![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've been advised more than once to not let myself become too exercised over the excesses of the Westboro cult, that grotesquely inbred family from Kansas that forms a so-called church based entirely upon homophobia. They're the ones famous for their "God Hates Fags" signs and stickers. They are, of course, a tiny group of people and are regarded as patently absurd by nearly everyone. So why bother worrying about such losers? The vast hinterlands of America, are after all, crawling with regular everyday garden variety bigotry, so why pay attention to the fringiest of the loony fringe?
Because they cross a line that I cannot stomach seeing crossed by their practice during the recent war years of picketing military funerals. For them to try to turn what has got to be the worst moment of a parent's life--burying his or her son as a casualty of war--into a petty platform to propagate their hate agenda has got to rank as one of the most disgusting things that we are expected to put up with as Americans. For them to claim on their announcements that a soldier died to protect their freedom to act this way is a fucking lie. If that were true, then the war and the sacrifice of everyone who has died in it was truly for nothing. And for them to make this claim on an announcement that declares that God himself is at war with America, and to end it by exclaiming "Thanks God for IEDs" must offend any halfway reasonable American regardless of politics or religion.
On Monday morning, these scumbags plan to defile the memorial for Petty Office Jarod Newlove at the Catholic Church at 9622 20th Ave SW in Seattle WA. That same day, they plan to set upon the memorial for Lance Corporal Shane Martin at the Catholic church at 19222 State Highway 249, Houston TX. I hope that in both place, people find a way to turn out in some kind of mass large and obstructive enough to deny the Westboro pieces of shit the ability to approach these events and spare the families of these fallen servicemen the sight of such filth anywhere near their memorial services.
Yeah, I get it: it's just a handful of evil lunatics. But what they represent pervades the culture in various other ways. They showed up on my radar years ago with their website counting the days that Matthew Shepard was burning in hell. The hate-invocation of Shepard by homophobes continues to this day in all kinds of places. It shows up on the floor of the US Congress as when, last year during debate on the Federal Hate Crimes law that bears Matthew's name, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (Cunt-NC) said the whole story of what happened to that kid was a "hoax"...while Shepard's mother was there to witness final debate and passage of the law. In more obscure places, one sees thing like internet posts from the likes of godawful hack "writer"/"publisher" Nickolaus Pacione saying, "I think homosexuality of any kind is an abomination. I know that you ... worship Matt Shepard. The fag didn’t die on the cross for you." So it's really not just the Westboro freaks who are like this. They may be an an extreme and tres sickening manifestation of it, but their dumbassity can be found in many other dirty corners and right out in public on the floor of the House.
And I'd just leave it at that and write them off as a bunch of dumbass losers, but the funeral picketing is taking it too far. I hope that more people will keep tabs on such activities and try to disrupt them by some sort of peaceful but very disruptive means whenever possible.
Because they cross a line that I cannot stomach seeing crossed by their practice during the recent war years of picketing military funerals. For them to try to turn what has got to be the worst moment of a parent's life--burying his or her son as a casualty of war--into a petty platform to propagate their hate agenda has got to rank as one of the most disgusting things that we are expected to put up with as Americans. For them to claim on their announcements that a soldier died to protect their freedom to act this way is a fucking lie. If that were true, then the war and the sacrifice of everyone who has died in it was truly for nothing. And for them to make this claim on an announcement that declares that God himself is at war with America, and to end it by exclaiming "Thanks God for IEDs" must offend any halfway reasonable American regardless of politics or religion.
On Monday morning, these scumbags plan to defile the memorial for Petty Office Jarod Newlove at the Catholic Church at 9622 20th Ave SW in Seattle WA. That same day, they plan to set upon the memorial for Lance Corporal Shane Martin at the Catholic church at 19222 State Highway 249, Houston TX. I hope that in both place, people find a way to turn out in some kind of mass large and obstructive enough to deny the Westboro pieces of shit the ability to approach these events and spare the families of these fallen servicemen the sight of such filth anywhere near their memorial services.
Yeah, I get it: it's just a handful of evil lunatics. But what they represent pervades the culture in various other ways. They showed up on my radar years ago with their website counting the days that Matthew Shepard was burning in hell. The hate-invocation of Shepard by homophobes continues to this day in all kinds of places. It shows up on the floor of the US Congress as when, last year during debate on the Federal Hate Crimes law that bears Matthew's name, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (Cunt-NC) said the whole story of what happened to that kid was a "hoax"...while Shepard's mother was there to witness final debate and passage of the law. In more obscure places, one sees thing like internet posts from the likes of godawful hack "writer"/"publisher" Nickolaus Pacione saying, "I think homosexuality of any kind is an abomination. I know that you ... worship Matt Shepard. The fag didn’t die on the cross for you." So it's really not just the Westboro freaks who are like this. They may be an an extreme and tres sickening manifestation of it, but their dumbassity can be found in many other dirty corners and right out in public on the floor of the House.
And I'd just leave it at that and write them off as a bunch of dumbass losers, but the funeral picketing is taking it too far. I hope that more people will keep tabs on such activities and try to disrupt them by some sort of peaceful but very disruptive means whenever possible.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-07 06:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-07 06:26 am (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Guard_Riders
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-07 12:49 pm (UTC)If there is a God (and I'm certainly not the one to ask about this), I hope that whenever one of these fucktards shows up for his/her final reckoning, they're getting cock-slapped by St. Peter at the gates and told to take the express elevator to the basement, where personalized hot pokers are waiting to be jammed into their ass for eternity.
After which they'll be forced to watch To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar on an ending loop.