Is it Possible for our Amendments to be stretched too far?

As Americans we are given so many freedoms that most countries dream of having.  The sad part of this is that we often times take these freedoms for granted.  Just this week the U.S. Supreme Court voted 8-1 in defending freedom of speech for the Westboro Baptist Church.  Now, the name “Westboro Baptist Church” may not sound too harmful, but when they have a website with the web address www.godhatesfags.com  that puts them in a totally different light.  Now right now their website is not running, from what I read, it has been hacked so they took it down.  But the short description of this church is lead by Fred Phelps and they picket gay and military funerals.  They carry signs saying “God hates the U.S.A.,” “Thank God for 9/11” and even “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”  According to Yahoo News, the case started when the family of slain Marine, Matthew Snyder, sued the church “for intentionally inflicting emotional distress after they picketed at his funeral.” Also stated in the article, “As appalling as most Americans would find these protests, the Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision found that the picketers could not be successfully sued because the protests were protected by the First Amendment.”

Now the Supreme Court’s ruling wasn’t supporting what this man and his followers are saying and doing at these funerals but they are saying that it is their American right to do so.  Now, I completely do not agree with what this group of people is saying at all.  There are men and women dying every day for these people’s freedoms and how do they return the favor, they picket their funerals.  It’s actually rather frustrating to think about.  But Fox News published another interesting article titled “Why the Supreme Court Decision of Westboro Baptist Church Challenges Us All.”  The following statement came straight from the article.  “It would be far easier to ban the protests by Westboro, and certainly more comforting in the short term, at least.  But, it may be that the Supreme Court has done us all a favor by taking that easy road.  In making an unpopular ruling, they are offering us all an opportunity to strengthen those laws which keep it from being abused, and strengthen our commitments to each other both as citizens and as neighbors.”

That statement is absolutely true.  I am not saying this will be easy.  But if we do our best to stop reacting to the church’s decisions, we will stop fueling their fire as much as we have been.  And with resources such as the Patriot Guard Riders who put themselves between the family of the fallen and the picketers to try and help ease the family’s distress, we can severely narrow this group’s goals of upsetting these families more than they already have.  They were granted their freedom of speech, so we are also entitled to expressing our freedoms of speech as well.  As upsetting as the ruling was, it is fair.   But instead of complaining and being mad about it, we might as well just put our foot down when it comes to dealing with them.  Then we can show them how we really feel about expressing our sacred freedoms.