Unintended Consequences

Except for his crazed, bigoted, hateful minions, I can’t think of a single individual who would support Fred (“God Hates Fags”) Phelps, the founded of the Westboro Baptist “Church” of Topeka, Kansas. I can’t think of any reason to show a shred of sympathy to a life form who would stage protests of our military at cemeteries with his demented followers, holding up signs reading, “Thank God for I.E.D.’s”.

See, to hear Phelps and his other nuts tell it, God is punishing us because the majority of the people in this country want to leave gays and lesbians alone and let them live their lives.

I don’t know how Phelps is being bankrolled (though I’d be interested in finding out), but he does manage to get across the country and stage his sick act from state to state. Indiana and Minnesota are two states that have passed laws banning picketing at cemeteries to keep Phelps and his creepy vermin away (and how pathetic is it that a law like that even needs to be passed?).

And I’m not going to give Dubya credit for signing his recent ban on demonstrations, which is the federal version of the state laws that protects sites overseen by the U.S. Congress (such as Arlington). Maybe I should, but Dubya has risen to infamy on the backs of fellow “Christians,” some of whom wouldn’t mind seeing an abortion clinic get bombed every now and then, which is another type of craziness to me. If Dubya had been a REAL leader, then he would have been able to “sink or swim” politically by reaching out and “building bridges” instead of pandering to fear; the only difference between his mentality and that of Phelps is that the latter is more visible and doesn’t show the subtlety and deceit of the former.

However, now that we have these laws, I’m concerned about enforcement. I’m glad they’re on the books (and though I know the ACLU has to object in principle, I just think a funeral is one place where you draw the line when it comes to improper behavior).

I think that the federal and state laws would be applied in a common-sense manner, but I get concerned about the exceptions (and I think the ACLU, through its legal action, can be helpful in defining exactly what type of behavior would be banned).

Suppose I attend a funeral for someone who has died in Iraq, and I have a bumper sticker on my vehicle protesting the war. Would someone consider that a “protest,” leading me to be fined after the fact or even asked to leave the grounds of the cemetery? And before you say, “oh, that’s a dumb scenario,” just remember there are employers in this country (down south, as I recall…no surprise there) who fired employees who place bumper stickers on their vehicles supporting John Kerry for president in ’04. I’m just saying that these laws against demonstrations at cemeteries can be abused by people for partisan reasons (though I definitely respect the fact that they’ve been passed, as I said).

Any law or court decision has the potential to evolve over time based on other rulings, and that could be the case here. I just hope they have the intended effect of squashing Phelps and his unconscionable sycophants forever but don’t end up hurting anyone else in the process.

One more thing: I haven't overlooked the fact that Dubya's track record on attending the funerals of our people in Iraq is pretty terrible, so his latest gesture is more than a tad hypocritical.