Damn, that Obama Liberal Fascist Homosexual Agenda has worked quickly. Bizarre nutcases People of faith were subjected to counter protests torrents of abuse from high school kids hordes of radicalized Obama Youth shouting their rejection of hate speech in order to protest drown out the constitutional right of radical extremist fundamentalist bigots devout Christians to express their homophobic hatred deepest religious beliefs at a public school government re-education camp named for Walt Whitman, America’s greatest poet most immoral atheistic Marxist.
The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, KS is notorious for its tasteless and frequently nonsensical anti-gay protests. Not only do they picket the funerals of victims of anti-gay hate crimes, but they have been known to protest concerts, football games, and even a hardware store selling Swedish vacuum cleaners. Most recently, they have been busy picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in the Iraq War, believing their deaths to be a judgment on America. […]
According to the Potomac Almanac, “When Whitman sophomore Ryan Hauck first heard about the scheduled protest at Whitman from a friend he thought it was a joke. Then he went online … and saw just how serious the church is. ‘I was just shocked just from the second I heard it and I knew I had to do something,’ Hauck said. ‘[It was] the hatred of the whole thing that shocked me.'”
Hauck was aided by his fellow-sophomore Amar Mukunda, who “set up a Facebook group to generate support for the counter-protest through which more than 600 students have committed to attend. Mukunda said he doesn’t expect that many to show up on Friday, but that he does expect a healthy turnout.”
As it happened, the turnout far exceeded Mukunda’s expection of “a couple of hundred.” […]
Although the handful of picketers initially had the street to themselves, that changed dramatically when school was dismissed at 2:10 and five hundred students marched out, chanting the school name alternating with “Go home!”
Many of the students in the counter-protest were wearing T-shirts bearing a picture of Whitman and the line, “Let your soul stand cool and composed.”
Seriously, I’m very proud of these young people. They organized their counter-protest independently of any adult intervention solely in reaction to their distaste for the hateful and spiteful church activists of the Westboro Baptist Church led by Fred Phelps, the same group that protested at the funerals of soldiers killed in active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also commend the school officials who permitted them to stand up to the hatred and bigotry of that publicity hound and hatemonger, Mr. Phelps (I refuse to call him a Pastor or Minister because in my mind what he teaches and promotes is as far from the message of a “Man of God” as one can get). Free speech isn’t a one way street as so many conservatives have tried to make it over the last eight years. And Americans, regardless of their political leanings, should be proud of these kids also. They stood up for their beliefs proudly and unashamedly and confronted hatred with their own belief in acceptance of the equality of all human beings, gay or straight. If they are our future, we’re in good hands.
That’s cool. Kansas is more complicated than its stereotype.
More importantly, are the Broncos gonna take a QB today? Sanchez from USC?
Not in the first round.
Will the Giants trade for Braylon Edwards?
Maybe, but I think Boldin is a tougher-minded player.
He doesn’t stretch the field like Edwards and he’s older/injury prone.
That’s true, but he’s much better than Edwards. I’d rather put one of the best, toughest receivers in the game on my team than a guy that has been mainly a huge disappointment.
I read stuff like this and I actually get teary. From sophomores, no less!
In my hobby I am in constant conflict with the ‘elders’ who simply don’t believe the ‘young-uns’ are responsible. They are …. and those of us that help and instruct them KNOW it. They are FAR more likely to call an adult on their BS to their face than when I was young.
And the republicans are not paying the slightest bit of attention, as Booman’s latest contribution shows.
nalbar
the ‘elders’ who simply don’t believe the ‘young-uns’ are responsible.
Yes, these same “elders” who have done such a stellar job of caring for our planet, relieving human suffering, etc., etc., etc. They should be cowering in shame inside the dark recesses of their tiny, twisted minds somewhere they can’t do any further damage.
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(Salon.com) – On April 21, Broadsheet wrote about Jaheem Herrera, the 11 year old who hanged himself on April 16. It’s impossible to know what pushed Herrera to do such a thing, but members of his family spoke about homophobic bullying at school, and his story came at a time when our concern about the damage of such “childhood taunts” is particularly peaked, and occasionally controversial (see the letters section on that April 21 thread, for instance). Today, Herrera’s mother Masika Bermudez gives an interview to CNN in which she describes a shy boy and good student whose humiliation at school, despite her repeated complaints to the school district, did not relent.
CNN – My bullied son’s last day on Earth
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Well, still a way to go. But we take good news where we can find it. There’s always enough bad news to report.
It’s like that one story a while back in Wyoming where they showed up and a highschool girl was holding a sign that said: “Leave our Homos alone!”
Endearing.
Washington Post article on the protest….
What’s nice is that the teachers at Whitman made this into a learning experience —
This is a large suburban high school in a very diverse, densely populated, fairly affluent, and very blue district. They’re my neighbors — and I’m very proud of them! I suspect the Westboro folks would get the same reception from any public (and many private) high school in this county — and given the reaction of even some conservative CHURCHES to the Westoboro tactics, quite possibly from most high schools in the nation, and that is an encouraging thought for the future.
Some other local groups had been talking about going to counter-protest, singing songs and so forth — but it sounds like the kids had this situation well in hand!