American Liberty

I had my doubts when I chose this video, it portrays a controversial act that upsets the vast majority of people. The views expressed in the video make me personally uncomfortable however in my opinion one of the crucial aspects of american liberty in the modern day is the freedom of speech that has been twisted by the american people to mean freedom to offend.

The controversy of this video of the Westboro Baptist church protesting at a funeral is obvious; the very nature of protesting means a controversial topic is being discussed; but protesting at a funeral takes this to a new level. 

The recent supreme court decision (Snyder v. Phelps, 2011) has given organisations like this protection since technically they are picketing on public ground about public issues and therefore are protected by the first amendment of free speech. 

There are three things I think are most representative of american views of freedom of speech/expression. Firstly, the raw disrespect that these people feel they must exercise in order to practice their freedom of speech, realistically thinking, ignorance of other peoples feelings is the essence of freedom. Secondly the sheer amount of children that are present -although I think these children believe that they are doing the right thing by protesting at another's funeral, even to the extent of enjoying it and playing about around the protesters and with the signs; they have been taught to think such things in a closed community where they are hardly to blame for only being exposed to these extreme and angry viewpoints. Thirdly the 'if you don't like it don't look' attitude that the Westboro Baptist church exemplifies here, the way in which one of these people shouts 'you dont like it? leave!' (0:00) makes it seem that they're not looking to protest in peace that rather they are looking for conflict over their views. 

You are only free if you choose to look the other way.