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Marc2b -> RE: Legislation against Westboro? (4/15/2011 7:35:45 AM)
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First things first: I loath… utterly loath… the WBC. They represent the worst form of deluded, self-flattering arrogance and cruelty that I despise. From a personally emotional reaction I would like to rip off Phelps’ head, gouge out his eyes, and skull fuck him (yes, I stole that from that movie with R. Lee Ermey… but it is such a satisfying visual). I would like to cut out their tongues and staple their lips shut… then rip out the staples and do it again. I hope that when Phelps dies he goes to Heaven… that’s right… Heaven! Where, upon arrival, God will hand him a bucket and a mop and assign him to spend eternity as a janitor in Heaven’s gay bathhouse! Won’t that just get his fucking goat? Poor Freddy, cleaning up the messes beneath the glory holes while some of the very people he badmouthed (and thought would be in Hell) enjoy a good steam! For added measure, George Carlin can do a routine about Phelps every night in Heaven’s comedy club.
As emotionaly satisfying as such fantasies are, we must allow reason to temper emotion. My understanding of the recently dismissed lawsuit is that the Phelps clan didn’t actually protest at the funeral but along a planned funeral route that was not actually taken by the funeral procession. It was the father of the deceased seeing the signs and hearing their vile venom on the news that launched the lawsuit. So I’m not sure if that suit (the dismissal of which I am in agreement with) really has any bearing on this law.
I firmly believe that one person’s rights stop where the next person’s rights begin. This is why it is illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire. Your freedom of speech ends where my right to NOT be trampled by panicked people begins. So the question really is a simple one: do people have the right to conduct a funeral in peace? Does your right to free speech end with my right to participate in a private ceremony? I would have to say yes.
The fact that the funeral takes place in public is not really an issue. I have the right to walk down a street without some asshole screeching at me. That would be considered harassment. The right to free speech is NOT the right to be listened to. The same principle applies here. Society at large already implicitly recognizes a right of people to hold a funeral in peace in the fact that the vast majority of us would never consider imposing ourselves on the funeral of strangers. Most of us would never cut into the middle of a funeral procession and for those few assholes who would, we have laws against doing so.
In that light I see nothing unconstitutional about a law that says: “Hey! Assholes! Leave those people alone! Stay back at least three hundred yards, fuckers!” If Phelps wants to rant and rail against homosexuals and soldiers from his pulpit… he is free to do so. If he wants to go to a public park or stand in front of city hall and tell everyone that God hates everybody but him… he is free to do so. If he wants to shout invective at grieving friends and family at a funeral… society is free to tell him to shut the fuck up and get out!
The law should, however, apply to all funerals, not just those of soldiers.
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