When I found out the Westboro Baptist Church had secured a permit to protest Dickinson High School, my own response surprised me. The hate preaching lunatic choir is set to assemble outside of a high school in my neighborhood on October 28 to shout ridiculously venomous and hate-filled tirades at kids, but after the initial disgust subsided, I felt a deep sigh rising from my diaphragm with a single message.
Meh.
There are three main opinions of this Kansas-based group:
1) Ignore them. They have a Constitutional right to assemble but seek media attention as a platform to spread their insane rants; no one should take them seriously. They're about as isolated as any group can be, composed mostly of the kinfolk of Rev. Fred Phelps and out of step by about half a millennium with the rest of society. They've managed to alienate nearly everyone they encounter, from saying "God hates fags" to calling for the death of Jews, Muslims and Catholics, to praising 9/11 and picketing US soldiers' funerals. This is the conclusion that groups like the Hudson Diversity Action Council came to when considering whether to counter-protest or not. Effort spent giving them the attention they crave is misspent. No segment of society, not even other hardcore religious sects or racists, take their lead when it comes to how to be bigoted. Don't bother.
2) Run them out of town. This group of prairie bigots has no right to come to our state and spread their disgusting and divisive ideas here. After "cutting through the dinner party conversation about freedom of speech," as one British Member of Parliament put it when referring to another group of bigots - the British National Party, you have to recognize the real and serious consequences of treating such hate speech as equally valid to any other. Plenty of other protest groups have been denied permits for far less, so it's clear in practice that freedom of speech is not an absolute from the perspective of the courts. Add to the fact that they are targeting places of worship (synagogues), children (high school students), and other people with the sole purpose of harassing and intimidating them, it therefore becomes pretty clear that the only thing to do is to stand up and oppose them, sending a message that we will not go back to the days when persecuting and killing homosexuals, Jews, or any other group was deemed acceptable. We will not allow our communities to come under attack from anyone. Period.
3) The circus has come to town! This group represents classic trolling, going from town to town with their ridiculous message trying to offend people because they are either insane or have nothing better to do. Treating them seriously plays up their legitimacy and turns the joke on us. No one listens to them, but showing how ridiculous they are by mocking them is hilarious - and far more effective than yelling at them. They have never engaged in violence, and the best way to make people understand how out of touch they are is to turn the whole thing into a joke; they may not get it, but we do! Let them rally, have some fun with the sideshow and remember: "God hates the Flintstones because they had a gay old time!"
After giving it some thought, I can say I agree to some extent with all three viewpoints. No one disagrees that the Westboro Baptist Church are offensive and ignorant - except themselves. No one wants them here, but here they are. If we ignore them, they will still get media attention because they are such a bizarre phenomenon, and they will still be just as active as before. If we confront them, we play up their to their martyrdom complex and end up feeding the trolls. People are pissed off, people are offended, but in the end, nothing we do or say will ever change what the smallest inbred cult of bigots anywhere is going to do or say. And our ideas are stronger than their ideas; our society is stronger than the one they long for, because despite their outbursts, they are losing and we are winning. It may not seem like that when some random mob of fools descends on your town to shout at you and your neighbors, and I agree with all those who want to take a stand against them, but society has changed so rapidly since their group was founded in 1955 that they have literally been left in the dust of inequality and irrational fear and hatred. No, it's not like all of that has vanished. I just think a friend of mine put it best when he said, "Quit feeding oats to a dead horse."
So meh.
I'll likely be there to watch them as they stand there cordoned off by police, shouting their fool heads off, secure in the right to protest that they would so hypocritically deny to others. I'll probably film and try to get a few funny pictures to post on the web. But the strongest thing I can think of to say to them is meh; I will go on living my life, trying to treat those around me with the same respect and equal dignity entitled to me. But what I won't do is feed the trolls.
If you feel like coming out to greet the circus, you can find them in Hoboken on October 27, 2009 at 4:45 PM outside of City Hall, then again at 7:00 PM outside of the United Synagogue of Hoboken on 115 Park Ave. Then on October 28, 2009 the fool parade will make its way to Jersey City to the intersection of Newark and Palisade at 2:55 PM after stops in New Brunswick and other towns that morning. All three stops in Hudson County are easy walking distance from the Hoboken and Journal Square PATH stations.
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