JUST A THOUGHT : The Westboro crowd
Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Afew weeks ago, a reporter on CNN’s Headline News talked about the folks from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., as if the world had not yet heard of this goofy religious sect. We have. For years, they’ve been protesting everyone and everything across America that violate their warped sense of morality. Just check out the church’s Web site (www.godhatesfags.com) if you doubt the extremist beliefs its faithful follow. Seriously, this group throws around the word "fag"so often in their faxed statements to the media you’d think it were a preposition.
The group hates America and Americans because the nation isn’t busy lynching every gay person it can. Because of this, the whole rotten country is going to hell, and this group is intent on letting everyone in the country know just how sinful they really are. According to Westboro Baptist Church, it ought to be illegal to be, um... American. Therefore, anyone not like them deserves to be run out of town.
In a press release put out Saturday, March 18, Westboro Baptist Church applauded the deaths of four U.S. soldiers, and then announced that they’d be picketing the funerals in their hometowns. Applauded the deaths of four U.S. soldiers. Although it’s certainly not the first funeral for one of America’s fallen that they’ve chose to protest, nor will it most likely be the last, clearly we’re talking about some pretty twisted individuals.
Of all the insults Westboro Baptist Church has launched in the past, protesting the funerals of American soldiers is probably their crowning achievement. It’s proof positive (as if any were needed) that they lack the very morals and convictions they accuse the rest of America of lacking. These people have no decency because their convictions (such as they are) have blinded them to those standards the rest of us hold close to our hearts.
Certain things in life simply aren’t acceptable. Hurling insults outside a person’s funeral is one of them. Frankly, I think families of the fallen should take such a show of emotion as a badge of honor. Surely the fallen have done something right to anger people with morals this unhinged.
In the end, its followers help make life easy by knowing where to stand on any given issue — opposite of them, always.
Not surprisingly states across the nation are sickened by the church’s ongoing efforts to turn soldier’s funerals into opportunities to publicize its hateful agenda, and one by one they are moving to outlaw the practice — and now this movement has come to Arkansas. State Rep. Jeff Wood, DSherwood, hopes Gov. Mike Huckabee includes a bill ensuring the privacy of families at funerals, memorial services and burials should a special legislative session be called.
Should such a bill become law, it would become a Class C misdemeanor to knowingly disrupt a funeral. A conviction would bring with it a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $100. According to Wood, 14 states have already passed similar legislation. Frankly, it’s difficult to imagine a proposal such as this one failing, as few elected officials are going to oppose an effort that protects the dignity of an individual’s funeral from the shameful theatrics of self-promoters, especially when the remains of American soldiers are involved. But since I also have a hard time believing such a law would stand up in court, I also can’t help but think the Westboro Baptist Church crowd — and the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., the group’s reigning High Nut — is (gulp) right about something. I promise I won’t make a habit of thinking so, but this time I think they’ve got the First Amendment on their side. Although state’s make a perfectly rational case, plenty of experts aren’t sure it’s legal to ban a group from protesting a funeral, even if the group’s message is as admittedly warped as this. It’s easy to see this as one of those times when the laws work against good people, but that’s just not seeing the big picture. Despite the awful accusations, all of us must remember that banning speech just because we don’t like what’s being said doesn’t make us much better than Westboro Baptist Church — or the likes of Saudi Arabia, for that matter. America is supposed to be better than that. In this country, anything is allowed, both the crude (Howard Stern) and the poetic (Shakespeare). Although free speech is a frustrating principle of democratic government, the right to express oneself is at the heart of this nation’s genius.
Yes, Wood’s bill seems like the right thing to do, but it’s actually one of the most unpatriotic things the state Legislature could possibly do, especially at a time of war. Those soldiers aren’t losing their lives overseas for no reason — they’re dying to give people in Iraq the same rights we enjoy every day, free speech being at the top of the list.
Not that there isn’t anything to be done about these people. Protesting the protesters right back (and flat-out out-shouting them, with loud, boisterous chants of "USA, USA") is not only legal, I’d say it’s to be encouraged under the circumstances, and certainly so if banning the group’s right to free speech is the only alternative available.
If tuning the bums out doesn’t seem like punishment enough, it probably isn’t. But it’s a whole lot better than a nation turning its back on the convictions of republican government a majority of us still hold dear.
Scott Shackelford is editorial page editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times. His column appears on Tuesdays.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online