September 24, 2009: Vol. 32, No. 38

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September 24, 2009 / Perspective / Editorial

Editorial: Here’s how to beat those crazies from Kansas

The Brooklyn Paper

There are two main reactions that people have had to news that members of the virulently anti-gay, anti-Semitic Westboro Baptist Church are planning to picket outside three Brownstone Brooklyn synagogues on Saturday.

The first reaction is the political one — the calm words of our elected officials who urge everyone to remain peaceful and essentially ignore the protesters as they enjoy the very Constitutional rights that they would deny others.

Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID

The second reaction comes more from the gut — we Brooklynites should let the Kansans know, in the most physical of ways, that if they’re going to come to our neighborhoods and tell us how to live, they’re going to leave with a bloody nose.

(By the way, this reaction was best summarized in Woody Allen’s classic, though poorly titled, film, “Manhattan”: “Nazis are going to march in New Jersey,” his character says. “We should get some bricks and baseball bats and really explain things to them. … A satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but bricks and baseball bats really gets right to the point.”)

Though both reactions have their appeal, we prefer a third way: Hey, kids, let’s put on a show!

Having seen similar protests by the Westboro bigots around the country, we’ve been impressed by counter-protesters who put on display the very things that these Kansas lunatics detest. In San Francisco, gay men have kissed in front of protesters holding signs reading “God hates fags.”

BoroDeal

But we prefer the theater of the absurd. One of the dozens of commenters on our online story about the Westboro bigotry said counter-protesters at a similar hatefest once dressed as pirates, held stuffed toy parrots and yelled out, “Arrrgh, mateys” every few minutes. The media ended up covering the pirates more than the bigots.

We think Brooklyn can do even better. Here are some suggestions:

• Buy an ice cream cone and eat it really messily — so messily that news photographers can’t help but take a picture of the disgusting scene. Say you are protesting the tyranny of neatness in America today.

• Dress up in Antebellum garb and hold signs indicating your contempt for the Tariff of 1833. If asked, say you are a Whig.

• Wear a black-and-white-striped shirt, a beret and white face paint and perform a mime piece in protest of the widespread hatred of mimes worldwide.

• Dress up as Mr. Met and wear a huge “Kick me” sign. (OK, that’s not a counter-protest. That’s reality.)

As you can see, pretty much anything will work. Old standbys include stripping down to nothing but a leather G-string and open-mouth kissing any same-sex person you see.

But whatever you do, don’t let these hatemongers win.

←Dining: Our guide to where to eat late at night!

→Crime: Here they are — your Police Blotters

Reader Feedback

Mike from Carroll Gardens says:

These people want exposure. Just don't give it to them. They have a right to make fools of themselves. After all, God is watching.

Sept. 24, 2009, 6:15 pm

Terri from Fort Greene says:

I like the bloody nose option.

Sept. 24, 2009, 10:37 pm

Mary from Park Slope says:

Or, we can respect the wishes of the rabbi at Beth Elohim and ignore them. Make it a non-event.

Sept. 25, 2009, 2:20 pm

Joe Nardiello from 39th District says:

Went to the Ft. Greene/Brooklyn Tech HS planned demonstration 9/24 @3:30pm. Essentially, I'd wanted to scout what these people were about in advance of staged/publicized events before synagogues on 8th and Kane St. etc and deliver the first-hand account to other community leaders (which we had, last evening). It didn't take long after hearing alarming talk about chances of hate groups joining them from the sidelines, to go there ready for anything -- but certainly, first with every attention of helping keep/protect the students' emotions from being caught into the fervor. I suppose these Kansans chose the HS simply for the its namesake of being "Brooklyn HS" to them?... (There were only a very few teens that tempted the NYPD's barricade/periphery around these demonstrators but ultimately listened to quick reason, stern warnings from Officers and from myself and what seemed like Tech teachers on the spot, about how people have Rights, even in the face of how vile their message/strategy for attention).

Personally, I wasn't 15 feet away from the hate-group... who'd dispatched what looked like a family of 6, including a grandmother and sadly, a 10-yr old boy holding awful/hateful placards above their heads & singing something or other. Actually, although now I understand that these people put the 'ass in Kansas' -- they seemed to me to be trying everything they could to inspire hate across as many haphazard themes as their signs could hold in a rehearsed fashion... I'd spoken with a Ch. 2 news reporter, who'd relayed sentiments and words of wisdom from a Great Neck rabbi: we should ignore these people, protect against anything rash certainly, but not engage them. I only hope she included these words in her newscast, and that...

As a witness to the event -- by far the story was the Brooklyn Tech HS students and their banding together to deliver a message of "love over Hate" and to "end Racism". They chanted at first, "we love Jews!" over and over, and then "go home" to the band of hateful Kansans. Their handmade signs and stickers on their shirts -- and the evident diversity clearly within that group of 200 students left a lasting impression. My vantage point was from behind the Kansans, and I could see the crowd of students plainly and will keep that image, always.

After about 20 minutes, the Kansas Krazies simply stopped at once like automatons, loaded into a blue mini-van with New Jersey plates and drove away.

Sept. 25, 2009, 5:24 pm

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