MY NEW HERO
Brandon, MS
As a writer/blogger, I’m a big proponent of the 1st Amendment. The freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the 1st Amendment gives me and others like me to express ourselves as we see fit. Broadcasting my thoughts and opinions may not always seem like a good thing, but freedom is always a VERY good thing.
It’s with some trepidation, then, that I applaud the good folks of Brandon, MS. When confronted with the prospect of the funeral of a local Marine being protested by the Westboro Baptist Church, the people of Brandon were determined to make a difference. Yes, the Supreme Court recently upheld the right of the hateful WBC trolls to protest funerals (it is a free speech issue, after all). Still, the folks in Brandon knew that they couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. It involved some strategically-parked county trucks blocking a few cars with Kansas plates, and making sure that all the tow trucks in Rankin County were…uh, “busy.” It’s a beautiful story…even though one could argue that the strategy was borderline illegal. Nonetheless, it did make for a peaceful funeral, and the WBC trolls got schooled. Sometimes, civil disobedience can be a beautiful thing, no?
OK, so perhaps in a legal sense one shouldn’t condone this sort of passive resistance. No one got hurt, the WBC trolls were shut down, and the good folks of Brandon showed what organized civil disobedience can do. Not that anyone remembered seeing anything, of course….
