Free speech for me, but not for thee?

The American President (1995)

….America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours….

The First Amendment and free speech don’t appear to be as absolute with some Americans as other single digit amendments.

At the White House petition site:

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.

This group has been recognized as a hate group by organizations, such as The Southern Poverty Law Center, and has repeatedly displayed the actions typical of hate groups.

Their actions have been directed at many groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians. They pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation.

Created: Dec 14, 2012

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Human Rights, Veterans and Military Families

Signatures needed by January 13, 2013 to reach goal of 25,000 0

Total signatures on this petition 316,998

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Investigate the IRS Tax-Exempt Status of the Westboro Baptist Church

The Westboro Baptist Church is better-known for homophobic displays, suing people and picketing funerals than for providing Christian care to a community. Due to their harassment and politicking, their IRS tax-exempt status should be immediately investigated.

Created: Dec 16, 2012

Issues: Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Human Rights, Veterans and Military Families

Signatures needed by January 15, 2013 to reach goal of 25,000 0

Total signatures on this petition 77,641

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Revoke the tax exempt status of the Westboro Baptist Church & re-classify Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.

Westboro Baptist Church is legally recognized as a religious organization and therefore receives a tax exempt status under our laws. The Phelps family and their supporters use these tax exempt funds to finance a country-wide campaign against any person or group they feel promotes values that do not meet with their own. Most prominently they are anti-gay.

The members of this hate group make a practice of targeting funerals to make their case, routinely inflicting further pain and anguish onto the mourning families of deceased soldiers and, even worse, the victims of tragic crimes. They hold signs thanking God and celebrating the deaths of these people. They wave these signs in the faces of the families.

By granting their tax exemption WE ARE FUNDING THEIR HATE. This must change.

Created: Dec 16, 2012

Issues: Budget and Taxes, Human Rights, Veterans and Military Families

ignatures needed by January 15, 2013 to reach goal of 25,000 0

Total signatures on this petition 72,056

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Remove the Westboro Baptist Church’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and make it retroactive.

The Westboro Baptist Church operates as a tax-exempt church. While it speaks volumes that many Americans value their right to free speech, this does not mean that we have to pay for their vitriol.

The WBC is not and should never have been considered a legitimate church for tax-exemption purposes, and this could be declared so either directly or with legislation affirming any or all of the following:

1) The WBC does not engage in any charity comparable in scope to their public image. They are only known for hate.

2) The WBC is not inclusive of its surrounding community, restricting membership. It is regarded by some as a tax shelter for its family’s law operations.

3) The WBC uses invective speech under its name, actively denigrating classes of people – soldiers, homosexuals, and others

Created: Dec 16, 2012

Issues: Budget and Taxes, Civil Rights and Liberties

Signatures needed by January 15, 2013 to reach goal of 25,000 0

Total signatures on this petition 53,950

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Define the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group due to promoting animosity against differing cultural demographics.

The Westboro Baptist Church has surpassed the point of free speech and has crossed into the realm of harassing citizens. They vocally promote hate against every demographic that they are not a part of. Their own website URL is made of obscenities that directly carve out a specific demographic: “www.godhatesfags.com”. They even picket military funerals – when our soldiers and their families are at their lowest. The hatred is clear and they fit the definition given by the SPLC with no deviation. The only possible reason to exclude them would be the extent of the effect that they have had on society, but the legal “hate group” designation will prevent further damage and harassment before it has to happen.

Created: Dec 14, 2012

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Human Rights

Signatures needed by January 13, 2013 to reach goal of 25,000 0

Total signatures on this petition 39,345

Actually, the constitutional way to counter free speech is with more free speech. This tactic has been successfully applied to the Westboro Baptist Church pickets in the past.

A hate group, the First Amendment, and a funeral in a small town (November 23, 2010)

“…Maybe the good thing is that good people showed up today to speak out…”

Previously:

Proposition 8 rally in Kansas City (November 15, 2008)

Proposition 8 rally in Kansas City – more photos (November 16, 2008)

“God hates fags”–according to the Westboro Baptist Church (November 9, 2009)

Where to start? (November 23, 2010)

A hate group, the First Amendment, and a funeral in a small town – part 2 (November 29, 2010)

The story of the funeral of Corporal Jacob Carver in Harrisonville, Missouri last Tuesday had national import. This is true for obvious reasons for the family of Jacob Carver and his friends, but also for the community around Harrisonville. The story of a service member who lost his life in Afghanistan and those who mourned him came to the attention of the nation because a hate group decided to protest at his funeral and a community decided to stand up to that hate group. And that community did so very effectively when hundreds, if not thousands, showed up.

