were caught in the middle of a situation which they
had never come up against before and weren't quite sure how to handle.
We will continue our efforts to educate the public as to our beliefs and
open practices, and perhaps these efforts will help to avoid such
clashes in the future. After all the publicity the cases received, we
believe others will think twice before acting in the same manner as the
people who desecrated our site.

Court cases cost money. After consultation with our attorney, we
acknowledged that we don not have the finances to pursue this through the courts to the full extent. The only thing we would gain through further
legal action would be a monetary award, which would have to be paid for
by the taxpayers. Our right to worship openly and as we please has been recognized and legally documented, which was our basic purpose in the beginning. We will continue to work with and through the media in an
effort to help the public understand us and our beliefs a little
better.

We have learned many things from our various experiences, one of the
most important being that there is unity amongst the Pagan community
when there is need. To all our new friends, our thanks and our love.

Blessed Be!

Rixter
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080

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