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The Fred Phelps Freak Show
The Fred Phelps freak show.
As the first funerals begin in Tucson today, the family, friends and people of Arizona were at least spared one further agony. The Fred Phelps freak show did not come into town.
The Fred Phelps freak show is also known as Westboro. There is more to the title, but I refuse to call them a Baptist Church because they are neither Baptist, nor are they a church. Baptists are some pretty nice people and I would not want them or churches associated with the Fred Phelps freak show in any way.
Tucson’s reprieve came about because two talk show hosts offered to give time to members of the freak show if they would not picket the funerals. Arizona rushed through emergency legislation to keep them at least 300 feet away from the funerals and Tea Party groups were mobilizing to create human barriers to save the families of the victims any further grief.
In all of the discussions about Fred Phelps, there are two facts that are left out. First,Phelps is a media whore. Second,he is a bully.
In the era of news where, “if it bleeds, it leads,” the Phelps freak show is tailor made for the evening news. With their outrageous signs and the raw emotions at these funerals, it is a tinderbox just waiting for a spark.
Fred Phelps would be quickly relegated to obscurity if the media just decided to collectively ignore him. He suddenly was in the news when the freak show sent out a press release saying they were coming to Tucson. If the media would ignore him, he would eventually slither back into the sewer from whence he came.
Phelps in the end is a bully. He picks on people at their lowest moments. He picks on people who will not fight back. That is the problem.
Most of us have stories of dealing with bullies when we were children. Here is mine. I was in the fifth grade, when a kid who was a little older and a lot bigger decided to pick on me. He pushed me around, then picked me up in a bear hug and slung me over his shoulder. I leaned over and bit him as hard as I could in his back. He screamed, and then dropped me. When he did, I turned around and hithim as hard as I could. I don’t know if I bloodied his nose, but I know this, he never bothered me again.
Over the last fifty years, this country has progressed in so many ways and most people would say we are clearly better now than we were fifty years ago. One way we are not is in our tolerance of bad behavior.
Fifty years ago, had Phelps tried something like this, he would be met by not only the police, but also the men of the community he was going to. The police would make sure things did not get out of hand and then politely look the other way while the men of the community educated Phelps on his bad manners.
When Phelps got out of the hospital, he would not do itagain.
We need to remember, Fred Phelps is nothing but a bully and someone needs to figure out the way to deliver the figurative bloody nose to him. Only then, will the Fred Phelps freak show fade away into long overdue obscurity.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ken B on -
Rolling Thunder, a group of bikers, meets him in my state. The cops say he wants someone to assault him and his inbred group so he can sue them and pay his bills. The bikers get between the inbreds and the mourners and if the inbreds make noise by shouting, they are drowned out by motorcycle engines.
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Permalink Reply by J Neil Jednoralski, P.E. on -
Are you in Kansas? Let me know if you need help.
Somehow WE need to stop the Freak Shop.
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Permalink Reply by Pat Chadwell on
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As long as Berry was in AZ Fred Phelps would not show up... Also the local AZ bikers said if he showed up they would step in to help take control of them....In other words push them all out of town.....
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Permalink Reply by Rocky Venti on
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Send him up here to northern California. We will be glad to "welcome" him to the area...
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Permalink Reply by Pat Chadwell on
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Yep right in the middle of Shasta Lake would be a great place for them all...
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Permalink Reply by William C. Benedict on
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Or let them body surf the Salmon River, starting, say, at the headwaters of the East Fork of the South Fork, and from there all the way down to Orleans on the Klamath.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Reeves on -
Easy. Now we're getting into that "violent rhetoric" the left has been squalling about. Of course I agree with you, but we all have to play nice now, and watch what we say. Some liberal might see it and take offense.
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Permalink Reply by William C. Benedict on
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I did not say make them, I said let them. Body surfing in the Salmon River is not a bright thing to do, but then again, being satanic swine in the guise of Baptists isn't either. Maybe the experience would wake them up to a few things about life. I really doubt it, however, as we are repeatedly told in proverbs that Fools never learn.
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Permalink Reply by David J Edwards on -
Hey now! Have them start well downstream of the Middle Fork of the Salmon. That area is gorgeous.. don't need the upstream polluted with ghoulish trash. If you wanna pollute a river use the Columbia. Let 'em play with the sturgeons and eels. But this is a good time of year for them to go swimming. Tell 'em to jump right in and have a ball. Toss 'em a nice granite boogie-board to hold onto too.
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Permalink Reply by William C. Benedict on
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Wrong river. East Fork of South Fork of Salmon is in Siskiyou County, California. There is no Middle Fork . . . just North, South, and East of South. I said body surf, not boogie board. Enough granite in river to begin with, don't need to toss in more. How pathetic of you denigrating those ghouls that way. Even ghouls have a legitimate purpose and they are not at all trashy. Trash comes from fools and ghouls ain't fools. Now this fellow Phelps and his followers . . . there are the fools. Very satanic ones, at that.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Tabib on
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It can't just be about drowning out the noise. It needs to be about making the noise go away. These people have no respect for human life and there needs to be something that can be done outside of violence to make this stop.
© 2012 Created by Judson Phillips.
