Monday, April 19, 2010
Recently some members of Westboro Baptist Church made another appearance on our campus, this time to protest Pride Week. In opposition to the Westboro Baptist’s signs of hatred towards homosexuals, students came out in full-force with signs of their own. Although there were varying on degrees of creativity, the message the students sent was clear: we will not put up with that disrespect in Lawrence.
Not only did the students help bring attention to the Brown Bag Drag show, which was going on simultaneous with the protest, but they also raised $1,161 for Planned Parenthood. These are both wonderful accomplishments and I applaud the students involved. However, with all of the achievements aside, I can’t help but to have feeling of ambivalence.
The main reason the Westboro clan comes to events such as the Pride Week rally is with the simple goal of simply getting attention. So, unfortunately, the more people who come out — whether in opposition or support — is the more people who see the hateful messages of the group. This is brought to an even higher degree when the media is attracted.
What then would happen if instead of feeding the Churchs’ desire for attention, we all just ignored the group? If they no longer got the press and the attention, would they bother wasting their time, money and effort to come out?
Although I don’t want to say that people shouldn’t voice their opinions or stand up for what they believe, I am not sure what other options there are. I can say I’m truly conflicted: It’s wrong to dignify the Churchs’ presence by giving them attention, but it is also wrong to do nothing to counter the messages of hate put out by Westboro.
Many of the members of Westboro are actually members of a family, led by patriarch Fred Phelps. Many of them are lawyers and therefore extremely familiar with their first amendment rights. This is why past attempts at suing them has done little to deter their efforts.
So if taking action— usually in the forms of anger or aggression —against the Westboro group hasn’t helped the situation, and it just feels wrong to sit and watch it all happen while doing nothing, what should we do?
Clearly another approach is necessary. So what if we responded to the hate expressed by the members of the Church with our own expressions of love, tolerance and acceptance?
Imagine if the next time the Westboro group came to our campus, everyone got together and held signs reading messages such as, “We love Fred Phelps, even if he is a bigot,” or “We love God, Fred Phelps and gays.” Although I don’t really believe it would cause them to pack their bags and never come back, I do think it would put out a positive message on a negative situation.
I don’t expect anyone — especially those directly hurt by the messages of the Church — to welcome them with open arms. But, still, I think we can all agree that hate accomplishes nothing.
Maybe Phelps has taught us something after all.
— Blackmon is a junior from Olathe in journalism.
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Comments
Blackmon: Mr. Phelps, all you need is love
I ask you to look up the early history of Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger. You will see that that this racist organization has some explaining to do. Also look up the 1906 book "The Negro Project" by Sanger. You may be horrified by what they planned to do and are doing. A black child is four times more likely to be aborted even though they only make a sixth of the population. Like I said, racist!!!
Blackmon: Mr. Phelps, all you need is love
Suggesting not giving attention to the protesting group is not something that is truly workable. The organizations campaign technique strives to place itself in dense situations. If they were to protest out in the corn fields of Kansas then those who planned to go argue and picket them would be fueling the fire. However the methodology that they used at KU involved placing themselves less than 30 yards away from a previously planned mass of people. Don’t be fooled to imagine that the KU protestors showed up solely with the mentality to protest them. Also in this opinion the author mentions a call to ignore them while giving them free press in the UDK. Westboro has proved something truly amazing about America. While they have campaigned endlessly, appeared on national news, and spent thousands of hours to try to further there cause, they stand alone. Outnumbered just in America alone 3million to one (banned from entering the UK). Americans across the country have united against your hatred and we thank you Westboro for that!
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