☆-- ( Now the world can be an unfair place at times; )
I haven't posted in a while, but I heard this story on the news and feel the need to weigh in on it.
If you haven't heard, the gist is this: the United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday that fundamentalist church members can hold anti-gay protests outside of military funerals, because they are protected by the First Amendment. This is a country built on freedoms, true. But we have become so concerned about stepping on metaphorical toes that people can get away with practically anything. Certainly, people have the right to believe that homosexuality challenges their way of life, that homosexuals will convert their children and bring humankind to its knees when everyone ceases to procreate. It's as plausible as Scientology's belief that 75 million years ago, a space alien dropped people on earth and bombarded them with atomic bombs.
But this isn't a matter of what people believe. It's a matter of human decency.
That fundamentalists can't protest directly in front of the church is hardly a consolation. That they feel the need to protest at a funeral, where family and friends go to mourn the passing of a loved one, is a travesty. Were a funeral for one of their own disrupted in a similar fashion, I suspect they would be up in arms and declaring their right to peacefully mourn the dead. When it comes down to it, what they are doing is spitting on people's graves before the bodies are even in the ground.
Is it right to picket a funeral while holding signs declaring that God killed the deceased because s/he was homosexual? Is it right to hide behind the freedoms on which this country was founded, for something like that? Does it even matter why you believe a person died, in such a situation?
What sets us, as humans, apart from animals is our ability to reason. Our ability to make moral judgments. Our ability to think of our fellow men, and to realize that the last thing grieving friends and family need is a desecration of their loved one's funeral. What gives anyone the right to make such a moral faux pas?
The United States Supreme Court does, apparently.
If you haven't heard, the gist is this: the United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday that fundamentalist church members can hold anti-gay protests outside of military funerals, because they are protected by the First Amendment. This is a country built on freedoms, true. But we have become so concerned about stepping on metaphorical toes that people can get away with practically anything. Certainly, people have the right to believe that homosexuality challenges their way of life, that homosexuals will convert their children and bring humankind to its knees when everyone ceases to procreate. It's as plausible as Scientology's belief that 75 million years ago, a space alien dropped people on earth and bombarded them with atomic bombs.
But this isn't a matter of what people believe. It's a matter of human decency.
That fundamentalists can't protest directly in front of the church is hardly a consolation. That they feel the need to protest at a funeral, where family and friends go to mourn the passing of a loved one, is a travesty. Were a funeral for one of their own disrupted in a similar fashion, I suspect they would be up in arms and declaring their right to peacefully mourn the dead. When it comes down to it, what they are doing is spitting on people's graves before the bodies are even in the ground.
Is it right to picket a funeral while holding signs declaring that God killed the deceased because s/he was homosexual? Is it right to hide behind the freedoms on which this country was founded, for something like that? Does it even matter why you believe a person died, in such a situation?
What sets us, as humans, apart from animals is our ability to reason. Our ability to make moral judgments. Our ability to think of our fellow men, and to realize that the last thing grieving friends and family need is a desecration of their loved one's funeral. What gives anyone the right to make such a moral faux pas?
The United States Supreme Court does, apparently.