Jack & Jill Politics

This protest yesterday epitomizes desperate and dangerous. It’s one thing to picket a school where the adults have done something wrong such as discriminate. It’s one thing (maybe) to protest a school to target its administrators.

It’s another thing altogether to allow protesters to intimidate and frighten children who have no say over public policy. Shame on Westboro Baptist Church — whose website btw is the catchily named www.GodHatesFags.com (wow, isn’t that special)– and moreover, double shame on Sidwell Friends for not making sure these crazies keep a safe distance from the children they are supposed to protect. Do these people even have a permit to protest? What if one of them pulls a gun? They plan to picket at Sidwell Friends Lower School (similar to elementary school) in Bethesda MD according to the “church” website this afternoon. And Sidwell plans to let them do it, too, despite the fact that they are on the Anti-Defamation League’s honor roll of scary extremist groups. My question seriously is — where are these people getting the money to protest around the country and maintain a slick network of websites including the hilarious cartoon-filled 30 min documentary on www.BeastObama.com? What’s really going on here?

From TPM (emphasis mine):

Westboro Baptist Church, the fringe-of-the-fringe anti-gay group famous for protesting at military funerals and claiming that God is punishing the country for its tolerance of homosexuality, was spotted this morning protesting outside Sidwell Friends, the school attended by Sasha and Malia Obama.

[…]
Westboro Baptist Church, founded by Fred Phelps and made up mostly of Phelps family members, has garnered national attention for carrying signs such as “Thank God for 9/11” and protesting at funerals, including that of Matthew Shepard, the student who was killed in 1998 because he was gay.

[…]

“Quakers?! Are you frigging kidding me? You pretend to be all non-violent, and you allow the most bloody, deceitful, evil, murderous bastard and his shemale sidekick to place their satanic spawn within your four walls?” reads the posting for today’s protest at Sidwell Friends, which is a Quaker school.

The school has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Randall Terry, the extreme anti-abortion protester, has also arranged demonstrations outside the school.

Late update: Ellis Turner, the associate head of school at Sidwell Friends, tells TPM the school took no action to remove the protesters, who were across the street.

“We support the First Amendment here, so there was nothing we wanted to do about it,” he said. “There was nothing they did other than offend those who didn’t agree with their bigoted viewpoints.”

Although the school has seen occasional protests over the years, Turner said, this was the first time Westboro Baptist Church had picketed there.

I don’t think that intimidating children = doing nothing, Mr. Turner. I went to Sidwell Friends and I can tell you that I would have found protests directed at me, my friends and my parents very scary indeed. Especially when the protests come from people who say things like this. Here’s what the Westboro Baptist Church website says about their protest at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, planned for tomorrow (emphasis mine):

U.S. Holocaust Museum – You haven’t seen ANYTHING, WAIT 4 IT 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. SW The sorrow which some Jews experienced during the WWII Holocaust, at the hands of the vicious German, and other Gentiles is NOTHING compared to what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to inflict upon His return. Check it out, suckers: 2Thesalonians 1:5 <snip> 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. Flaming fire = holocaust, dummies! The Lord Is Coming. AMEN!

Um, wasn’t there a recent shooting at the Holocaust Museum by a white supremacist nazi sympathizer that killed an African-American guard? I don’t think it’s safe nor fair for Malia and Sasha to be subjected to this — were the Bush girls subjected to anti-war protests outside their schools? I don’t think so. Here’s what the Westboro crazies have to say about protesting at Sasha’s school which is planned for today at 1:55pm-2:30pm EST (emphasis mine):

Sidwell Friends Lower School – Littles, run from liars, NOW! 5100 Edgemoor Ln More for the little nasty God-hating Quakers. You will NOT be able to get away from these words by that bloody-handed Antichrist Obama. They will hang around your hypocritical necks for all of eternity. You had a duty to know God’s standard. You had a duty to keep that standard. You had a duty to know what manner of creature(s) you are taking money from. You had a duty to know all about these same things that WBC has told you and will tell you. “Look, I’ve got two daughters. Nine years old and six years old. I’m gonna teach them first of all about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. . .” – The Beast Antichrist Barack Hussein Obama. Those words will burn you all, for all eternity. Shame on you all. Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Praise God! AMEN!

WBC has a long history of racist protesting. From the ADL:

Anybody babbling about ‘multicultural affairs’ and ‘celebrating diversity’ is a propagandist for the militant sodomite agenda…Westboro Baptists will picket this black obfuscator, in religious protest and warning. Being black won’t get you to Heaven. But promoting fags will take you to Hell.”— “WBC Will Picket ___________________, Ph.D. She’s a Multicultural, Diversity-Celebrating Blabbermouth,” WBC “News Release,” November 13, 1996

“Forget the American Bald Eagle. Since June 23, 1994, the only fitting emblem for the Great Seal of the United States Judiciary is this beast…Just call me: ‘Yo Honuh’!!!… Here Come De Judge!!!”—Text surrounding a racist caricature of an African-American female judge, “The Federal Judiciary: A Menagerie of Demonic, Libidinous, unclean Beasts: A Curse from God Upon an Apostate Nation,” WBC flier, November 28, 1996

I would strongly urge Sidwell and the Secret Service to take stronger action to make sure that wild-eyed extremists who wink at violence such as Randall Terry and Westboro Baptist Church have no comfortable perch from which to threaten innocent children. The First Amendment is sacred — I think we need to draw the line at using it to intimidate and target kids. Look, we all know that there are those who don’t want Barack Obama to be president and who would take violent measures to accomplish this. Let’s make sure his kids aren’t seen as softer targets by those who call them “satanic spawn”. Malia and Sasha’s school should not be the battleground for adult conflict. This needs to be nipped in the bud NOW. And if you’re in the DC area today, I hope you will consider counter-protesting to make sure Sasha and her friends know there are adults who know that this behavior is wrong and should be stopped immediately.