We have a cordial relationship with the Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal – most of the time. Over the past few years we’ve given and gained a grudging respect to each other in covering politics and government in Missouri. On occasion we’ve exchanged photographs for publication. That was the case with this story. I contacted Jack Miles, the editor of the Star-Journal, and offered him photographs I took at the protest and counter protest in Harrisonville. He selected one photograph and ran it to accompany an editorial in today’s paper.

The editorial page in today’s Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal. The paper also ran the photograph in color online.

11/29/2010 2:43:00 PM

Protesting protest beats stifling speech

EDITORIAL

Jack Miles

Editor

First in Weston, then in Harrisonville, one group of protestors with strong feelings showed how to defeat the message of an opposing group of protestors – a group that also showed strong feeling – without violence and without stepping on the U.S. Constitution….

….Outrage amplified tremendously only after the Phelps clan targeted military members as a way to get across his anti-gay beliefs. His message is this: The United States is tolerant of gays and for that sin God allows American servicemen and women to die in Iraq and Afghanistan….

….The Constitution is designed to protect unpopular opinions. Pandering lawmakers who try to curry short-term favor with a majority of voters by disregarding the Constitution risk cracking the foundation that supports all of our freedoms.

That is why I say thanks to the good people who waved Old Glory at military funerals at Weston and Harrisonville over the past few weeks to hide the Phelps clan. As shown in Michael Bersin’s Harrisonville photo, supporters of Cpl. Jacob Carver’s family did a fine job of obscuring and marginalizing Phelps legally.

The anti-Phelps protest did not keep the Phelps clan from carrying signs, but did keep them from being seen and causing needless pain to grieving families, and did so without trampling on Phelps’ right – and the right of all Americans – to express unpopular, even profoundly ignorant, views.

The point is well taken. If we all cherish the Constitution and freedom of expression then we need to do something about it, not by diminishing someone else’s rights, but by exercising our own.

That’s what happened in Harrisonville, Missouri last Tuesday. A half a dozen members of a hate group showed up and left earlier than they probably intended because a community decided to speak up, too.

That’s the way it should be.

The gave us a photo credit. See how it’s done, large daily Missouri newspaper owned by a greedy downsizing corporation?

Previously:

A hate group, the First Amendment, and a funeral in a small town (November 23, 2010)

Where to start? (November 23, 2010)

The original photo.

Army Corporal Jacob Carver died in action in Afghanistan on November 13, 2010. He was from Freeman, Missouri. His funeral was held in Harrisonville, Missouri today.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas had stated their intent to protest at the funeral (we’ve covered them in the past). The community around Harrisonville, Missouri stated their intent to shield the funeral from that protest.

The American President (1995)

….America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours….

I drove into Harrisonville from the north on Highway 7, arriving at about 8:30 a.m. The location for the funeral, Our Lady-Lourdes Catholic Church, is on the highway. As I drove past the church there were already hundreds of people, dressed for the cold, many holding American flags, lining both sides of the highway. I drove about a half mile beyond the church and parked in a shopping center parking lot.

I walked back toward the church.

The crowd lining the highway near the church was a mix of young and old. Their demeanor was respectful – most engaged in quiet conversation. Some appeared curious as I took photographs, though when they saw my identification they went back to their conversations. They were unfailingly polite.

Television satellite trucks in the background, parked in the lot at a neighboring church.

There were two helicopters from Kansas City television stations flying over the crowd. A reporter standing with a cameraman in the crowd along the highway smiled at me, probably spotting my identification, as I was taking photographs.

After taking photographs of the crowd near the church I walked back toward my parked car. About halfway there, at Elm and Mechanic, the Westboro group was surrounded by large crowd of people.

Two huge American flags were displayed at the corner of Elm and Mechanic (Highway 7), about a quarter mile from the church.

There was more of a circus atmosphere around the Westboro group. The crowd surrounding them was vocal. Apparently, at one point, there was a scuffle:

…There appeared to have been some shoving between some of the protesters and church members.

Police were able to break up the incident. At one point, the van belonging to Westboro members was surrounded. But they were able to leave the area without any further confrontation…

You can barely see the Westboro group’s signs.

As I made it back to the shopping center where I parked my car law enforcement stopped traffic to make way for the funeral procession. In those few minutes while I waited to cross the highway I spoke with an individual holding an American flag. He told me he was there because his grandson is a Marine – he was doing this for him. I almost replied, “You’re doing this for yourself, too.”

