Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Freedom of Speech vs Human Decency

On Thursday family members of nine year old Christina Green will hold a funeral service for the little girl who was gunned down by Jared Lee Loughner this past Saturday.  The nation will join the family in mourning the senseless loss of this young child’s life.
That is except for the members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka Kansas.  They plan to picket the funeral.  Why?   CNN reports that a flier released by the church about the protest targets the Roman Catholic Church because Christina and her family are members. They plan on staging protests at the funerals of the other Loughner shooting victims as well. 
The Westboro Baptist Church is known for its’ extreme stance against gays, Jews, Christians, blacks, soldiers and the American government.  They have held protests at funerals all across the country and most recently sent members to protest at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.
The church members state that as long as they assemble legally and peacefully they are simply excising their right to free speech as provided by the Constitution.
Unfortunately the Constitution does not address the need for compassion and human decency at this time of terrible loss.        

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