All you need is love

[gilana]

I went to the counter-protest against Fred Phelps and his God Hates Fags loonies at CRLS today. I gave a lot of thought as to whether it would be better to go, or to just ignore the whole thing and not give them the attention they were looking for. In an ideal world, maybe that would be the way to go -- to show them they're so unimportant that we don't even have to acknowledge them.

But the look on the faces of the high school kids as they saw a huge group of adults marching in with signs and music to join them made me feel like I made the right choice. They were obviously surprised and touched to get so much support from the outside community. I said to one of them "We've got your backs", and the smile on his face is something I won't soon forget. The mayor of Cambridge spoke, as did one of the many clergy members in the group. In the end, between our group on the school grounds and the matching crowd across the street, most of us could barely see the protesters when they finally arrived, and anything they may have been yelling was easily drowned out by our cheers.

I feel badly for what this must have done to the school day -- the window overlooking our area was filled with both students and teachers, looking on and holding up supportive signs (ok, that part was just the students), and I doubt much of the curriculum got followed today. But I hope they learned some more important lessons -- that love beats hate any day, that we need to stand together in the face of intolerance, and that adults do think that kids matter.

The Phelps-a-thon raised $3,680, and it's not too late to contribute!

Comments

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a pretty meaningful rally.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I already donated. Glad they made so much money. It's neat that the locals outnumbered the loonies. Wish I could have been there.

[minkrose]

I can understand why ignoring the Phelps people is a "good" idea in the sense that protesting them does feed into their neediness... but I think it is more important to show support to younger folks. It can be a lot harder to shrug off something like that when the hate comes from adults.

Yay!

[dpolicar]

Good for you! And for the kids. That sounds like a wonderful reason to counterprotest.

[archiveninja.livejournal.com]

You rock hardcore.

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

I had not heard of the God Hates Fags website. I thought it was a joke, because... how could it not be. I'm sad it's real.

But I'm glad y'all turned it into something constructive. And yes, I think counter-protesting was the right plan. The students clearly appreciated it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/urban_faerie_/]

THANK YOU GILLY!

Actually, most of the kids returned to school for 3rd period and the day went on as normal. Our kids are good like that.

I'd actually like to give a shout out to the Cambridge po-po who were all over campus, posted at every door making sure nobody bothered the kids.

As one teacher said, "they tried to cut us down but they have only made us a stronger community" :)

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Thank you for being there.