WBC
As a graduate of NIU I have a certain amount of Huskie pride. I was not a football goer or a basketball goer or even much of a anything goer at NIU.... unless you count Starbuster's, Molly's or Hall Council but no matter what school you attended you are going to have some good memories that you can thank the school for. Mine being the ability to speak out, make a stand, prove a point and hopefully become a well rounded individual which is what I think NIU helps to instill in all of their students. NIUs students HAVE to take gen-ed classes. This is required by the school, which many schools do not require, but NIU believes that this will produce graduates who have a basic knowledge of many subjects and be able to take them with them throughout their lives. I don't exactly see many people complaining about being able to add to any topic or conversation with having a education that allows them to do so.
When the shooting took place at NIU on Valentines day I was pretty oblivious to what had happened, being a graduate, at home, working full time. I had received 2 phone calls, which I did not answer due to the fact that I did not recognize the numbers. Strangely enough both of these numbers had left me voice mails. They were from people that work for NBC. I was firstly stumped as to why people from NBC were calling me and then they BOTH apologized for my loss and any hard times that I was going through and BOTH told me, "we understand that you were friends with Stephen (the shooter)" I FREAKED OUT! I hadn't seen any pictures or footage of anything and my heart started to race. I ran into my house after work and immediately got on Facebook .....everyones source for scholarly connection (for many.... social connection). I pulled up his Facebook page and had no idea who this kid was. I called one of the NBC reps back and left him a message letting him know that I had no idea who this guy was. He informed me that one of my previous residents, I was an RA, thought that I had been friends with Stephen and had given NBC my phone number.
When looking at Stephen's page I noticed that this guy only had 19 friends and roughly 17 of them were all from out of state. Now, Facebook records everything that each person does on Facebook and makes it visible to everyone that views that persons page.... unless that person deletes these notations before they can be seen. Well on Friday, the day after the shooting, about 8 of Stephen's 19 friends had added him as a friend. In order for this to have happened, Stephen had to have requested them. My guess is that he had just requested their friendship on Thursday. I assume this only because if someone requests to be my friend and I do not know who they are I delete the request immediately... however, some people want to have as many friends as possible and just accept friendships whenever they roll in.
Now, here is the sick part. I had been completely oblivious to this little group called the Westboro Baptist Church. I had never heard about them until they decided to start voicing their opinions about the NIU shooting. These psychos believe that god is angry with the world and with the United States because we are not taking a stand against homosexuality. I have a terrible understanding of religion and have a very hard time understanding how people, in our day and age, can believe in something that they personally can not see or touch BUT I also have a respect for people who believe in whatever they want. It takes a lot to have faith in something that is not tangible. I began researching this group. They preach hatred. They have signs, banners, posters, websites, with their beliefs that god hates the f word, that I hate (if you want to know which f word look them up I don't use it... and its probably not the one you're thinking. For those of you who know me, you know which word that is...I never say it and never will I hate that word with a passion, it is a horrible word. The members of the Westboro Baptist Church are all part of basically one family.
The leader, their father/grandfather, Fred Phelps is a priest and a lawyer. He is old as dirt, had 13 children, 3 of them passed away (he makes it known that he doesn't want to talk about his children either, some of them have chosen to have nothing to do with their family because they believe that what they preach is wrong - good for them). The rest of them all live together in a section of several houses that all back up to each other, they have had the fences removed from the back yards so that all of their children can play together, seeing as they have no friends due to their nazi beliefs.
The head child, Shirley has several children as well. She had her first born out of wedlock -sin- and has several other children who were born after the marriage. Fred (her father) beat the children when growing up. On several accounts he had them unconscious and moments away from death (I was unable to find out if the 3 that had past away were dead due to his abuse). Together they (the "church") go on pickets - across the US and across the world to tell everyone that the reason we are all being killed is due to our approval of homosexuality. They follow the pope and protest anything and everything he does, they protest churches, they protest funerals of our dead soldiers, they protest anything and everything possible. The reactions that they get from people can at times be...priceless - check www.youtube.com . People hate them, understandable. Their reaction, "Jesus was hated for the work that he did, and Jesus warned us that we will be hated as well for spreading his word, we knew that this is what would happen before we began" They are proud of it. They are proud of their hatred.
