Oklahomans Retaliate Against Westboro Baptist

As you probably know by now, there is no common decency displayed by the so-called "christians" of Westboro Baptist Church.   This group of idiots, led by radical preacher Fred Phelps, makes their living by irritating other people and then suing them when they react.   Their latest gambit is to picket the funerals of soldiers who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan with signs saying God hates America and the death was a good thing because homosexuals are allowed to exist in this country.

No decent person, regardless of their political or religious beliefs, would dare to intrude on a family's grief at the funeral of their loved one who had given his/her life for America.   But decency is a foreign concept to Phelps and his perverted followers (mostly his own family members).

Last Saturday, some members of Westboro Baptist were in the city of McAlester, Oklahoma.   They were there to picket and disrupt the funeral of an American soldier.   But many of McAlester's residents were having none of it.   They gathered around the religious nuts and drowned out their obscene chants with chants of "USA, USA, USA".

When the members of Westboro Baptist finally gave up and left, they found that at least two of the tires on their van had been slashed (see picture above).   They drove into town on the flat tires, but once there they couldn't find anyone who would repair the tires or sell them any new tires.   They finally called AAA.   AAA towed the van to a Wal-Mart and got them some new tires.

Slashing the tires was a crime, and I cannot condone it.   But I am having a hard time working up any outrage against that crime.   Westboro Baptist was just having to reap some of what they had sown.   As for those who refused to try and repair the slashed tires or sell them new tires, that is their right.   I would have probably done the same, since helping these nuts would on, at least some level, seem to lend credibility to their offensive actions.

The Westboro Baptist nuts have freedom of speech just like all Americans, but being free to speak doesn't mean others have to listen.   It also doesn't mean others are obligated to help you after you have offended them and disrupted a funeral.   Wal-Mart also had the right to sell them new tires, but it wouldn't surprise me if their business doesn't fall off for a while in that town.

While no one in McAlester should have slashed the tires (and I think most of those citizens would agree), they did have to right to practice their own free speech in opposition -- and their refusal to help the offensive bigots was just a part of their free speech.