On the Sunday of June 12, 2016, America rose from its bed to discover that 49 people had been gunned down in Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida by the 29 year old monster Omar Mateen. With the shooter dead and remaining evidence being secondhand and speculative, there is still debate about whether this tragic event -- the worst mass shooting in American history -- was a terrorist attack or a hate crime. However, that is not the discussion I want to weigh in on. I want to talk about the after effects of this massacre, specifically the Westboro Baptist Church's (WBC) move to protest the funerals of two victims who were murdered at Pulse that night.
For most people, I would hope, the WBC evokes a strong feeling of resentment and disgust whenever their colorful signs appear on the horizon spouting ignorant statements about victims deserving to die, God being mocked, and using the most eloquent vocabulary to describe the type of people God “hates.” However, it is their specific brand of ignorance and hate that gives me hope for the American people and American society as a whole, because their movement to protest the funerals of two victims sparked a counter-protest against the WBC.
Volunteers from the Orlando Shakespeare Theater as well as the Orlando arts community worked together to build giant angel wings along with white robes to wrap around and protect the services from the WBC. The counter-protestors also started singing "Amazing Grace," among other songs to drown out the hate speech.
The counter-protest is what actually gives me hope for our society. The WBC gives hatred, ignorance, and bigotry a true and honest face in America, but what cools my anger is the fact that they are a minority. Random strangers and citizens who believed that the dead should be allowed a peaceful rest and that hatred and bigotry would not disturb their funerals: these are decent and regular people, these are the people who represent the majority in America. They represent its ideals and its good-natured belief that we as citizens must lend a helping hand to our neighbors, not a judging eye. So while the Westboro Baptist Church is fueled by hatred, it also fuels its own opposition by promoting love, acceptance, tolerance, and camaraderie in the rest of American society. That is why the WBC makes me optimistic, because in an America willing to come together to stand up to ideals like hatred and bigotry, which run counter to what the nation was founded on... well, there just might be hope for it yet.
