Lost in all the drama over the Tucson shooting episode was a small, hateful side-show that never received much publicity, and rightly so. It seems that "The Hate Church of Topeka" a/k/a the Westboro Baptist Church (the church that pickets military & gay funerals with their hate messages) announced to certain media outlets that its members were planning to picket the funeral of Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl who was slain during the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords.
In order to head off another ugly and hateful campaign by the Westboro Baptist Church and its members, two radio stations – one in the Tucson area and another in Canada offered the Westboro Church free airtime in exchange for Westboro's promise to stay away from Christina's funeral.
The church accepted the offer, but made no promise regarding federal Judge John Roll's funeral. In fact, members of the Westboro church planned to picket at both the judge's funeral and outside the Safeway Food Market where the shooting took place.
While I appreciate and applaud the motivations of the radio stations in wanting to do everything in their power to enable the family and friends of Christina Taylor Green to grieve in peace, it really irks me that the Westboro church would hold a family and a nation hostage to their evil and hate-filled messages.
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