FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Funeral Pickets
Let me get the record straight right from the start of this blog: I'm not anti-American or anti-freedom or even necessarily anti-Christian but what I will say is that there's something seriously wrong with the society that's developing across the pond, where many of our cousins in the USA do some things that are just beyond any rational thought.
Take Pastor Fred Phelps, of Kansas: a baptist minister who organises rallies to picket the funerals of those who have been unlucky enough to die of HIV Aids. Among his supporters at these events are people who hold up signs reading "Fags will burn in hell", "No fags in Heaven", "AIDS CURES FAGS" etc. Micheal Moore produced a short film on this subject, part of which can be seen on YouTube at this URL :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33-_9nOX8KM
The top and bottom of it is this - the likes of Phelps hold themselves up in high esteem, preaching to the masses about morality, of course with a heavy undercurrent of Republican, evangelical Christian, far-right American nationalism. This individual has no consideration for the loved ones of those who's funerals he and his supporters invade, spreading messages of hatred rather than words of love and compassion that we commonly associate with followers of the Christian faith. One such follower is captured at the beginning of Moore's movie with the following words of wisdom for its viewers :
Nice. I'm sure these sentiments do a great deal to comfort the grieving family of Matthew Shepherd, who's funeral was met by anti-homosexual protestors, one of whom held up a banner outside the churchyard reading "MATT IN HELL". What is going through these people's minds I really don't know!
And all this happening in a country that supposedly holds up the freedoms, liberties and rights for all, no matter what their background, colour, sexuality etc. This coming from a country that invaded the nation of Iraq, allegedly in the hope of bringing these very freedoms and a newly formed American culture of liberty to a nation that did not invite its occupation, under the pretext of saving the world from Saddam Hussain's nuclear capabilities. This from a nation that holds by far the world's largest arsenal of nuclear warheads and is the only country ever to have used them in war - twice in fact. A country that continues to hold people on a Cuban island for periods calculated in years rather than months or days, without ever charging them or allowing them a trial (let alone a fair one). A country that this week witnessed three separate incidents of fatal shootings within its schools, one of which has, thus far, resulted in the deaths of five innocent children. A country that continues to use the death penalty against its most serious criminal offenders and yet has one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.
The list of atrocities taking place in America or by the American government and some of its people goes on and on, and yet we, the rest of the world, are supposed to look to this nation as the peacekeeping, righteous and fair governors of our planet. I and many likeminded people, including millions of American citizens, really don't see it. Yes, the USA is a truly magnificent country but bubbling just beneath its surface there is a seething mass of social and cultural dissatisfaction that is getting ever more unstable by the day.
Take Pastor Fred Phelps, of Kansas: a baptist minister who organises rallies to picket the funerals of those who have been unlucky enough to die of HIV Aids. Among his supporters at these events are people who hold up signs reading "Fags will burn in hell", "No fags in Heaven", "AIDS CURES FAGS" etc. Micheal Moore produced a short film on this subject, part of which can be seen on YouTube at this URL :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33-_9nOX8KM
The top and bottom of it is this - the likes of Phelps hold themselves up in high esteem, preaching to the masses about morality, of course with a heavy undercurrent of Republican, evangelical Christian, far-right American nationalism. This individual has no consideration for the loved ones of those who's funerals he and his supporters invade, spreading messages of hatred rather than words of love and compassion that we commonly associate with followers of the Christian faith. One such follower is captured at the beginning of Moore's movie with the following words of wisdom for its viewers :
"Aids, rotten, dying, spotted faggots are organising under the banner of 'gay
rights'. We have nothing but hate and contempt for these people."
Nice. I'm sure these sentiments do a great deal to comfort the grieving family of Matthew Shepherd, who's funeral was met by anti-homosexual protestors, one of whom held up a banner outside the churchyard reading "MATT IN HELL". What is going through these people's minds I really don't know!
And all this happening in a country that supposedly holds up the freedoms, liberties and rights for all, no matter what their background, colour, sexuality etc. This coming from a country that invaded the nation of Iraq, allegedly in the hope of bringing these very freedoms and a newly formed American culture of liberty to a nation that did not invite its occupation, under the pretext of saving the world from Saddam Hussain's nuclear capabilities. This from a nation that holds by far the world's largest arsenal of nuclear warheads and is the only country ever to have used them in war - twice in fact. A country that continues to hold people on a Cuban island for periods calculated in years rather than months or days, without ever charging them or allowing them a trial (let alone a fair one). A country that this week witnessed three separate incidents of fatal shootings within its schools, one of which has, thus far, resulted in the deaths of five innocent children. A country that continues to use the death penalty against its most serious criminal offenders and yet has one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.
The list of atrocities taking place in America or by the American government and some of its people goes on and on, and yet we, the rest of the world, are supposed to look to this nation as the peacekeeping, righteous and fair governors of our planet. I and many likeminded people, including millions of American citizens, really don't see it. Yes, the USA is a truly magnificent country but bubbling just beneath its surface there is a seething mass of social and cultural dissatisfaction that is getting ever more unstable by the day.
