Follow-up on the Intoleration of Intolerance

A few weeks back I blogged about the charming little hate group called the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas coming to my little town to protest. They were met by the UNwelcome wagon. I'm only sorry that tar and feathers weren't available. Well, there's some new information about these lovely folks.

In March 2006 Albert Snyder experienced the pain of attending the military funeral of his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. One would not think that attending the funeral of one of your children could possibly be made any worse. Unfortunately Mr. Snyder and his family learned it could. Also in attendance at that funeral were the looneys from the Westboro Baptist Church, complete with their trademark "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" signs and "God Hates Fags" tee shirts.

At some point after the funeral Mr. Snyder sued the so-called church and yesterday in federal court the verdict was announced. Mr. Snyder was awarded $11 million. $2.9 million was awarded in compensatory damages. Before the jury deliberated the amount of punitive damages the judge informed the jury that the compensatory damages award "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants". The jury came back with $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress. Hello! Can you say MESSAGE? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!!! There's serious doubt that Mr. Snyder will ever be able to collect his award but that's not the point. Here's hoping that every other family that's ever been assaulted by these dark hearts files a lawsuit too. Here's hoping that this case and every other one filed keeps these vermin tied up with legal fees to the point that they can't afford poster board and crayons for their signs or the gas needed to drive someplace to use them.

The "church" of course vowed to appeal based on their First Amendment rights to free speech and religion. I am absolutely NOT against free speech or freedom of religion. I have literally taken an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" and I take it seriously. Much more seriously than our president does. However, the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution apply to EVERYONE. This group does have rights but they do not include using their right to free speech to cram their religion down the throat of anyone else . At the risk of sounding like Peter Parker's uncle Ben, I believe that with great freedoms come great responsibility. Some things are just wrong and when people cross the line they need to be called on it.

My wife and I tried to raise our children using the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" approach. It's not an infallible system but it's a pretty good starting point and guideline. We didn't beat them over the head with a holy book or threaten them with a boogieman either in the sky or in the underworld. They know right from wrong and have grown into girls that we are very proud of. I mention this because, while I take some degree of satisfaction and feel some hope in seeing this jury verdict, ultimately I'm concerned and frightened. Why? Check out the picture that accompanies the linked article. The one of the ten and thirteen year old Westboro Baptist church members (children of the "church" founder) holding the protest signs. The one of the kids who experience hatred as a way of life. I shudder at the virulence of what they've been taught and of what they in turn might teach.

It brings to mind the lyrics to Rodgers & Hammerstein's "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" from South Pacific:

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear—
You’ve got to be carefully taught

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade—
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late—
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Rule #1: Intolerance Will NOT Be Tolerated

That's one of the rules that I established at the end of my very first blog. Actually it's the only rule that I established. If I ever had to do one of those dating surveys where one of the questions always is "what is your biggest turn-off?", intolerance probably would stand a pretty good chance of being the answer. Specifically what I'm referring to is intolerance to people or groups of people who happen to be different or have different views. More specifically I mean close-minded intolerant people who preach hatred. And it always seems that the strength of their ridiculous pea-brained views is directly proportional to the strength and volume of their voice and their desire to use it. They're not happy just hating, they have to advertise to the world that they hate. And show everyone just how proud they are of it. As if that's not bad enough, they further compound their flaming idiocy by usually claiming to be a member of a group that by it's very nature is fundamentally against everything that these morons are shouting. Not only are they intolerant, close-minded, pea-brained idiots but they're hypocrites to boot.

Yesterday I was siting in the car in front of a store. Outside the store was a newspaper box with the Sunday edition of the local paper. One of the headlines read "Anti-gay Protest Ends Peacefully". Now I don't live in the biggest of towns. There isn't a great deal of exciting activity going on around here on a regular basis and you don't normally see much in the way of protests so I had to check it out.

It seems that on Saturday a group of anti-gay protesters came to town and did what anti-gay protesters do. They (showed themselves to be tiny-brained hate mongers) protested gays. That was irritating enough but what really got me was that these people were from out-of-town. They were from another state! In another part of the country. The paper said they were from a Baptist church in Kansas. I looked it up and found that they were from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka (ironically enough their zip code is 66604, coincidence?). Their website is godhatesfags.com, isn't that special? What amazing people they must be to actually know the mind of God. Turns out these are the same vermin that show up to protest at military funerals. A particularly virulent strain of parasite are they. To be fair, while they call themselves Baptist they are independent and not affiliated with any know Baptist conventions and they follow "primative Baptist" principles (their words, not mine). They believe that every world tragedy can be linked to homosexuality and that homosexuality should be made a capital crime. Of course, they don't stop there. They also hate Roman Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Swedes, Canadians, Irish, and Americans. If you're trying to make sense of that list don't bother, sense doesn't apply. They are a hate group, pure and simple. A hate group that gets to enjoy a tax-free status because they happen to call themselves a church. These are the kind of people that make me hope the Christian belief that Jesus is coming back is true because if he does, boy is he gonna be PISSED. He's going to have special VIP reserved seating in hell for all the people that pull this kind of shit in his name.

Now the numbers involved in this story may not seem impressive but what happened is important in principle. Six out of town protesters showed up to do their thing. In no time at all they found themselves surrounded by about a hundred counter-protesters (a hundred and one if I had know about it). The Topeka-based loonies hung in there for about 15 minutes before heading for their car. The counter-protesters then followed them and surrounded the car. It took about a half hour for the police to clear a path for the visiting guests to make their escape. I believe it was made clear to them that they were not welcome here.

I have to say that my little town done me proud. This is exactly the kind of greeting they should receive in every town. We all have different views and we may not agree on all the issues but hopefully we can all agree that these people and those like them are destructive. That they will never be a part of the solution. That they have no place in our towns. Or in our world.