The Westboro Church has gained much notoriety for engaging in protests at the funerals of soldiers, asserting that this is God's punishment for the tolerance of gays, I guess. I have stopped paying close attention to their rantings and ravings because, well, these folks are nuts. And I would like to ignore these folks, but they are not going anyway anytime too soon. So, they, of course, protested at Arlington National Cemetery today on Memorial Day. Yes, these folks have no class. Anyhow, the striking thing is not their appearance but that among the counter-protesters were a certain 3K clan. I don't want to use their name because I really don't want to be linked to them. But you know who I mean.
So, who should we root for in this? The racists who are supporting our troops? Or the crazy religious folks who are a different kind of menace to society? My gut tells me to root for the racists since the issue of the moment is the sacrifice of the troops. My head tells me that the Westboro folks are a very small, marginal group that are good at getting attention but not much else, and that the racists in the past and in the future have been and will be a greater threat. I just don't know. What do you, the reader, think: racially motivated hate mongers or religiously motivated hate mongers? Pick your poison.
It's amusing how 3 "protesters" is enough to merit massive media attention nowadays. Advantage to the insurgents there.
ReplyDeleteFrom the sound of the news reports, there were plenty of normal, angry Americans there counter-protesting too who had no ties to the group you mentioned. Probably just a few of them too, like there always ever are anymore, yet they manage to stir up a hornet's nest of media.
Indeed, many communities have come up with ingenious ways to defeat Westboro's ambitions. I.e.: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/small-mississippi-town-defeats-the-westboro-baptis