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| Bradley C. Bower AP |
My former father-in-law was and is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. Despite somewhat different political viewpoints he and I would have very passionate yet affable debates on a variety of subjects from politics to history. His own world view was that of a retired Jewish liberal lawyer from New York City. Of all the things told me over the years, there is one thing I have never forgotten. He said, “Free speech is the one right that we as Americans should defend above all others. The more offensive and derisive that speech is, the harder we should work to defend it.” His point was that anyone can defend free speech when it lines up with our own beliefs and sense of morality. But a person who defends speech that goes against everything they believe in, that person truly understands what free speech is all about.
On March 9, 2014 the controversial patriarch of the equally controversial Westborough Baptist Church, Fred Phelps died at the age of 84. The Westborough Baptist Church first came to the national spotlight in 1991. The unaffiliated Baptist church is best known for its extreme ideologies, especially those against gay people. In a nutshell, their message is that all the bad things that happen in this country are a direct result of our tolerance of the gay lifestyle and God is punishing us because of it. They are most infamous for their picketing of the funerals of soldiers killed in actions overseas. The church is thought of as a hate group and is scrutinized as such by organizations as the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center.
Since 1991 the church has become one of the most hated organizations in the country. One could spend an entire manuscript talking about the polemic church, their motivations and actions. Suffice it to say, the membership is always raising the bar when it comes to contentious speech.
To be very clear I find their message ugly and extremely repulsive, but I defend their right to say it. I also find any group or individual with an extreme point of view fascinating. Mostly it is because I want to know what makes them tick. I wish to try and understand that which makes no sense to me.
That brings us to the image. If you Google for pictures of the Westborough Baptist Church, you will get literally hundreds like this. This is actually a somewhat milder sample the kinds of signs they flaunt. This image was taken by AP Photographer Bradley C. Bower. However, that is not the point in this case. The point of the image is not that it is necessarily iconic or even famous. It is merely a sample of how groups like the WBC often stretch the very boundaries of our notion of what free speech means.
In 2010 the WBC won a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It basically said they had the right to protest funerals and that this right fell under the protections granted by the first amendment of the Constitution.
The WBC knows all too well, the fact that their messages are so extreme and derisive is exactly what gets them noticed by the media and everyone else. It is also a powerful representation of how powerful imagery and words can be.
Personally I think groups like the Westborough Baptist Church are very necessary to help us understand what it means to be accepting of free speech from all directions. There is a disturbing trend in this country to squash opinions that fail to line up with the popular world view, or whatever we happen to think that view is.
American Novelist Brad Thor said it best when he stated, “I live in America. I have the right to write whatever I want. And it's equaled by another right just as powerful: the right not to read it. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people.”
The image is iconic if for no other reason than that
http://archive.adl.org/learn/ext_us/wbc/default.html?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=WBC
http://www.thecarrollnews.com/news/opinion/3222637/Westboro-monsters-ask-for-decency-respect
http://www.has.vcu.edu/wrs/profiles/WestboroBaptistChurch.htm
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