I’m sure the title of this post have a few people going, huh?
I mean, the irony isn’t lost on me either. I’m a self proclaimed misanthrope, which by definition is a generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt, or hatred of the human species (thanks, Wikipedia). And certainly, I bitch, I moan, I point out folly of the stupidity that is the human species, which is not to say I’m ever perfect. Far from it. I just think it’s more entertaining to pull apart the errors of others ways.
Even if I did ‘hate’ someone, this is my piece of lawn out here in cyberspace for people to view if they wish. A link is posted on my Facebook page for friends to come and read, but other than that, no advertising. No force mandated read or observation to visit. Hell, the most views I’ve ever had is 23 in a day, I think that’s a lot. It’s my opinion, in my quiet corner of the world, and I’m sticking with it.
On the other hand, if I stood outside a naval officer’s funeral with big signs that said “Thank God For Dead Soldiers”, I’m forcing my opinion out into the public. I’m intruding on a captivate audience who are there mourning a fallen soldier/son/daughter/sibling/friend/whomever. I’m chanting aloud “I’m glad he’s dead” or “He deserved to die”, and for those people, trying to sit quietly and deal with the loss of a loved one, they are trapped having to hear this vocal barrage. Free speech? Perhaps, like my blog it is to an extent. But a line has been crossed where the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and religious belief has been boisterously inflicted on an assembled group of people of differing beliefs, and who can’t escape the harassment or pain my beliefs have inflicted on them.
Now I would never ever do this, say that I thank God for dead soldiers. First of all, because I don’t believe that officer serving in the military deserved to die. I may not agree or like war, but sometimes it became a necessary evil that in the country’s history, became a determining factor in our existence and freedom. I support our troops, and mourn their loss. They are doing something that frankly I just don’t have the ability to do. It’s brave and exhausting. I’ve had friends spend tours in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. My Grandfather served in WWII, a Sargent, a member of Merrill’s Marauders in Burma. They all defended our country, and I’m proud of them.
Secondly, I don’t believe God or whatever spiritual being a person prays to has any reason to be glad that people are happy other people are dead. I may immensely dislike a person, even wish that karma gets them in the end. And yes I’ve casually may have told someone to be gone before a house dropped on them as well, sometimes in jest, and sometime, in not so good nature of a way . I’ve been mistreated and can’t stand it when some person who thinks they are above another and so blatantly flaunts it doesn’t think their actions don’t impact the feelings of others. To be deliberately rude, hurtful or inflict pain in the name of one’s God or simply for the sheer bliss it brings is narcissistic and frankly sociopathic. And that person certainly does not worship the benevolent all loving God that Christians were raised to believe in and whose son died for us so that we could eat ham this Sunday and celebrate Easter (well, maybe not just eat ham, but you know what I mean). This is also why I have such an immense dislike of religion as an organization, sects and churches and buildings rather than the sheer joy that it supposedly brings. It’s all been bastardized by people like the Catholic church and, in extreme, Phelps. I don’t need someone telling me what to believe or how I need to believe it. But that’s a whole other post.
So no, I would never do what that unconscionable man Fred Phelps did outside of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder’s funeral, which caused his father and family so much distress. And Mr. Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church does this at many military funerals, at GLBT events and parades, and at Matthew Shepherd’s funeral. Basically they do this because they say God takes delight in the death of these soldiers, defending our nation, because homosexuality has ravaged the US and we are all going to pay for it. Yes, that is actually their platform. But Albert Snyder had enough, and sued and won against the fundamentalist church for the emotional strain and stress they inflicted at his son’s funeral. He won, too. But of course, in our fair and equitable justice system, the ruling was overturned pending Supreme Court interference, and now Mr. Snyder is being told, as a result, he has to pay Westboro’s legal fees. So not only has a man who’s son serving our military and government lost his life in a war for this nation, but that same government turned around and said, sorry, even though those people upset you, attacked your son, said he deserved to die, they have a right to harass you during your moment of utmost grief, force you to listen to their hateful chants that haunt your dreams, and now you have to pay for their court costs.
Completely fair, right? Fuck that.
To merely say the deliberate spewing of hatred is wrong is a criminal understatement in a situation like this. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist ‘church’, you are all a bunch of sociopaths. You wish people dead, you say God Hates Fags, you say Thank God for IEDS (improvised explosive devices, used mainly in suicide bombings and road side bombs in the current war), and call military funerals pagan and blasphemous. My head literally wants to explode at this. My immense dislike wants to boil over into hatred. I want to scream, to cry, to hit, to sue, even kill this bastard. To have such an inconsequential repulsion for a human life almost turns me murderous. And to most rational human beings, it should. Hell, even Bill O’Reilly thinks Phelps is a tool.
But then I have remorse. I feel sorry for this man. He’s pathetic. I mean, look at him for starters, he’s practically the Crypt Keeper. 
Basically, when he does die, and mercifully may it be soon for the rest of us, he’s going to be in for a nasty surprise if he thinks he’s going to be shown the gates of heaven by his God. Frankly, I have him pegged for the his eternity walking with his head twisted backwards on his body around with the rest of the false prophets and frauds in Dante’s eighth circle of Hell, but where in the Inferno he may reside can be argued.
What it all comes down to is this: I’m appalled at what Fred Phelps stands for and believes in. His right to believe, yes, even as misguided and stupid of a belief that it is. His right to say his opinion, yes. But his right to inflict pain and cheer murder and hatred and celebrate it? No. To force people to endure it in the way they did, while attending a funeral, is abuse of his right to free speech. This man stands for everything that is the opposite of what this nation stands for, and to let him win another battle like this is disgusting. And for him to do it in the name of God… I do not know what God you worship, but I do not remember reading in the Bible to celebrate murder and hate people because they are different. What book are you reading? What it fosters is more hatred, and more acceptance and indifference to this hatred. To spew hate just for the pleasure of spewing it should be just as repulsive to you as it is to me.
“You hair looks like a basket of brown and yellow yarn that some cat played with and got all tangled up. No honey, that’s not a compliment, either.”
Rants of The Misanthrope and other musings 