mood swings
Jun. 7th, 2005 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwBill Clinton was interviewed for an hour on NPR last Friday. He had interesting things to say, but the bit that stands out in my mind was the beginning of the response he made to a question about donations for tsunami relief: "The world did a good job..." You hardly ever hear anybody talking about the world doing something. I imagined a cartoon image of the planet smiling modestly at the praise, and all of us who live here being glad that we did what we could. It left me cheerful for the rest of the day.
But then came a weekend of hate and love and upsetting use of the Constitution.
Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, and some of the other members showed up in the area, especially in Lexington, for protests of a number of churches and school functions. For background info on the group (I hate to call it church, because they are pretty much disowned by other Baptists) see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps
They picked Lexington for their protests because of the publicity generated by the Article 8 alliance
http://www.article8.org/ who are working to equate any mention of same-sex parents with the type of sex ed that requires advance notification in the Massachusetts public schools. David Parker claimed to be simply an upset, caring parent who was shocked that an optional book (as opposed to a required text)his kindergarten child brought home from Estabrook elementary school included a family with two moms washing the dog and going sledding. (along with mixed race, single parent, grandparent-headed, and same race opposite sex parents).
Parker harrassed the school staff for months and finally was arrested for trespassing when he refused to leave the school until he got a promise that they would notify him in advance whenever same-sex parents are mentioned. It's more than a little suspicious that the Article 8 group had his personal correspondence on their web site the next day, and that one of their leaders appeared at the press conference he called. At any rate, they are good at publicity. The school got hate mail from across the country for considering all their students as equal, and it attracted the attention of the Phelps folks, who notified Lexington police in advance that they were coming. This gave locals the time to attend training in non-violent silent response, and to organize "shields of loving-kindness" to protect worshipers from some of the screamed abuse. I hadn't previously thought of the Roman Catholic church as being particularly pro-gay, but apparently preaching that God loves everyone is enough to imply that, at least to Phelps. The Phelps group also protested outside Lexington High School graduation and yesterday (Monday) morning, outside the elementary school in question. I admire the shield people so much, but didn't take the training because I don't think I could be silent and not scream back.
I was waiting for a bus at a little before 9 AM when at least 8 motorcyle police officers from other towns rode by. My first reaction was to wonder why they were here, but then the day and time clicked in my head and I realized they were on their way to Estabrook, presumably to protect people on both sides. Without any further thought I started crying, although I got myself under control before the bus came. I'm a big fan of the First Amendment free speech rights, and worry a lot that the Bush administration is trying to limit them. I know intellectually that hate speech is protected speech, but the thought of little children having to go past people spewing that vile stuff left me shaking for quite a while afterward.
But then came a weekend of hate and love and upsetting use of the Constitution.
Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, and some of the other members showed up in the area, especially in Lexington, for protests of a number of churches and school functions. For background info on the group (I hate to call it church, because they are pretty much disowned by other Baptists) see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps
They picked Lexington for their protests because of the publicity generated by the Article 8 alliance
http://www.article8.org/ who are working to equate any mention of same-sex parents with the type of sex ed that requires advance notification in the Massachusetts public schools. David Parker claimed to be simply an upset, caring parent who was shocked that an optional book (as opposed to a required text)his kindergarten child brought home from Estabrook elementary school included a family with two moms washing the dog and going sledding. (along with mixed race, single parent, grandparent-headed, and same race opposite sex parents).
Parker harrassed the school staff for months and finally was arrested for trespassing when he refused to leave the school until he got a promise that they would notify him in advance whenever same-sex parents are mentioned. It's more than a little suspicious that the Article 8 group had his personal correspondence on their web site the next day, and that one of their leaders appeared at the press conference he called. At any rate, they are good at publicity. The school got hate mail from across the country for considering all their students as equal, and it attracted the attention of the Phelps folks, who notified Lexington police in advance that they were coming. This gave locals the time to attend training in non-violent silent response, and to organize "shields of loving-kindness" to protect worshipers from some of the screamed abuse. I hadn't previously thought of the Roman Catholic church as being particularly pro-gay, but apparently preaching that God loves everyone is enough to imply that, at least to Phelps. The Phelps group also protested outside Lexington High School graduation and yesterday (Monday) morning, outside the elementary school in question. I admire the shield people so much, but didn't take the training because I don't think I could be silent and not scream back.
I was waiting for a bus at a little before 9 AM when at least 8 motorcyle police officers from other towns rode by. My first reaction was to wonder why they were here, but then the day and time clicked in my head and I realized they were on their way to Estabrook, presumably to protect people on both sides. Without any further thought I started crying, although I got myself under control before the bus came. I'm a big fan of the First Amendment free speech rights, and worry a lot that the Bush administration is trying to limit them. I know intellectually that hate speech is protected speech, but the thought of little children having to go past people spewing that vile stuff left me shaking for quite a while afterward.
