Meade, Revisited
Jason Kuznicki on Aug 28th 2006
Yes, yes, I know, the kid from Kansas, of rainbow flag bed and breakfast fame, is just away with his relatives.
But the big news is that Fred Phelps showed up. (By the way, we recently got linked from godhatesfags.com; this would be big news except that 1. Phelps hates everyone, so it’s not like we’re special and 2. It’s best not to encourage them.)
The counter-protest was apparently much larger. Good for them.
Filed in The Bistro
I just checked out their site, where it describes me: “I’m a freak, who uses way too many words to say ‘I hate God.”’
Coming from them, I’ll take that as a complement.
What we need less of is comments like this from Katie Near:
Well, if you don’t want an image, you should be proactive in preventing the behavior. The fact that the people of Meade had to be told by a newspaper that a flag could be a symbol of homosexuality and that the default reaction was extortion, vandalism, and harassment says alot about the tacit approval of such bigotry in the town.
I’m sure Kati Near would sat that people just don’t talk or act that way about homosexuals, or at least they didn’t when she was growing up. We hear this kind of reaction from former residents of many towns now affiliated with spectacular acts of bigoted voices and actions all the time. But how often to these people accompany the lack of memories concerning outspoken bigotry with memories of outspoken anti-bigotry? Almost never.
There’s good reason we have such a solid stereotype for ’small town folk’ in the United States — because it seems to be true. It’s not healthy for any place to be a “small, quiet town/city/village.” Doesn’t it seem obvious there is a lot of conversational intolerance going on there? A lot of taboo?