Intolerable ignorance
OPINION
8
anopinionof
The members at Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) have a beef with America. Now they have a beef with Rockhurst High School. They think the nation and Rockhurst are soft on homosexuality, and express their opinions loudly by picketing events releated to or having members associated with the gay community. On Feb. 15, Rockhurst was » samlogan on the receiving end of one of these protests for their theater department’s production of the “Laramie Project,” a true story based on the murder and hate crime of a homosexual male at the University of Wyoming in 1998. And because of that, now I have a beef with the members of the Westboro Baptist Church. “When I saw for sure that our production was on their picket schedule, I couldn’t help but feel a little offended that the name of Rockhurst High School was on a website that is so hateful,” Annie Barney, the play’s director, said. “It was then that I realized what a presence Rockhurst and our theater program has in the community.” The picket, just one of many from the Topeka-based congregation was a “Love Crusade,” for, according to a press release from the WBC, the story’s main character, Matthew Shepard, “was a runny-nosed little druggedup faggot trolling for perverted sex in a Cowboy Bar, in Wyoming! At midnight! He got his silly self killed. This is stupidity — not heroism.” Sure wasn’t. He was a homosexual male. Nothing more. The church’s spokeswoman and third of the minister Fred Phelps’ eight daughters, Shirley, was at the picket sporting signs reveling in the recent death of actor Heath Ledger. His sin? Portraying a cowboy in a movie. Not like Roy
Phelp’s protest of Rockhurst’s ‘Laramie Project’ exemplifies reverend’s twisted values
Rogers or Gene Autry, though. The cowboy he played in Brokeback Mountain was gay. That’s all. Her message, along with the rest of her family’s at Rockhurst was the same: “Matthew Shepard was gay and because of that he is in hell.” I bet. This mindset is nothing new, as the Phelps have picketed events across the nation, spreading what they believe is God’s message. “You almost can’t get mad at them because they’re so ignorant,” senior Stephen Gaughan said. “I just wanted to go to spite them and help sell out the show. That was the important part.” And Barney agreed. So did the Rockhurst students… Just everyone but Fred and his holy haters. “At first, [the Rockhurst students] were understandably fired up. They were well aware of the WBC and its activities, so I think the response at first was that they wanted to put the WBC ‘in its place,’” Barney said. “When it finally sank in to them that this protest was a direct response to something important happening at the school, they began to re-think their plans. I think it ignited their pride in being a member of a school community that would take on such exposure.” Exposure. Something the Phelps didn’t get that night. Fox 4 didn’t come. No, neither did KCTV5, nor was Johnny Rowlands up above for News Chopper 9. Just the Westboro clan and their signs. They left early that night, presumably for that lack of media attention. The only person who cared to do anything about them coming was Mother Nature. And clearly she was put out with them, too. And now maybe my presumptions about them leaving early are ill-conceived and perhaps the little Phelps children they brought to picket with them were just cold. Hate makes everyone colder. Clearly it’s already in their blood. Inside, though, the Phelps were being ignored, the show was about to start and the theater was sold out.
The perfect counter-protest for a lowly picket. “Part of the point of doing this play is for a community to join together and examine the values that may lead to such violence and intolerance.” Barney said. “We are all part of this community, no matter what individual values we hold, so attending the performance is a way of saying that you want to be a part of that group experience. It sent a definite signal: ‘We are Rockhurst, and we support this production.’” But the Phelps couldn’t let it go without having to be seen. The WBC just had to spread its homophobic and hate-oriented messages to all those who passed on State Line, even though they were echoed right back at them. This concept of a “love crusade” by the church has reached its pinnacle and it’s time for it to end. Legislation must be passed to keep these pickets away from such events, subduing all capabilities Phelps and his followers have of spreading their word of hate, homophobia and misguidance. Ahem, I mean, “God’s grace.” Sorry. Until then, if legislation of that sort is ever passed, the WBC needs to refrain from being near our soldier’s funerals, stepping foot on my rival high school’s groundsand spreading harsh and crude views into our communities. The communities that we grow up in, where our kids will do the same and where the essence of peace is the ice cream man coming down the street, not being called a fag by a church. These communities, like Rockhurst’s, came together as, are where the morals America are based off of. The Westboro congregation says our nation is doomed, but without America they wouldn’t be able to do what they do. Rev. Phelps, if you hate America so much, feel there is something wrong with everyone outside of your cozy, upside-down-American Flag-flying Topeka compound, seek the need to shun those involved with a high school’s theatrical performance, and most of all feel that our country is doomed… Then why wouldn’t you leave?
Separation of SPORT and STATE
Congressional intervention with MLB’s steroid problem unnecessary
anopinionof
3
march 2008
There used to be a time in sports when if an athlete cheated, he was rightfully punished by his sport. In today’s age of long, dramatic press conferences, endless steroid accusations, and just as many lies, individual league suspensions apparently aren’t enough. Congress now has to step in. What used to be America’s favorite pastime is now being » mikehake regulated by America’s 110th Congress, and it’s wrong. After New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens was mentioned 82 times in December’s infamous Mitchell Report, sports fans have seen arguably the greatest pitcher alive have his name dragged through the mud and backed over by a semi. On Feb. 13, two months after the Mitchell Report was released, Clemens appeared before Congress, denying that he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. The fact that he even testified before Congress about cheating in baseball is ridiculous. I’m just as against the use of steroids as the next guy, but it should be up to the MLB to enforce punishments for the use of banned
substances. Congress has no business sanctioning professional sports. Barry Bonds, the poster boy of what will go down as the MLB’s steroid era, was indicted on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice on Nov. 15, after the presence of anabolic steroids was found in past drug tests. He, like Jones, faces serious jail time if convicted. Bonds tainted the sport of baseball and possibly a whole era of sports when he broke the all-time home run record last summer, and I hate him for that. But he doesn’t deserve prison time. He deserves exactly what he’s already in line for: about 40 more years of being the biggest fraud in sports history, a personal hell in itself. If Bonds, Clemens or any professional athlete is found to be using performance-enhancing drugs, he should be banned from the league. Period. The steroids problem in sports, especially baseball, will never end unless the MLB, not Congress, starts cracking down. The MLB’s current steroid policy was put in place in Nov. 2005, and suspends a player 50 games for a first positive test, 100 games for a second, and a lifetime ban from the league for a third. That policy is still too lenient. Congress is taking the action that they are because
they feel the excessive steroid use will corrupt a younger generation and turn today’s youth into steroid abusers, a respectable reason, no doubt. This is still MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s crusade, though. He needs to save his sport’s future by ruling with an iron fist, and enforcing a zero-tolerance policy on steroids. If players think they have a decent shot at getting away with using performance enhancers, some players will always use them and the biggest problem sports faces today will never end. If he would enforce the policy, Congress wouldn’t have to. Even if Congress does find Clemens or Bonds guilty and doles out what they believe to be a fair punishment, they still have much bigger worries than what’s happening in professional sports. Worry about the war that has cost taxpayers $357 billion, Washington. Or maybe our $14 trillion economy that’s supposedly falling into a recession. Let Selig worry about the MLB. Do your own job. Both Clemens and Bonds’ cases are still in limbo, as they’ll probably remain for some time. Someday, though, fair or unfair, Congress will take their action. If that action ends up being jail time, they better stay out of the prison leagues. I’d hate to imagine the consequences for cheating there.