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| POLL PAGE OR WHAT IS YOUR OPINION? |
 What do YOU think? |
Turn the light on and express yourself...the following is the revised text of a newletter that I sent out in February of 2001.
To All:
A law was passed in the 1970's in Pinellas County, FL that prohibits Tarot Readers, Spiritual Counselors and the like from doing readings without paying a costly liscensing fee. This was a "Blue Law" for many years and has recently been enforced. Those of us that perform these services for small fees or donations could be arrested or fined for providing our services to others in need. Bookstores are not permitted to provide unliscensed readers for psychic fairs for fear of being harassed, arrested and/or having their stores shut down--unless the readers are liscensed by the government.
There are many in the local area that feel that our rights are being infringed upon and that this is a mingling of church and state that is supposed to be unconstitutional. The government offices that were receiving e-mails regarding this issue, were not even opening or responding to them until this was called to their attention.
A few of the local stores here are passing out petitions regarding the overturning of this law. One such store is Crystal Connections on Indian Rocks Beach where I signed the petition this weekend. This is a very serious threat to our Religious Freedom that is supposed to be guaranteed to us. If you would like more info on this, please check out the last 2 issues of the local bi-monthly NEW TIMES--there have been 2 editorials so far.
Please everyone, e-mail goes to charris@co.pinellas.fl.us. Please refer to the Fortunetellers Ordinance #00-71. In the meantime, a few e-mails, calls and letters to the state representatives wouldn't hurt either. As soon as I can get more contact info, I will post it here. Please be sure to write, call and e-mail with love in your hearts...
the Tarotlaydee )0( 2/14/01
PS: Send me an e-mail and tell me what you think, or better yet, send one to Mr. Harris!
UPDATE on April 15, 2001: The information on the Fortuneteller's Ordinance recently passed in Pinellas County is below--but the newest update is that there will be a County Commissioner's Meeting on May 1st at the Pinellas County Courthouse and the topic noted below will be on the agenda. We need as many people as possible to show up for this very important meeting. If you cannot be there, please send me an e-mail or a letter for me to present to the board with the reasons why you would like this Ordinance overturned. You can send your e-mails to my address below--if you would like to fax me a letter, I will provide you with a fax # here in a few days. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please call me! This information has also been posted on www.witchvox.com. You can find the post under "Announcements" in Florida for May 1st. We hope to see as many of you as possible at the meeting, but is work commitments keep you away, a letter is just as good!
UPDATE ON THE UPDATE, May 1, 2001: We attended the meeting and we all felt that our voices were not heard and the real issues were not addressed. In addition to the liscensing fee, we are in fact being bonded and a background check is being done on us with this action of obtaining a liscense. The Ordinance states that the local government can refuse the right to give a liscense to anyone if they have a criminal record. And yes, this includes parking tickets or failure to pay child support or any other misdemeanor. The young attorneys that are working on this case have made the comment that "they NEED to know who WE are!" Getting a liscense is one step short of us having to wear a yellow star!
If you feel that you are being discriminated against because of your Pagan and/or Wiccan faith, let me know and I will put you in touch with some people that can help. Let us all form a united front and get these issues noticed by the media and our government leaders and changed!!!
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