Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Funeral of 9-Year-Old Tucson Shooting Victim
Speaking of hatred that knows no bounds or party affiliation, the Westboro Baptist Church, famous for picketing the funerals of slain members of the American military, has announced plans to disrupt the funeral of the youngest of yesterday’s shooting victims, 9-year-old Christina Greene.
The child was among the six fatalities that resulted from a shooting spree in Tucson by Jared Lee Loughner that left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords hospitalized with a brain injury. Christina, who was the granddaughter of former Philadelphia Phillies manager Dallas Green, had just been elected to the student council at school. She wanted to attend the event to see real government in action.
Westboro’s founder, Fred Phelps has run in several Kansas Democratic Party primaries, but has never won. In his most successful bid, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1992, he received 31 percent of the vote.
Phelps was an enormous supporter of Al Gore 1988 Democratic Party primary election and in 2003 wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein, praising his regime for being
the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets.
Phelps’s most recent funeral disruption was of Elizabeth Edwards last month, but somehow picketing the funeral of a child is an act that causes even the staunchest defender of freedom of speech to question the law’s boundaries.
Arizona
Westboro Baptist Church Again Tries to Shock, Threatening to Picket 9-Year-Old Shooting Victim's Funeral
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| Christina Taylor Green |
The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas -- the hate-mongering funeral protesters who've picketed or threatened to picket the funerals of Elizabeth Edwards, soldiers who've died in Iraq, and people who've died of AIDS, among others -- are taking their efforts to piss people off in the supposed name of God a step further by announcing they'll picket the funeral of 9-year-old Christine Taylor Green, who was killed during the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday.
According to CNN, the people of Tucson are prepared, and will implement a plan created by Romaine Patterson, who saw Westboro Baptist protest the funeral of his friend Matthew Shepherd. People are signing up to wear giant "angel wings" that shield mourners from the picketers. Christin Gilmer, who's helping to organize, writes on the Build Angel Wings for the Westboro Funeral Counter-Protest and Meeting Facebook page:
In lieu of any acts of violence or physical altercations, we will be donning 8 - 10 foot tall angel wings so that we can block the group, their signs, and their words from the funeral and all those who will mourning our community's losses.
There are a number of other related Facebook pages, including We will not let Fred Phelps or WBC protest any funeral in Tucson, Protect Christina's Funeral from the Westboro Baptists, and Show Support for the Families of the Tucson Shooting Victims.
"This isn't a counterprotest," said Chelsea Cohen, a University of Arizona senior who started the Show Support page on Facebook. "We wanted it to show support for the families and to show that Tucson is there with love and support."
Of course, as the Show Support page points out:
WBC MAY NOT SHOW UP. Their press releases and website say they are coming, but they apparently have not followed certain steps in order for them to legally be there yet. Even if they do not come, we will be there showing the families that Tucson supports them.
According to a flier released by the Church, "the picket targets the Roman Catholic Church because Christina and her family were members." But as violent (and just plain nasty) rhetoric is condemned by people of all affiliations, it does seem high time to quash the downright ugly, attention-seeking tactics of the Westboro Baptist Church -- peacefully, of course, and by "taking the high road" of ignoring them. As Mom used to say, what the bullies want is for people to pay attention to them in the first place.
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