Equal Headstones for Veterans of ALL Religions

Religious symbols for military headstones must first be approved by congress. The meaning of this is, that any religion (besides Christianity) must go through much to be able to insure that when a soldier or veteran of that religion dies, they may get a headstone with their own religious symbol on it. So, if your religion includes less of the population than others, and your religion's voice is not loud enough, you may not have your religious symbol on your headstone unless the government decides that you can. There was never an approval process for Christians to get a cross on their headstone. Some headway has been made in this department, and some non-Christian religions have their own symbol because of pressure on our government to do so, but this is not enough! Christian based religions get approval quickly, while non-Christian religions take much, much longer.

These prejudices against non-Christian religions from within our own government cannot continue. This country was founded on the basis of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, Freedom to Petition, and Freedom of Religion. Not only is it in the Constitution, but it is the First Amendment, yes, the FIRST above all others.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Our government likes to trample on these rights whenever they think they can get away with it, because a majority of one religion (and that religion being the basic religion of a major majority of those in our government) will always out-vote all other religions. Therefore, they are "allowed" to impress the "morals" and "beliefs" of that one religion on all others.

Take, for example, America's currency. According to the constitution, it would be wrong to put "In God We Trust" on our currency, yet there it is, because the religious majority decided that should be so. Not only that, but our own pledge of allegiance states that we are "One nation, under God", and whose god is that but the Christian  and Jewish God.

Our point is, that there has already been enough religious prejudice and segregation in the United States, and not only does the aforementioned need to change, but anything that leads to any form of discrimination against another religion needs to also change. Including, but not limited to, discrimination against our soldiers and veterans for their beliefs. They should not be denied, in death, what any other soldier or veteran is given, simply on the basis of religious bigotry.

We propose, that if a soldier dies, they should have the symbol of their religion listed in their military records put on their military tombstone. And, if that symbol is not in the list of currently approved symbols, it should be added to that list. Furthermore, the practice of government approving the religious symbols allowed on the tombstone should be stopped, and ANY religious symbol should be allowed automatically, without the long process of approval. How long must a soldier sit in an unmarked grave before our government decides that his religion is suitable to put on his tombstone?