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| Braedon and Charlie Powell |
Charlie Powell was seven years old; his brother Braedon was only five. Their mother went missing and is now presumed dead, killed by their father. The same father who killed them this week in a murder-suicide.
A memorial service will be held for them today.
You would think that a horrific tragedy like this would stop the world’s madness if only for a moment but you would be wrong. The funeral of these two little boys will be the scene of even more insanity in a world where too many people have no respect for anything beyond their extreme and twisted objectives.
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| Westboro Baptist Church protesters |
The Westboro Baptist Church will protest the memorial service of these two little boys to advance their own political agenda. They will protest to “remind Governor Chris Gregoire that these little boys died because of her rebellion” in reference to her support of gay marriage. To ensure that this memorial service will turn into a complete circus of the self-righteous, Occupy Seattle plans to protest Westboro’s protest. They claim they don't want to disrupt the service, merely protect it from the Westboro protest. What unadulterated hypocrisy!
It isn’t just self-indulgent sanctimony that drives them, it is cynical opportunism. Westboro knows the memorial service will draw large media coverage and attention. What better opportunity to garner attention for their pathetic cause? This is the same group of self-righteous hypocrites that protest the funerals of American soldiers who died in combat and Occupy is right there with them. Desperate to try to present themselves as the defenders of righteousness, Occupy Seattle will clamour for the same media attention by once again doing exactly what they are protesting against.
Every day, I read tweets and blog posts and media commentary decrying the state of things today. People are angry that their society is crumbling and quick to blame and accuse. The anger is palpable and the hatred for the opinions of others is like a cancer eating away at what once made this democracy one of the freest in the world.Chrysler ran a commercial with Clint Eastwood during the Super Bowl in an attempt to encourage Amerians to remember who they are as a people and what it is that made them a great nation. The response was criticism and sneering at both Clint Eastwood and Chrysler. There is no time for thinking now; there is only time for anger, suspicion and cynicism.
Too many throw around words like tyranny and oppression, treason and traitor. It is a country filled with people protesting that they are being treated like slaves and they’re right. But it isn’t politicians or greedy corporations that enslave them. It is hatred and intolerance but not hatred for a common external enemy but for their neighbours and other citizens with whom they don’t agree but who have the same rights and freedoms or should have.
What is happening at a memorial service for two little boys is disgraceful made all the more so because no one will defend the right of the family of these two little boys to hold their memorial in peace. Fanatics and opportunistic activists will demand their right to protest be respected while virtually everyone will ignore the right of the family to grieve in peace.
The world today has no time for decency but it will make time to defend the right of the zealots to use that memorial service for their own, tawdry purposes.
This is not what the founders intended or foresaw when they wrote the Constitution. They envisioned the birth of a great nation of people working together in liberty, tolerance and mutual respect. They would be ashamed to see how so many have cheapened and disgraced the ideals they set forth in the document they wrote.
There is nothing Christian in the actions of Westboro Baptist Church. They, like extremists from all religions, have perverted the teachings and tenets of their faith to match their own prejudiced and twisted beliefs. There is nothing American in the actions of either Westboro or Occupy who pervert the very concepts of democracy and freedom upon which the United States was founded.
Sadly, Westboro and Occupy Seattle are not unique. They are merely representative of what can only be described as a growing and perverted madness; a madness that today will desecrate the memories of two little boys.
Four children die each and every day from abuse in the United States but nobody talks about it much. Everyone is too busy saving whales at Marineland, protesting SOPA and each other while advancing their own agenda of accusation, blame and outright hatred.
There is no time to be concerned that children suffer every day without much notice. and because there isn't, today, the memory of two children will be used by those with no values. They will get away with it because their actions will be ignored by those who believe their own values are beyond reproach.
There is no time to be concerned that children suffer every day without much notice. and because there isn't, today, the memory of two children will be used by those with no values. They will get away with it because their actions will be ignored by those who believe their own values are beyond reproach.
It is not a day of which anyone should feel proud.
LINKS
The News Tribune: Westboro Church to picket Powell children memorial service
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