What a despicable group of people. I might just check out some things and take a few pictures, see how the counter protest goes. There's talk of traffic congestion where they go. One thing for sure, they don't know how to schedule a protest, because they are going clear across town from one location to the other. From Whitworth to Ferris? That is like polar opposite sides in this city.
Morons.
Update: Seven. That's how many people were protesting, seven. They were each holding two to four signs that said inflamatory comments like "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and other insightful comments. But these didn't really get me one bit when I realized that the counter demonstration was what they were after. And it was impressive, at one point I would have guestimated between 2-400 people showed up to counter protest. Lot's of rainbow flags and signs expressing of unity, I'll get some pics of those in a minute. And while the counter demonstration was big, and it was impressive to see all these people of different stripes come together to offer their support, I get the impression that the WBC measures how successful their demonstration is by how many people show up to counter protest.
In other words, if you want to make an impact on these peope, ignore them. Treat them like they don't exist. They say mean and hateful remarks for the attention they recieve, and for a mediocre group of seven people to show up and protest sites like Gonzage because they want to 'remind this generation of rebels that there is a God and that all things unfold according to His divine plan', and because 'college students spend more time pursuing their drunken sins than their academic studies'.
I actually find it amusing why they chose to picket Moody Bible Institute. 'The instructors at Moody Bible College prefer the praises of men to the praises of God and thus they will not teach their students the truth, that God Hates Fags, Fag Doom Nations, America is a Fag Nation ergo, God Hates America!' In other words, they picket places because they don't teach what Wesboro thinks they should teach. Unless a church decries that God Hates America, then they are blasphemous and allowing their followers to go to hell, apparently.
Which brings me to my original dilemma that I faced this morning. Do I go and counter protest which adds fuel to the fire, or do I leave them be? And I've come to the conclusion that if you are ever unfortunate enough to have these fools show up in your home town, leave them be. in fact, go out of your way to not even drive near them, what would do more for counter protesting these imbeciles is if nobody showed up to their demonstration.
Like I mentioned, there were seven of them holding signs. Seven. They were there specifically to antagonize people and the big crowds probably made them feel powerful, that they were able to get that many people to care about what they had to say. It doesn't matter what they had to say, they could say the most offensive thing in the world, but the fact that people showed up to counter them meant that they had our attention. There will always be people like this, all you can do is ignore them, which will derive them of their power base.
The exception to this? I would say funerals, and in situations like this, all you have to do is place yourself between these idiots and the grieving family, and once you have blocked the view, turn your backs to them as if they weren't there.
Violence will do nothing against these people, all one needs to do is ignore them.
That said, here are some pictures of the demonstration.
There's the whole group in one shot at Gonzaga. Morons. Unfortunately, the sizeable demonstration against them was probably exactly what they were after.
The counter demonstration at Gonzaga. This was the first stop, it was just getting started, so the counter protest was still smaller.
Love this!
Indeed, it should have been on a lighter sign, but the sentiment is awesome
This wasn't the counter demonstration, but a demonstration for Gonzaga students in regards to hate groups.
Some of the signs (um, seeing that 8 has a 't' in it already, there's an extra t in that sign)
The front of the sign
and the back, excellent message
I would say that this was the most offensive sign on this side of the demonstration. "Jesus is gay", well, considering that this is a counter protest that involved anyone who disagrees with Westboro Baptist Church, and that's pretty much everyone, this is inflammatory to just about any Christian.
Snicker. . .
WBC at Moody Bible Institute. To the left there, behind the cop car. Yeah, same seven. The right side in the back is a counter protest.
This doesn't do the counter protest justice, this was just a fraction of it.
That was one benefit of the counter protest, how it unified groups that generally didn't normally get together.
:)
"Thank You for Bringing Our Community Together"
The Patriot Guard Riders
I followed them to Whitworth, because part of me wanted to actually talk to them, on tape if I could get it, but I didn't see Wesboro there, and like I mentioned, I didn't want to give them the benefit of my attention. Ignoring these guys is the best way to deal with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment