When one holds very strong opinions it is bound to happen that one of these will eventually run head first into another strongly held opinion. This happens to me most painfully when it comes to things like freedom of speech. It is something I defend strongly even when it is speech that is detestable.

Then there is the Westboro Baptist “church” picketing of schools and funerals.  This makes it very difficult indeed.  While I feel that freedom of speech is one of our most important rights to exercise and makes us stronger and freer, I’m not unfeeling enough to not have a gut reaction to such monstrous behavior.

What can the answer be?  Speak louder!  Impressed does not cover how I felt about those who prevented a protest of a funeral in Louisiana.   Then there was the Dio Funeral.  He had both a private and public funeral from his gracious family.  The link is to a rather long article, but there are also photos and videos for those interested.  It may be worth the scroll to find out how gnomes, Thor and Muslim hell were evoked by one person.  Schools kids have also shown they are more than able to speak back to these fools.

These are the reasons why I consider Atheist only a part of who I am, and it is often not the most important part.  If it were Atheists behaving like these WB”C”  poor excuses for people, then I would stand with Christians, Muslims, Pagans, Humanists, et al. to protest them too.  Being a person, at the end of the day (even the middle and beginning), who cares about other people is the most important part of who I am.  That and, super awesome, but mostly the caring thing.

So, maybe my title was misleading.  Maybe it only feels like these two sides are opposing, but they are actually mirror images.

Oh, and the master of tag lines apparently.  Bonus!