what else should I write? / I don't have the right / what else should I be? / all apologies

You know, we at the Panhandle Truth Squad give the Amarillo Globe-Republican a pass on a lots of stuff. We understand that the newspaper's staff may not be perfect, but, like the Emperor W, they have a difficult job. It's hard work. And so we overlook many transgressions. Because, you know, they are trying.

But yesterday's headline over the Letters section can't be overlooked. An individual named Irma Heras wrote a letter criticizing the tactics of the Westboro “Baptist Church”, an organization that is protesting homosexuality at soldier’s funerals. I don’t know why “Reverend” Fred Phelps’ organization is protesting at soldiers’ funerals. I understand neither their motives nor their message.

But I do know this: They were protesting homosexuality. They were not protesting the war.

And yet the AG-R headline read 'War protesters' disrespect the people who died for them’.

This headline was misleading. And I have to believe it was deliberately misleading since a letter by Reverend Charles Kiker directly below Ms. Heras’ clarified the distinction:

[I]t is erroneous to call these picketers "anti-war protesters." Westboro Baptist is a virulently anti-homosexual group looking for any opportunity to vent their hatred. On their Web site, they praise God for the 2,010 (at their last count) soldiers killed.

I know of no anti-war group that would do that. We support the troops. We want to bring them home - alive.

The association of Westboro “Baptist Church” with anti-war people is a deliberate muddying of the issues. Regressives don’t like it when we point out that the Ku Klux Klan agitates in favor of pet regressive causes like Proposition 2—but that connection is far more clear. Fred Phelps’ hate group and progressive anti-war organizations differ completely in motives, goals, means, and tactics. I know that staff members of the Amarillo Globe-Republican read this blog, so let me just address them directly: You guys apologize about as often as George W. Bush. But you really owe one for deliberately misleading your readers yesterday.

SPACEDARK