‘Go home! Go home! Go home!’

"Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”\nThat’s a picket sign created by Westboro Baptist Church, an extremist group led by Fred Phelps that is notorious for its Web site godhatesfags.com and for the unspeakable cruelty its members demonstrate at protests across America, particularly at the funerals of fallen military personnel. Other commonly used snippets of doctrine displayed on its signs include “Thank God for AIDS” and “God is America’s terrorist.” For funeral demonstrations, church members frequently make signs declaring the deceased is in hell and that God hates the tears of the mourners.\nIt’s rare that something as black-and-white as the ideological clash that happened recently on the University of Wisconsin-Stout campus last Thursday comes around, and we’re happy to report that hate did not triumph that day. Scenes from the event caught on tape and distributed on YouTube and other video sources were moving enough that we saw it fit to recognize the campus unity.\nThree UW-Stout students had been killed in a house fire earlier in the week, and according to four protesters from the Westboro Baptist Chuch, the deaths of these young people were because America has “brought the wrath of God down on their heads.” \n“God is killing the children of America because they have been raised for the devil,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the Westboro Baptist Church founder.\n Of course, controversy is no stranger to university campuses, and emotions frequently run high when confronting issues that people view passionately from opposing viewpoints. But the level of insensitivity and intolerance demonstrated by this church goes way beyond the limits of decency. We were thrilled to see that more than 1,000 UW-Stout students showed up to the demonstration with the sole objective of getting this group off their campus immediately.\nUW-Stout spokesperson Doug Mell said they were rallying in support of diversity and to honor the deceased students. The students “totally reject the abhorrent and hateful message that the members of this church were trying to send,” he said at the protest. “(The students) wanted them to leave so we can all mourn in peace,” he said.\nAnd within 15 minutes of the Westboro protesters showing up, the student rally had jeered them off the campus, 25 minutes before the demonstration was scheduled to end.\nIf you haven’t seen the video, you can check it out on the Sample Gates blog, where we’ve got it posted. It was a pretty spectacular scene to see so many students rallying around the hatemongers yelling “Go home!” and to see the shaken Westboro protesters try to worm their way through the crowd in retreat. It was refreshing to see such a large group of young people standing up to these people without resorting to violence.\nSigns the students wielded at the counterprotest read “God Hates No One” and “Hate is Sin in God’s Eyes.”\n“I believe that can go down in the books as one for the good guys,” UW-Stout student Ryan Marsel said after the protesters were shooed off campus. \nWe agree. Way to go, UW-Stout.