I went on their site, which I debated for a while because I would hate for them to feel good about getting one more "hit" on their site but I was curious about these people. One of the first things that I saw was a link to their picket schedule. The first 2 pickets listed ....for tomorrow...are 2 funerals for 2 girls that died at the NIU shooting. I could not believe it. Who, in their right mind, would celebrate something as horrific as this! How could anyone be thanking god, who I thought people looked at as a happy, forgiving, respectable religious figure. But this is what these sick fucks do. They believe that these acts are gods warning to the human race. They thank god for Katrina, the death toll in the war, the shootings at schools, terrorists, global warning. They think that these things are wonderful and are leading to the end of the world and man kind. These "people" bring their children to these pickets. I mean, 3-5 year olds, holding signs that say "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" - terrible, terrible signs. These people will be murdered...they are picketing where people are at their wits end and are able to snap at any moment and they will be killed.
Their safety is in the 1st amendment. Im not sure where we are supposed to draw the line with the amendment - maybe we need to look into an update??? They are not violent people they just have the right words to evoke enough upset to get the attention that they crave. I don't think there are words that could make them feel the way that we feel when we see their signs, sites (there are several), videos, etc.
People have been organizing silent protests. They protest protesters go and simply stand in front of the WBC. Block them out, as if they are not there. No one says anything, that would be giving them what they want. They just make them invisible. That is the only way. Their phone numbers are listed all over the place. People call and email them with their opinions, which do nothing. It doesn't make anyone feel better either. News broadcasters can not even hold in their opinions during interviews because these people are so hateful and will talk over anyone to have their points heard.
These "people" even went out of their way to go to the funeral of Heath Ledger to picket and preach their gruesome word. Half way around the world! Obnoxious. Ignorant. Selfish. Un-American. They are only slightly under 100 people total that are members of this "church." Not an army but enough to scare the crap out of me. To think that people can be so demented to think that this is OK. Im not sure how people like this have made it through time.... they protested the amish!!! Unstable.
I had to get that off my chest. I've been so upset about this all day. Pass the word. I have made this a public post.
After their protest at the NIU girls funerals the WBC will be headed to NYC to protest the pope. They will be at every function that he goes to while there. They call him a "whoremonger." Lovely ehh?
Disturbed and Unsettled.
.L.
When the shooting took place at NIU on Valentines day I was pretty oblivious to what had happened, being a graduate, at home, working full time. I had received 2 phone calls, which I did not answer due to the fact that I did not recognize the numbers. Strangely enough both of these numbers had left me voice mails. They were from people that work for NBC. I was firstly stumped as to why people from NBC were calling me and then they BOTH apologized for my loss and any hard times that I was going through and BOTH told me, "we understand that you were friends with Stephen (the shooter)" I FREAKED OUT! I hadn't seen any pictures or footage of anything and my heart started to race. I ran into my house after work and immediately got on Facebook .....everyones source for scholarly connection (for many.... social connection). I pulled up his Facebook page and had no idea who this kid was. I called one of the NBC reps back and left him a message letting him know that I had no idea who this guy was. He informed me that one of my previous residents, I was an RA, thought that I had been friends with Stephen and had given NBC my phone number.
When looking at Stephen's page I noticed that this guy only had 19 friends and roughly 17 of them were all from out of state. Now, Facebook records everything that each person does on Facebook and makes it visible to everyone that views that persons page.... unless that person deletes these notations before they can be seen. Well on Friday, the day after the shooting, about 8 of Stephen's 19 friends had added him as a friend. In order for this to have happened, Stephen had to have requested them. My guess is that he had just requested their friendship on Thursday. I assume this only because if someone requests to be my friend and I do not know who they are I delete the request immediately... however, some people want to have as many friends as possible and just accept friendships whenever they roll in.
