I gotta hand it to my friend Mike Argento, a columnist at the York Daily Record, who was down at the US Supreme Court yesterday for the hearing in Snyder v. Phelps, the case of the Westboro Baptist Church and whether their penchant to hold up signs that say “God Hates Fags” at soldiers’ funerals constitutes a First Amendment right. God bless him, Argento can find the hilarity in just about anything.
In his column today, he perfectly captured the absurdity taking place on the courthouse steps. And I am officially in love with the onlookers who came to the hearing to bear witness and who stared into the faces of such ugliness and hatefulness and meanness and viciousness and they responded in the only sane way possible. They giggled:
Clark had come to watch it. He’s a staff sergeant in the Army Reserve, having served on active duty in Iraq, tours totaling 27 months. He lives in Lillington, N.C., near Fort Bragg.
“I think they should be out here,” Clark said. “They’re the biggest idiots in the world, and they’re out here showing everybody that they’re the biggest idiots in the world — and they have the right to do that. Isn’t that amazing? I served in the military to preserve their right to show everybody that they’re the biggest idiots in the world. “We should be thankful they aren’t suicide bombing. At least their craziness is limited to signs.”At one point, one the Phelpses turned to Clark and said, “You’re a fag and you’re going to hell.”“These guys,” Clark said, “they’re hilarious.”
Seriously. Read the entire column.