The funeral procession about a half mile from the church.

As we continued our conversation I stated, “Maybe the good thing is that good people showed up today to speak out.” That’s a start.

As the procession approached and passed a state trooper saluted and held his salute.

Lord knows–and I don’t use that phrase in a literal sense–I shouldn’t make fun of the folks from Westboro Baptist Church. They traveled all the way from Topeka, Kansas to St. Louis–that’s over 400 miles–to deliver a heartfelt message. Of hate. Still, a sane person must mock the sociopaths who showed up at two St. Louis high schools and a Jewish community center on Monday to lovingly explain to the people there that they are going to fry in Hell. The first thing you see if you visit their website is:

Welcome, depraved sons and daughters of Adam.

75 reprobates have split hell wide open since you loaded this web page.

(The number of reprobates starts at four and quickly grows.) You can’t say they aren’t upfront about their beliefs. They hate Jews, fags, Obama, and everyone who doesn’t subscribe to the Calvinist idea of a God who suspends wicked sinners like a spider hanging by a thread over the hungry flames of hell.

Apparently, they chose Marquette High School in Chesterfield and Hazelwood Central High School in North County because those are two of the largest high schools in the area and because they are at different ends of the county. I attended the demonstration in Hazelwood. It’s bizarre to stand across the road from signs like these and hear the strains of a sweet, soulful hymn. The cognitive dissonance smacks you upside the head.

Also jarring is the sight of seven and eight year old kids carrying signs that say “God hates fags”. The Westboro parents are training the next generation to live in 1741.

Nary a smile flitted across any face–as befits a group rallying to warn you of hellfire. The weather did not cooperate on Monday, though, with their dark, brooding message. It was a glorious sunny day, seventy degrees.

Counterprotesters organized by Show Me No Hate mustered a much larger group. (In all fairness, though, none of them had to travel 400 miles to be there.) But the 400 mile trip doesn’t explain how dour the Westboro Baptists were and how cheerful, not to mention colorful, the Show Me No Hate bunch was. There were seven or eight cops there, by the way, to keep the peace, and they kept the two groups separated by the four lanes of traffic on New Halls Ferry Road.

(More pictures below the fold.)

“Cheerful” doesn’t altogether describe the counterprotesters. They took cheerfulness into whimsy.

And overall, they were the opposite of vicious.

Monday’s Westboro website had a sermonette for each institution they were scheduled to visit. Each high school got a different message, but it’s not as if the Westboro fanatics knew the specifics of any sinning going on at Marquette and Hazelwood Central. Each harangue is strictly boilerplate bonkers. (I should have taken a screen shot–sorry about that–because by this morning, yesterday’s vituperation had been replaced by new rants aimed at the places congregants will be visiting today. They maintain a busy schedule.)

Hazelwood Central H.S. – You teach the kids to H8 God! 15875 New Halls Ferry Rd Why do you insist on teaching your children rebellion against God? Don’t teach your kids to hate God, that kind of love’s a facade. It’s wrong in every sense of the word, fool! You’d better trust and obey Him! So we have only one message of truth and love for the little people who God has given you as a blessing, but which you would just as soon have killed, eaten and then sucked the bones for frequent snacking like your favorite idol Barack Obama tells you to. We are not like you, we actually believe that we should love our neighbour and teach our neighbour the truth: Psalm 34:11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD. AND Obama is the Antichrist and Hates you, too. AMEN!

They’re doing Jonathan Edwards proud with straightforward rhetoric like that. How could the Hazelwood Central students resist such a message?

Here’s the one for the Jewish community center:

Staenberg JCC – Alan Specter is a Specter of Doom! 2 Millstone Campus Dr As quoted in the Honolulu News: “We’re now at a point where the mainstream position that’s supported by the majority, both here in Hawaii and the whole country, is civil unions,” said Alan Spector of the Family Equality Coalition, which backs equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. And you hateful, Fag-Enabling Jews are having this filthy brute speak at your Jewish Book Festival? Why not call that thing what it is: Fag Pride Conference! You see he is a Specter (a visible incorporeal spirit, esp. one of a terrifying nature; ghost; phantom; apparition.) of the DOOM of Israel. Check out what the Lord Jesus Christ told those Jews: Luke 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. You know about Lot, Sodom and Lot’s wife – you mock us for reminding you. Alan is your living, walking, talking, etc reminder that your DOOM is imminent! Praise the Lord Jesus Christ! AMEN!

“Filthy Jews” and the supposed Prince of Peace in the same tirade: did I mention cognitive dissonance earlier?