[Because every funeral should be a circus]
I know the Phelps family and their silly Westboro Church is a joke to almost everyone with an intact frontal lobe, but it doesn't make their blatant disrespect to the families of fallen soldiers any less painful.
The Phelps clan will take its ilk to Middle Tennessee this weekend to protest the funerals of Staff Sgt. Asbury Fred Hawn of Smyrna and Spc. Gary Reese Jr. of Ashland City. Apparently, they're on a funeral-picketing tour of sorts, blaming soldiers for fighting on behalf of a nation that has, in their logic, been co-opted by gays who have turned everyone against God. They picketed a West Tennessee soldier's funeral Aug. 11. At one funeral protest a couple of weeks ago, one protester had an American flag tied to his belt. He held a sign that said, "Thank God For IEDs." Sick.
I know the urge to counter-protest is strong (how could this bile go unchecked?), but I would encourage everyone to sit this one out and try to let the soldiers' families have as much peace as possible. It will likely turn into a media bonanza with shouting matches and confrontations all around anyway, without any additional, if well-meaning, protests.
"This nation is being punished," Shirley Phelps-Roper, the church’s lawyer and Phelps’ daughter, told The Tennessean. "Our job is to make America know her abomination. So we have to be timely and we have to be topical. We have to help America connect the dots."
How nice of them.
I know the Phelps family and their silly Westboro Church is a joke to almost everyone with an intact frontal lobe, but it doesn't make their blatant disrespect to the families of fallen soldiers any less painful.
The Phelps clan will take its ilk to Middle Tennessee this weekend to protest the funerals of Staff Sgt. Asbury Fred Hawn of Smyrna and Spc. Gary Reese Jr. of Ashland City. Apparently, they're on a funeral-picketing tour of sorts, blaming soldiers for fighting on behalf of a nation that has, in their logic, been co-opted by gays who have turned everyone against God. They picketed a West Tennessee soldier's funeral Aug. 11. At one funeral protest a couple of weeks ago, one protester had an American flag tied to his belt. He held a sign that said, "Thank God For IEDs." Sick.
I know the urge to counter-protest is strong (how could this bile go unchecked?), but I would encourage everyone to sit this one out and try to let the soldiers' families have as much peace as possible. It will likely turn into a media bonanza with shouting matches and confrontations all around anyway, without any additional, if well-meaning, protests.
"This nation is being punished," Shirley Phelps-Roper, the church’s lawyer and Phelps’ daughter, told The Tennessean. "Our job is to make America know her abomination. So we have to be timely and we have to be topical. We have to help America connect the dots."
How nice of them.
posted by theogeo | 8/27/2005 12:09:00 AM
3 Comments:
Some people have suggested a counter-protest involving circling the funeral with people holding large tarps or sheets in order to visually block out those goofballs for those grieving.
Think if the funeral was entirely circled with massive American flags. Crazy.
I hadn't heard that suggestion. That could actually work — just a silent wall of counter-protesters holding up big flags. Nice.
Phuck Phred Phelps.
Well, there was a pretty big counter-protest at both funerals, according to the AP. Lots of living soldiers' families and such. Haven't seen any video footage, though.
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