Firedoglake.com is reporting that Fred Phelps and family, otherwise known as the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka Ks, have been ordered to pay $10.9 Million to the family of slain marine Matthew Snyder. The Westboro Baptist Church has gained international notoriety because of their revolting picket signs and loathsome all around behavior. If there ever was a group that embodied hatred, intolerance, and bigotry better than the Phelps I can’t imagine who they would be.

After saying that I am as surprised as you to be writing that I do not approve of this ruling. In fact, more than anything else I have written here, this piece embodies the true importance of protecting our constitution. While the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church are unthinkably revolting they still fall under protected speech as guaranteed by our 1st amendment. In addition their peaceful protests are also constitutionally protected. As a nation that prides ourselves on our freedoms we must work to ensure that we extend those freedoms to everyone, even those whose message we disagree with.

When we start down the path of censoring unpopular messages we start allowing our courts and government decide what thoughts and feelings are allowable. This is the same problem you run into when you remove books from public libraries, or try to make burning the flag illegal. It is a slippery slope between censoring the most unpopular and revolting speech and censoring all speech. So regardless of your personal feelings for the actions the Phelps take and the hatred they embody you must support their constitutional rights to express those feelings because to do anything else would spell the destruction of our way of life.

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. ~ H.L. Mencken (1880 -1956)

I know that there are many many people celebrating this as a victory for homosexual rights and even a victory for the dignity of our fallen soldiers whose funerals the Phelps picket. I envy their joy at this ruling. Instead of feeling joy at victory over bigotry and hatred I instead feel sadness at the loss of freedom. That it was the death of a brave soldier, who fought and died in the name of freedom abroad, that was the catalyst for this loss of our freedoms here at home only amplifies the tragedy and sadness of this ruling.

That’s all I feel like writing on this subject. With luck the name Fred Phelps will never have to be written on this blog again. I regret having to give him this much time but I feel that the importance of this ruling needed to be shared.

Important Update:
In the spirit of the first amendment rights that Fred Phelps is fighting for I have decided to link to an interesting story about the Phelps family. The story is titled “Addicted to Hate” by Jon Michael Bell and chronicles the life of Fred Phelps. I highly recommend reading this if you have even a passing interest in the Phelps despite its length.

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