Does The Right to Free Speech Need Fine Print?

Westboro Baptist Church is abusing Freedom of Speech. Picketing a dead soldiers funeral, and hoisting signs of 'Thank God For Dead Soldiers' and 'Semper Fi Fag' is not what I think our forefathers had in mind when they wrote up the details of freedom of speech.

Are soldiers not dying in wars to protect Free Speech (among other things?) So what gives this group of inbred fanatics the right to picket a funeral? Maybe constricting the Freedom of Speech is the right thing to do. The Westboro Baptist Church was apparently well within their rights to protest because they were 1000 feet away from the funeral. So let's change that to a 2 mile radius near the church and graveyard. If you want to protest the funeral, find somewhere not near the church or the grave site.

Same thing with marriages. I don't care if gays and lesbians want to marry each other. If they're stupid enough to want to get married, you might as well let them get married. It's their problem, not the problem of society. So you ban protests within a two mile radius of a church or graveyard, and the problem there is solved. If you want to protest gay marriage, do it in front of city hall. There's probably a sign up sheet of other protests just inside the front door. Do it every time a gay couple gets married. Just don't do it at the church.

Hospitals should be given the same treatment. If another Matthew Shepherd story comes around, I'm about 95% sure the Westboro Baptist Church is going to protest at the hospital that he should not get any form of medical attention because he's gay. No protest within two miles of a hospital. Boom, problem solved.

How about the case of Phoebe Prince? The faculty isn't going to see any repercussions, they should be picketed. Should you do it in front of the school? Yes. Why? Because the school system and structure failed. A soldier fighting for Freedom of Speech does not deserve a protest at his funeral. A couple getting married, no matter your views, are not bothering anyone, they don't deserve to be singled out either.

Recently, a local high school had demonstrators from the Westboro Baptist Church in front of the school because their Drama Club was performing The Laramie Project. You should be allowed to demonstrate for or against art. The current guidelines for demonstrating and protest would apply just fine in this case, meaning the 1000 feet rule. As long as they are not disrupting people from getting in and out of the building, and the protest is not violent, it shouldn't be a problem.

If you want to protest, then protest. Protesting something like a funeral, that's despicable. You should not be using someone else's pain for your own personal gain when you protest or demonstrate. The man suing the Westboro Church should not have to pay their court expenses, and should be reimbursed for all the trouble the church has caused him. If they are dumb enough to demonstrate at a painful place and time, like a funeral, then they should be hit with the repercussions.