Supreme Court decision = SUPREME dissapointment

When I read this story I felt sickened.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110303/us_time/08599205661300

One of the most profoundly humbling and emotional experiences I've ever had during my brief tenure as a costumed activist was being invited by the US goverment along with a few of my fellow activists to a very special ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetary to honor the fallen heroes of our country and lay a wreath of flowers upon the Tomb of the Unknowns. The Tomb contains the remains of unknown American soldiers from World Wars 1,2, the Korean conflict, and the Vietnam War. Each was presented with the Medal of Honor at the time of interment and the medals. The flags which cover their caskets are on display inside the Memorial Amphitheater, directly to the rear of the tomb. The sanctity of the tomb is guarded 24 hours a day by specially trained members of the 3rd United States Infantry (the Old Guard).

It was July 3rd I believe when this went down, a day before a major event for charity group which I am a member of. I remember arriving to the cemetary, in civilian clothing (there is a time and a place for the costume and this was not one of them) along with several other members of my group. As we waited to given the word to be allowed to make the long walk to the Tomb there was amongst all of us a subliminal sense of awe, an understanding of just how profound a place we were at and of the experience we were going to undertake. My instincts proved accurate.

The walk to the tomb itself is hard to put into words but I will try. The geography of the area has it's flat areas and its slight slopes but what really got to me was the sheer number of white tombstones that seemed to stretch on forever. The grass was impeccably maintained, not a single leaf for as far as I could see.The walk to the tomb was by no means a small one and I do not think until that moment that I truly felt the weight of their sacrifices of those buried there from a civilian standpoint. The ceremony was poignant; some of us shed tears, tears for the fallen whose sacrifices lived on within our hearts and still do today. As the ceremony winded down the honor of the actual wreath laying was given to our leader who is a current and decorated member of the US military and to the youngest member of or charity group - a symbolic gesture to demonstrate in terms of showing respect for the honored fallen that age was insignificant.

The memories of that day will live with me forever. So when I came across the recent Supreme Court decision involving the Westboro Baptist Church I felt absolutely disgusted. I know there is a fine line between freedom of speech and censorship sometimes; hell, look at some of the crap that appears on the blogosphere and you get what I'm saying. Blogpost even goes on to say "some of this stuff might be grossly offensive but we're going to allow it anyways". Then there's good old Copyright Act of 1976 section 107 through 118 Title 17 and all that stuff. I'm not a fan of censorship but I think that freedom of speech is terribly abused sometimes and I think the Westboro issue is one of those times.

There has to come a moment in my opinion, when hatemongering just crosses the line and we, as a society, must stand against it with unswerving defiance. I mean, some of those buried in these cemetaries are unidentified, some have no living family left, so in effect they have no one to defend them against the hate mongering poison of the Westboro church except those of us who understand what they have sacrificed to allow us to live under the freedoms we have today, the very same freedoms which these intolerant assholes of the Westboro Church use to carry on their insidious crusade. Make no mistakes folks, these are sick people hiding behind the false premise that what they are doing is "in the name of God."

This is the part I find most disturbing..

"Westboro members boasting that the Supreme Court ruling will strengthen their cause. Margie Phelps, daughter of Westboro founder Fred Phelps, and the lawyer who argued the church's case at the Supreme Court, vowed to "quadruple" funeral protestors. "It's so impressive and amazing," says Margie's sister, Shirley Phelps-Roper, "that it compels us to go quicker. This nation's destruction is imminent." We shouldn't be too fearful of these words. Westboro often talks a big game, then fails to show up at events. And according to Westboro, America's destruction has been imminent for at least 20 years now."

Translation: Thanks Supreme Court, now we, the Westboro Church members are going to make the lives of dead soldiers and their families a living hell. We are going to save America by hatemongering because God says it's okay.

And even worse...

"During these years of legal battles, Snyder never got to grieve. The legal loss will compound the sadness. "I'm just very disappointed in America today," Snyder says. "You've got countries that won't even let these people on their land [Britain banned Phelps from entering the UK for a protest], and we allow them to desecrate a Marine's funeral. There's something very wrong"

"We have other countries laughing at us right now."

How bad is it when other countries recognize the sickness of the poorly disguised hatred of the Westboro Church and this country who should be honoring the sacrifices these soldiers made for them instead takes a symbolic dump on their legacy.

Other countries may be laughing at us but I'm not laughing at all. I'm pissed off. Supreme Court...you SUPREMELY f*cked up. When you had a chance to make a stand and set things right you dropped the ball and handed hatred a great victory. I hope you are proud.


Westboro Church, you people are a bunch of twisted sycophantic pricks

To the soldiers and honored fallen, much like those that rest in the Arlington Cemetary know this. I am one American who will never forget your sacrifices. I will not bow or tremble before the vitriolic words and actions of those that would stain your legacy EVER. What you gave up is a big reason why myself and so many others have what we have today. Let those who would disturb your eternal rest know that they don't get a free pass from me and if I ever get a chance to tell this to their faces I will damn sure do it.