Fred Phelps - how it used to be done
The Reverend Fred Phelps is an odious little blemish on the ass-end of this planet.
He arranged a protest at the funeral of a Marine and there is a lawsuit going through the courts at this time -- Phelps will probably win as we still recognize individual's First Amendment rights.
A reader
emailed this to Jonah Goldberg:
There's another angle you are missing. The entire situation that Fred Phelps causes is purely a result of our legalistic society, where rather than deal with issues in a cultural manner, we resort to the ever more burdened courts.
To be blunt, in the days of my grandfather, a good sized group of men would have peeled off from the funeral, and informed Rev. Phelps he was not welcome within eyesight of the funeral, and that it was time for him to leave. Like, right now. If he didn't, then he would have been bodily removed, likely with a variety of lumps and bruises, from the scene and warned that if he returned, he would get a serious beating.
And nobody would have batted an eye. Any cops that were called would have exercised discretion, looked over the situation, and told Phelps "You had it coming, bub, beat it". Any judge that Phelps petitioned would have looked at the case, told Phelps he was a horses hind end, and tossed it out of court with prejudice.
However, that was in the days when the US had pretty much one culture. Sure, lots of variations, but in 1950 a jerk like Phelps would have gotten pretty much that reaction whether he was disrupting a Marine's funeral in Georgia, or Brooklyn, or California. Because in those days, most people believed in the same standards of behavior.
The sixties changed that. I can trace a direct line from the "Do Your Own Thing" of '68, to Phelps standing outside of a cemetery with "God Hates Fags" signs in 2009. By smashing cultural norms, the left moved simple disputes such as this from the cultural, low-level form of conflict resolution into the legal system. And so now we have the absurdity of a mentally disturbed man petitioning the Supreme Court for the "right" to disrupt military funerals.
Thanks a lot, hippies�
What they said...
Hat tip to Rick over at
Wizbang for the link.
Posted by DaveH at October 7, 2010 1:28 PM