“Anger ventilated often hurries toward forgiveness; and concealed often hardens into revenge.” -Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

On March 26, 2006 I wrote the first entry on this site. As I have said before, we started this site to put a light on issues that we cared about, to focus on things that went unnoticed by major news outlets, and as a sounding board for our hopes and fears. We also started this site as a way to stay close to one another. I think we succeeded in all of those things. Maybe, it wasn’t to the degree that we initially wanted, but it was still a success.

The last entry I wrote was on January 17, 2009. I just stopped writing. I was burnt out. Burnt out on stories that focused on the right or the left; stories that focused on this group of people versus that group of people. I was completely and totally apathetic. I no longer cared about my pet causes. I could read horrific article after horrific article; it wouldn’t even awake an inkling or sympathy. This site quit giving me the things I needed so I repaid it in kind. And, I stepped away.

And, now? Now I’m angry. I’m angry at the way my life is going, and myself. I’m angry at the people saying I have no right to be angry. Because, I’m so angry at personal stuff with no outlet… that is making me angry at everyone and everything else. I’ve also used the word angry too many times in this paragraph, maybe I should move on. So now, I need the site again. I need a place to voice this before I turn into an ugly person.

The best way to start this (in my opinion) is to dive right back in. Now it is no secret how I feel about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, but just in case you are new here… you can read my previous article HERE. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Everyone caught up? Good. So the WBC had announced their plans to protest at a local funeral of a young service man. Naturally outrage kicked in. “Who the hell is this church”, “Just what do they think they are doing.”, and “Let’s show them what a protest really is”, were common comments. I mean, fine whatever, outrage is actually a good thing here. Somewhere along the way it turned into a circus. One person I used to consider a friend even made signs to sell for the day. But, in all that time people forgot what this really should have been about. It should have been about that kid, his grieving family, and support for them. I won’t even get into how many people didn’t know he had died before this; nor, will I talk about how many had no idea who the WBC was.

In the end, the WBC didn’t show. Last night and today people were congratulating themselves on a job well done. They convinced each other that they had scared them off and that the church didn’t have the balls to come to “our” town. Are you fucking kidding me? This is the church that protested funerals for the victims in the Twin Towers. This pissy ass small town isn’t even a 16th of the numbers they’ve seen before. They have death threats sent to them daily, and they revel in it. No, what really happened is that they gave the “church” exactly what it wanted. Why breed chaos when this town did it for them? You didn’t come together as a community. You got off on the controversy and wanted to see it first hand.

You know what pisses me off most about this, though? Not a god damned thing will change. Everyone will forget about this church again. The next funeral WBC protests elsewhere… they won’t hear about. They won’t offer “support” again. It will be a story they tell around a drunken bonfire. They will keep deluding themselves into thinking they made a difference.

Until next time, I’m still pissed off.
autumn

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