Now, here is the sick part. I had been completely oblivious to this little group called the Westboro Baptist Church. I had never heard about them until they decided to start voicing their opinions about the NIU shooting. These psychos believe that god is angry with the world and with the United States because we are not taking a stand against homosexuality. I have a terrible understanding of religion and have a very hard time understanding how people, in our day and age, can believe in something that they personally can not see or touch BUT I also have a respect for people who believe in whatever they want. It takes a lot to have faith in something that is not tangible. I began researching this group. They preach hatred. They have signs, banners, posters, websites, with their beliefs that god hates the f word, that I hate (if you want to know which f word look them up I don't use it... and its probably not the one you're thinking. For those of you who know me, you know which word that is...I never say it and never will I hate that word with a passion, it is a horrible word. The members of the Westboro Baptist Church are all part of basically one family.
The leader, their father/grandfather, Fred Phelps is a priest and a lawyer. He is old as dirt, had 13 children, 3 of them passed away (he makes it known that he doesn't want to talk about his children either, some of them have chosen to have nothing to do with their family because they believe that what they preach is wrong - good for them). The rest of them all live together in a section of several houses that all back up to each other, they have had the fences removed from the back yards so that all of their children can play together, seeing as they have no friends due to their nazi beliefs.
The head child, Shirley has several children as well. She had her first born out of wedlock -sin- and has several other children who were born after the marriage. Fred (her father) beat the children when growing up. On several accounts he had them unconscious and moments away from death (I was unable to find out if the 3 that had past away were dead due to his abuse). Together they (the "church") go on pickets - across the US and across the world to tell everyone that the reason we are all being killed is due to our approval of homosexuality. They follow the pope and protest anything and everything he does, they protest churches, they protest funerals of our dead soldiers, they protest anything and everything possible. The reactions that they get from people can at times be...priceless - check www.youtube.com . People hate them, understandable. Their reaction, "Jesus was hated for the work that he did, and Jesus warned us that we will be hated as well for spreading his word, we knew that this is what would happen before we began" They are proud of it. They are proud of their hatred.
I went on their site, which I debated for a while because I would hate for them to feel good about getting one more "hit" on their site but I was curious about these people. One of the first things that I saw was a link to their picket schedule. The first 2 pickets listed ....for tomorrow...are 2 funerals for 2 girls that died at the NIU shooting. I could not believe it. Who, in their right mind, would celebrate something as horrific as this! How could anyone be thanking god, who I thought people looked at as a happy, forgiving, respectable religious figure. But this is what these sick fucks do. They believe that these acts are gods warning to the human race. They thank god for Katrina, the death toll in the war, the shootings at schools, terrorists, global warning. They think that these things are wonderful and are leading to the end of the world and man kind. These "people" bring their children to these pickets. I mean, 3-5 year olds, holding signs that say "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" - terrible, terrible signs. These people will be murdered...they are picketing where people are at their wits end and are able to snap at any moment and they will be killed.
Their safety is in the 1st amendment. Im not sure where we are supposed to draw the line with the amendment - maybe we need to look into an update??? They are not violent people they just have the right words to evoke enough upset to get the attention that they crave. I don't think there are words that could make them feel the way that we feel when we see their signs, sites (there are several), videos, etc.
People have been organizing silent protests. They protest protesters go and simply stand in front of the WBC. Block them out, as if they are not there. No one says anything, that would be giving them what they want. They just make them invisible. That is the only way. Their phone numbers are listed all over the place. People call and email them with their opinions, which do nothing. It doesn't make anyone feel better either. News broadcasters can not even hold in their opinions during interviews because these people are so hateful and will talk over anyone to have their points heard.
These "people" even went out of their way to go to the funeral of Heath Ledger to picket and preach their gruesome word. Half way around the world! Obnoxious. Ignorant. Selfish. Un-American. They are only slightly under 100 people total that are members of this "church." Not an army but enough to scare the crap out of me. To think that people can be so demented to think that this is OK. Im not sure how people like this have made it through time.... they protested the amish!!! Unstable.
I had to get that off my chest. I've been so upset about this all day. Pass the word. I have made this a public post.
After their protest at the NIU girls funerals the WBC will be headed to NYC to protest the pope. They will be at every function that he goes to while there. They call him a "whoremonger." Lovely ehh?
Disturbed and Unsettled.
.L.