For any who may still doubt that good can triumph over evil, I ask that you look at the audacious actions of the counter-protesters at two of Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) protests in Wichita, Kansas today.
The first protest was held at Wichita State University at 2:00 this afternoon. WBC did not announce where it was going to protest, perhaps out of fear of being immediately outnumbered by the inevitable counter protesters (us). That didn’t deter us though; we marched a mile along the busy 21st Street to greet them. It really was a spectacular sight to see! WBC situated itself on the southwest corner of 21st and Oliver and a group of what can be assumed was hundreds of counter protesters took position on the other three corners. It’s not much of an exaggeration that for the next few days, every time I hear a car honk its horn, I’ll start hooting an hollering out of a pavlovian response I developed while standing on the corner.
The most awe inspiring sight the whole afternoon was at the second site near Southeast High School. After seeing our counter protest pre-assembled at their original location, the Phelps Cult moved down a block and we had to go and bring the welcoming ceremony to that location. They had their own corner for a while until a large group of the high school students and college students protesting on the other side of the street bum-rushed the 9 Cult members who were there. This was probably illegal, but the dozen or so cops that were there couldn’t do much considering the hundreds of students that were there.
Good triumphed over evil today, and I’m truly proud of Wichita’s youth. For the Bible-thumping town it can be, there is a semblance of sanity in the town, and it overwhelmed the WBC protesters so much, I doubt the drivers cruising by had any idea why we were really out there because they couldn’t distinguish the hate signs from the love signs on the street corner.
Try to find the signs of hate in this massive sea of love.
Way to go Wichita! You done made me proud.