The Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill banning protests near funerals an hour before to an hour after a service. The legislation was drafted and passed in response to a protest at the St. Joseph funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. In May, lawmakers plan on passing a second measure, specifically prohibiting protests within 300 feet of a funeral.
Why on earth would legal action need to be taken in order to ensure funerals go uninterrupted by angry protestors? I mean who actually protests a funeral? No one is crazy enough to ridicule the family and friends of a fallen soldier in their deepest stage of grievance, right?
Believe it or not, there is such a magnitude of craziness that exists. Missouri is one of at least 14 states taking action on restrictions on funeral protests because of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan.
The nondenominational church, led by Rev. Fred Phelps, claims soldiers die as divine retribution because the U.S. tolerates gays. Actually, to call it a church is spitting in the face of anyone who is a part of an actual church.
What these people do is go near the funerals of fallen soldiers with signs that say “God hates fags” and “Thank God for dead soldiers” as they scream at the members who participate in the funeral.
The biggest issue the bill faces when it comes to whether the Senate will pass it is the issue of freedom of speech. As a journalist, I feel the First Amendment is imperative to our society, and there are very few instances in which it should be violated.
That being said, this is certainly one of those instances. My biggest issue isn’t the Westboro Baptist Church’s goal of attacking the families and friends of lost soldiers in their most vulnerable moments. It isn’t that the majority of the 71 members are a part of one family that lunatics have brainwashed.
My biggest issue is exemplified in the documentary about the group titled “The Most Hated Family in America” by Louis Theroux, in which Theroux asks it if it has ever protested at the capitol building or written its representatives letters. The answer was no.
This shows the congregation isn’t actually trying to inflict change in the world. It just means it is simply acting maliciously to those who don’t deserve it in the slightest. So although I am a firm supporter of the First Amendment, and I think freedom of speech is a necessity, this bill takes action on preventing a group of lunatics from scorning our fallen soldiers. I am not a big fan of creating a bill for a specific group, but these people need to be stopped.