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| Westboro Baptist Church (the "god hates fags" people) has made an announcement that they will be protesting the funeral of Ryan Clark on April 21. Mr. Clark was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. They seem to believe that the VT shootings and other tragedies are the result of god punishing America for it's tolerance of homosexuals.
If this sounds familiar, it should. These are the same people who have been protesting the funerals of our military personnel killed in Iraq and before that the funerals of AIDS victims and homosexuals thanking god for both 9/11 and HIV. Unfortunately the response to their activities has been terribly lopsided with the whole country getting in an uproar when the protested the military funerals and not giving a damn when the protested the HIV victims and homosexual's funerals. Now, to the best of my knowledge, Mr Clark was neither military nor a homosexual so it will be interesting to see the country's response to this.
Some have proposed banning WBC from protesting funerals. This is a slippery slope. While they are vile, horrible people, they are still American citizens and should have the right to peaceful protest guaranteed to all of us in the Bill of Rights. If we take their rights away, who is next. As long as they remain peaceful, they should be allowed to protest and hold up their little signs. In this country we do not have the right not to be offended.
That having been said, I also support the rights of another group of protesters to stand directly in front of the WBC protesters holding up giant blank signs obscuring the ones of the WBC. As long as the "anti-protesters" do not com into any physical contact with the WBC members, I don't believe any laws would be broken. After all, you are not guaranteed the right not to be ignored either.
Just a Thought |
