Stephen Hawking believes there are alien life forms elsewhere in the galaxy and he thinks we should avoid them. In his documentary series for the Discovery Channel, he states,“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet."Mr. Hawking, you're a genius, but we don't have to go to Titan to find aliens to avoid. There's a nest of them in Westboro, Kentucky and, what's worse, they're on the move and headed to a high school near us. Below, please find an item on the picketing schedule of Westboro Baptist Church, led by alien life form Fred Phelps (these are the aliens who loudly picket military graveside services for Iraq and Afghanistan war vets, attempting to disrupt them because the US military has homosexuals in its ranks).
How should we handle an encounter with life forms so bizarre we cannot comprehend them? Stephen Hawking says to avoid them, but what if they make themselves unavoidable? What if they strike where and when we are most vulnerable? Say, for instance, when the country is struggling with self-induced financial catastrophe; when we seem divided against ourselves; when our children don't know where they will find a job when they graduate from high school or college; when we can't legally stop lunatics from turning the funerals of our veterans into venues for travesty?! What if this is the time they target our children by picketing outside their high schools? What if this is the time that insanity and evil arises and proliferates among us? Well, of course it is; when else?
In March, 2006, 20 year old Cpl. Matthew Snyder was killed in an automobile accident in Iraq and his remains were returned to his family for burial. Westboro Baptist Church picketed that funeral and were sued by the corporal's father, who was awarded $10.9 million in a 2007 verdict. Leonard Pitts, in his syndicated column, reported,
As I try to decide whether the best response to Westboro's planned demonstrations at high schools throughout my city is no response, I'm not alone. Churches (real ones), school administrators, education superintendents, parents, and even some sophisticated, upper classmen are pondering this in each city Phelps targets. Children, of course, cannot ignore a demonstration like this one. Nor can most of us at any age; it's a train wreck, for heaven's sake! Who can not watch? Teens who are trying to figure out whether to trust their parents and teachers are highly vulnerable to people who would make a grab for their minds so blatantly, loudly, and with such base certainty. Let's hear the usual chorus of, "Not my kid!," and get that out of the way.
For me, there's this additional irony: The date of the demonstration is the day before my son's wedding. The bride, groom, and most of their wedding party graduated from one of the high schools to be targeted by Westboro and will all be in town the day of the demonstration. I know those young adults (most of them have recently turned thirty); I know their values and, in general, their political leanings. Their alma mater, the school whose name is X'd out above, shares its grounds with an elementary school, which means the young children will also be arriving for classes at the same time as the older students and will not be able to avoid seeing that demonstration, those signs.
I can't help but wonder what those young adults, those friends of our family, would want to do in this situation. What would you do?
Follow Up: May 3, 2010: I've gotten some strong responses to this post and did a little info dispersement locally. I can't take responsibility, but I'm pleased to see that the local news is now on top of the planned demonstrations and that a counter-protest is to be staged at the very school referenced above:
In March, 2006, 20 year old Cpl. Matthew Snyder was killed in an automobile accident in Iraq and his remains were returned to his family for burial. Westboro Baptist Church picketed that funeral and were sued by the corporal's father, who was awarded $10.9 million in a 2007 verdict. Leonard Pitts, in his syndicated column, reported,
In September, an appeals court tossed that verdict out. Nor is even that the worst of it. No, the worst is that the court recently ordered Snyder to pay Westboro's legal bills. Snyder, who makes $43,000 a year, must pay $16,500 to the people who made a circus of his son's funeral. "You can do the math," says his attorney, Sean Summers. Snyder has been forced to seek donations online (www.matthewsnyder.org). Westboro says it will use the money to give the same treatment to another grieving family.Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy For God, called the Tea Party a part of The Perpetual American Lynch Mob in his April 15th article for the Huffington Post. You can bet that he'd count Westboro in that category. Stronger terms may apply. Schaeffer has some advice for us; if you missed his appearance on MSNBC, here's your chance to see it:
As I try to decide whether the best response to Westboro's planned demonstrations at high schools throughout my city is no response, I'm not alone. Churches (real ones), school administrators, education superintendents, parents, and even some sophisticated, upper classmen are pondering this in each city Phelps targets. Children, of course, cannot ignore a demonstration like this one. Nor can most of us at any age; it's a train wreck, for heaven's sake! Who can not watch? Teens who are trying to figure out whether to trust their parents and teachers are highly vulnerable to people who would make a grab for their minds so blatantly, loudly, and with such base certainty. Let's hear the usual chorus of, "Not my kid!," and get that out of the way.
For me, there's this additional irony: The date of the demonstration is the day before my son's wedding. The bride, groom, and most of their wedding party graduated from one of the high schools to be targeted by Westboro and will all be in town the day of the demonstration. I know those young adults (most of them have recently turned thirty); I know their values and, in general, their political leanings. Their alma mater, the school whose name is X'd out above, shares its grounds with an elementary school, which means the young children will also be arriving for classes at the same time as the older students and will not be able to avoid seeing that demonstration, those signs.
I can't help but wonder what those young adults, those friends of our family, would want to do in this situation. What would you do?
Follow Up: May 3, 2010: I've gotten some strong responses to this post and did a little info dispersement locally. I can't take responsibility, but I'm pleased to see that the local news is now on top of the planned demonstrations and that a counter-protest is to be staged at the very school referenced above:
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