The Associated Press Article

How did it happen?

Associated Press was looking for interesting Millenium stories - especially stories with a different twist. The Columbus AP office was also looking at making more connections into the southeastern Ohio area. One of the new AP reporters, Liz Sidoti, had actually graduated from Ohio University and so she started to research the idea of interviewing a coven of Witches. She didn't find much by way of the AP archives, and so she started looking for a coven in southeastern Ohio.

Apparently Liz's boss thought that there was a coven here, but Liz hadn't heard of one and thought that it was just another one of those Athen's myths that seem to float around. Imagine her surprise when she did a web search and found our site!

Liz then contacted us by e-mail and we discussed various takes on the story and our concern about privacy issues.

Why did we decide to do it?

It may not seem like that big of a deal to you. But for us, this was a major step forward. Mostly our outreach had only occurred on the local level. And although our website is accessed by people from all over the world, there is a great degree of anonymity, and hence, safety.

Safety?

Well, some of us have jobs that could be impacted by the revealing of our religious beliefs. This is a very sad commentary on our society, but true nonetheless. Also, you never know what kind of crackpot could decide that you just don't have rights anymore, and so they feel fully justified in threats, harassment and bodily harm. (Go here for an interesting article about how the nut who stabbed George Harrison, did so because he thought that The Beatles were witches.) So far, we have never had any kind of problems with this, but then again, we have been extremely low-profile.

Be that as it may, there were numerous reasons for doing this interview.

• Our contact with Liz was very positve. We thought that she would be fair in writing our story.
• Making a move towards being a bit more open in our area. To hopefully be groundbreakers.
• A chance to do some positive PR for the Pagan/Wiccan/Witch community that might get some decent coverage.
  
  

Any Misgivings?

Well, a few.

We didn't know that we were going to be identified by age and occupation. We really weren't thrilled about that. However, we do understand that by showing people that we weren't just teenagers or college students, but adult professionals, we were adding weight to the seriousness of our beliefs.

Our members were definitely not happy to have the area of their personal home attached to the article. Argh!

Also, despite the opening quotes, we DON'T practice skyclad, that is, in the NUDE! That naked, dancing around the bonfire comment was tongue in cheek. We would like to point out that some Pagans, Wiccans and Witches do practice in their birthday suits, but we are not among them. *grin*

Hopefully, this will be all of the misgivings that we have. I hope that we won't have any other problems as a result of this article.

Where can you find it?

Much to our surprise, the article was published on the front page of The Athens Messenger on December 30, 1999. (That almost qualifies as a misgiving!)

The story was picked up by Ohio Public Radio and was broadcast on December 29 and December 30.

On-line you can find various versions of the article here:

The Sandusky Register
 (The most complete version we have been able to find.)

The Akron Beacon Journal

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

We don't know how long these links will last, because news organizations often clear out their files.

We would like to thank Wren's Nest for giving it coverage on The Witches' Voice website.

If you have found this anywhere else on the web, please send us the URL so that we can add it here. Also, if you have seen this in print in any newspaper, we would love to have the newspaper clipping. These can be sent to:

Coven of Celestial Tides
PO Box 2298
Athens, OH 45701.

Brightest Blessings!