Its raining.
It's pouring.
And Jana and I decide to leave play rehearsal to go to a protest.
Well, ANTI-protest I should say. Some of you may remember a few years ago when the Westboro Baptist Church went around to soldiers funerals and harassed the families with signs saying "Thank God for dead soldiers". If not, here's a picture just to show you a little bit of what they're about:
Now, I'm all for the right to free speech, don't get me wrong, but when you abuse this right to harass families and people to this sort of extreme, I'm not okay with that. As you can see, another popular sign that they tote around with them across the country is, "God Hates Fags". It just so happens that a local theater was putting on a performance of "The Larmine Project", a story about a kid named Matthew Shepard who was beaten to death in the 1990's because of the fact that he way gay. If that wasn't sad enough, on the day of his funeral, the Westboro Baptist Church (consisting primarily of a family, with members at about 100) stood outside the church holding signs much similar to the ones above. Now, with "The Larmine Project" traveling around the country showing Matthew Shepard's tale, the W.B.C is following it to harass anyone wanting to see the show.
That's where Angel Action comes in. Jana had heard about it from her dad (who had heard of it from a friend), and we decided to become a part of it. Essentially, what Angel Action does is they create tall (about 8 or so feet tall and wide) wings made out of PVC pipe and sheets for people to wear, and they use them to create a circle around the W.B.C to block them out of sight. What makes this organization great is that they do it peacefully. "No angle is to speak to, look at, or acknowledgment the existence of anyone from the W.B.C," we were told when we got there (something about the W.B.C all being lawyers and what-not and funding their travels across the country based off lawsuits from protests). So, Jana and I strapped on our wings, flung ourselves out in the rain for an hour, and...
They never showed up...
Now, you might expect that we would get mad. Putting all that effort into preventing something that never happened. But we weren't upset. In fact, we were quite happy. I mean, we didn't have to worry about the protesters upsetting anyone who came out to see the show, and we were still able to prove the point that our community won't put up with hate and discrimination. To me, that's a success in itself. (I could have done without the downpour though, I would have been drier jumping into a pool). I'm so glad that I was able to be a part of that amazing event, and I hope that I can soon do something to this nature again.
Aside from the downpour (and having to walk half a mile in the rain back to my car), that was an amazing night. Afterward, Jana and I returned to play practice (completely soaked, I may add), and finished out the night. I then went to see Alice in Wonderland with a few other friends. All-in-all, I have to say it was a really good movie. Tim Burton did a good job mixing aspects from the book, from the original movie, and from his own imagination, creating a very pleasurable viewing experience. In my books, an 8.5-9 out of 10.
Protests and Alice in Wonderland make for a good Saturday night.
Aloha,
Chris
P.S- If you haven't read the book Alice in Wonderland, I highly suggest you read it. It's an amazingly good read. Here's the link to amazon for just over $5.
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