abra KADAVER

I agree that protesting at funerals is really disrespectful… just to throw this out there, the Westboro Baptist Church makes me feel sick to my stomach and I sincerely hope that bad things befall them.

However, we must still look at this objectively. Laws should be based on what’s right and wrong, not what people dislike.

It is the constitutional right of those crazy uber-religious freaks, as Americans, to protest (within a certain distance, within regulations, yadayadayada) just as much as it’s your right to have that funeral. I think it’s jacked up that people do it, too, but just because people view something to be jacked up, that doesn’t justify making it illegal. People have the right to peacefully assemble and protest. As long as they don’t cause a disturbance (by what the law defines as a disturbance, NOT by what John Q. Public defines as a disturbance) or harm another person (no, having hurt feelings does not count as being harmed), they’re exercising their right to protest.

Now, I’m not condoning protesting at military funerals. I think it’s very disrespectful and immature. So to anyone who reads this, before you jump down my throat about how your dad or uncle is in the military and you hate me for being objective and blah, blah, blah…read those two sentences.

My point in this is that just because something is disrespectful, or upsetting, or mean-spirited, that does not justify making it unlawful to commit that act. If I want to stand on a street corner with a sign that reads “I HATE RELIGION, AND ANYONE WHO BELIEVES IN GOD”, I’m sure that many people would be very offended by said sign. HOWEVER, that does not justify my government making it illegal for me to stand on that street corner with that sign. If you’re a lawful citizen of the United States of America, you have the right to free speech. There are regulations concerning “time, place and manner restrictions” (such as schools being able to tell students they can’t use profanity), imminent danger (such as the fact that you legally can’t yell “BOMB” at an airport), etc., but there are no clauses that state “You have the right to free speech UNLESS it makes someone angry or upset”.

Laws should be made on the basis of protecting people from being physically harmed, exploited, or otherwise. If we made anything that caused hurt feelings illegal, people wouldn’t be able to move without fear of being arrested. Laws simply cannot be made based on someone being offended.

There are a lot of things that I positively, absolutely, without-a-doubt hate seeing people do. These things include being religiously intolerant, driving slowly in the left lane, standing in the middle of an open walkway, and knocking something over without picking it up. Now, simply because these things cause me to fall into a rage, that does not justify my government, city, state, or national, making them illegal. I realize that these are smaller scale, in some peoples’ eyes, than protesting at a military funeral, but they are of the same vein. Either way, it would be making something illegal on the basis that it upsets someone. By that logic, okay, let’s make atheism illegal. After all, it makes Christians upset.

My point is that just because someone is doing something upsetting or disrespectful, that does not warrant taking away their constitutional rights. America was founded with the idea of liberty. How are we any better than a totalitarian government if we take away the right to protest? First it’ll be that right, then free speech, then another right, then another, and so on.

I sincerely hope to never see a day where the government can EVER take away constitutional rights. Protesting at the funerals may be horrible in some peoples’ eyes, but that does not change the fact that rights are rights. No matter who’s using them.