Sportive Thoughts

solidarity, n: (1) a bond of unity between individuals, united around a common goal or against a common enemy; (2) willingness to give psychological and/or material support when another person is in a difficult position

The Westboro Baptist Church staged a "protest" in Chicago today, with a supposed appearance on The University of Chicago campus. I did not see them--even though I made a trip to the Quads!-- because their stay was so short lived. Almost as short lived as....

Anyway; what I did see was some great friendship and solidarity on campus. Because UC people are generally intelligent, they knew enough not to get riled. And because it's a special sort of intelligence in Hyde Park, the student community figured out a novel way to respond to WBC "protesting"

In the foreground is a collection of Q&A (Queers and Associates) members and friends; in the background is a contingent of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity acting fabulous. Today's otherwise boring event was made memorable by a loving embrace of diversity, celebrated by people who had far more pressing concerns than a half-dozen fanatics from Kansas.

Petitions were passed around, urging students, faculty, and staff to speak out against Proposition 8 in California, currently being argued in the State Supreme Court. "What will this petition do?" I asked, and the woman pictured gave a good explanation of the Court's hearing process (apparently, because the law is a public referendum, the public gets a prominent argumentative position during the trial). I don't think many other protesters would be so well prepared, so rational.

This is, after all, the general neighborhood of the current US President. They tend to do their homework around here.

But as I was saying, the most striking aspect of the student body today was its solidarity. I don't know what the intention of WBC is in their "protests"; by that, I mean, exactly what do they "bear witness" of? Two things here:

1. A "protest" is generally a public action falling under the rightful and just exercise of free speech. More specifically, the aim of a protest is generally to oppose a practice or state-of-affairs in a meaningful way, so as to change it.
2. To "bear witness" is to make oneself into a vessel for some kind of message or philosophy--usually religious. One who "bears witness" is not only observing God's message and work; one also carries or "bears" the message/philosophy in her public life. In times when the religious are routinely tortured and murdered, this becomes a particularly strenuous mission.

Now, it seems to me that WBC doesn't do well to merge points 1 and 2. Yes, they oppose most of contemporary American culture--but it is fruitless for them to expect their actions to change the country piecemeal. After all, they expect God to punish America. And this is where 2 comes in, albeit obliquely. This isn't even an issue dealing with the difficulties of interpreting the Bible blah blah blah. It's the fact that the one event that WBC claims is an act of oppression-- oppression of the kind a true religious figure might face-- was described by its perpetrator as "an immature and dangerous prank" and has very little record outside WBC's own trumpeting. (The man apparentely threw some kind of explosive at WBC property, causing damages. He pleaded guilty and recieved probation.)

In fact, WBC is funded almost entirely by litigation. The church includes much of founder Fred Phelps' family. Phelps founded a law firm whose principals are all members of the church. Therefore, every time WBC sues someone or their home town of Topeka for infringing on their "protest" rights, WBC wins a small sum of cash. Phelps' firm gains a sizeable sum of legal fees by representing the church its members are a part of, and the families involved with "protests" can sustain their lifestyle.

Back to the UC students, whose lifestyle was supposedly facing God's wrath today.

Students could have easily gotten upset and perhaps disruptive. UC is a raging liberal institution. After all, just look at the Law School, or the Economics department, or Public Policy, or Political Science. They're so liberal they don't even think twice about reading books.

But I digress; WBC may have expected to encounter fiercer resistence, from the squirrels perhaps, but instead they came up against a group of students, so stressed out by their decadent lifestyle, they wanted to have fun.

Shame on them.

Whatever Wesboro Baptist Church did today, it surely brought out some of the best on campus.

Why am I so impressed by a counter-protest to a group I don't otherwise care about and didn't even get to see during their short visit? Because I was bored, cold, disappointed there wasn't a big fracas, and then finally moved by the love and kindness that hate groups have the strange potential to inspire. This might have been one of the most successful protests I have witnessed, despite its brevity and overall low impact.