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Fred Phelps says he's a minister of God. Indicative of this is the fact that he's a particularly vicious mullah of the fundamentalist sect. He's an old minister and perhaps his advanced age explains his faith: a form of Alzheimer's that makes one forget reality and believe fantasies instead. Phelps is a Baptist, and I don't say that to libel him. He's actually a Baptist minister and his congregation is loyal. They'll follow him around America to picket and demonstrate. Instead of burning crosses he carries them and he doesn't actually wear sheets—that we know of. But nonetheless he is clearly one of the most vocal hate-mongers in America today. But Phelps does deserve some credit. Unwittingly—wit and Phelps do not go together well—he exposed the contradictions of public property. Many people remember the vicious murder of Matthew Shepard. Shepard was just 21 years old when a group of thugs abducted him. They took him to a remote hillside outside Laramie, Wyoming and beat him viciously. They tied him to a fence and left him to die. Shepard was found in a coma but it was too late. On October 12, 1998 he died. Shepard's death horrified most decent people. Fred Phelps was not one of them. Phelps is a verbal gay-basher. He's a man driven by his obsessive hatred of gay people. No doubt God whispers instructions in his ears much the way God instructs bin Laden to use air planes filled with innocent people as weapons against buildings filled with other innocent people. Phelps and his congregation, sans sheets, picketed Shepard's funeral. Phelps was seen screaming—he screams a lot—and carrying a sign that said: "God hates fags." Of course if we believed the fundamentalists of the world today, we'd have to conclude that God's primary motivation for everything is hatred. These theological terrorists, not to mention their compatriots who use actual bombs, are very quick to rattle off an ever growing list of people and groups which are singled out for God's hatred. For Phelps gay people are at the top of the list. Phelps wants to "commemorate" the murder of Shepard. But not because he finds such a murder reprehensible. He wants to place a granite monument in a city park in Casper, Wyoming—he picked Casper because Shepard was born there. The monument would say: "Matthew Shepard Entered Hell October 12, 1998, at Age 21 In Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22." Every year Phelps takes his band of followers on a pilgrimage to "celebrate" Shepard's entering "Hell". The pilgrimage includes Casper, where Shepard was born, Laramie where he was beaten, and Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died. Phelps argues that his message of hate is protected by the Constitution. Well, it is. He's free to say whatever he wants. But he wants to use a public park so that taxpayers are forced to subsidize his hate. Because the land is public Phelps argues it must accommodate his religious fantasies regardless of how openly hateful they may be. To complicate matters, the city of Casper allowed private monuments in the past. They still do. In 1965 the local Eagles Club built a granite replica of the Ten Commandments and donated it to the city. The city duly placed the monument in the park. In conservative Casper no one questioned the constitutionality of using taxpayer funds to finance the location of a religious monument. That decision is now coming back to haunt them. Last year the 10th US Circuit Court ruled that if a city allows private monuments on public land it must also allow other monuments as well. The city can't merely pick and choose which groups it will sanction to spread their gospel. The uproar in Alabama over a similar monument illustrates the point. None of the weeping hysterics who prostrated themselves on the ground in a divinely mandated demonstration ever considered how they'd feel if the monument in question was covered with quotes from the Qu'ran instead of something from the King James Bible. The problem with God whispering in the ears of people is that he never whispers the same message. For some he tells them that Palestine is their Promised Land for all eternity. For others he tells them that anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus is doomed to hell. Others are are told that Muhammad is the last and greatest prophet of God. Perhaps God is a mischievous imp who enjoys setting all his many followers at each other's throats—sometimes literally. Casper is not a particularly diverse city and the monument to the Ten Commandments sat there safely for almost forty years. But surely if the local government is to allow its property to propagate one message, it has to allow it for all messages. But clearly that is not possible nor desirable. In Casper the city council didn't have to deal with a group of Muslims wanting to extol the virtues of the Qu'ran. Nor did a group of rationalists request a monument to Robert Green Ingersoll. This time the competing monument is one placed by a minister from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. And even most God-botherers won't go as far as Phelps, who is known to taunt the families and friends of gay people at their funerals. No wonder the good Christian people of Casper are upset by the actions of Fundie Fred. Mayor Barbara Peryam told the press: "I refuse to let Casper be defined by hate." A gay city councilman, Guy Padgett, said: "However people may feel about gays and lesbians, they won't tolerate this kind of hate forced on us by those like Mr. Phelps." Obviously the most rational thing to do is remove the existing monument and tell Phelps what he can do with his. A public park simply can not accommodate every monument that every special interest group might want to erect. If Casper removes the existing monument, and then bans all private monuments it would be in tune with the Court ruling. The problem, of course, is created by the existence of "public" property. And the solution is private property. Years ago, when I lived in Connecticut, compatriots of the Phelps type of hate-monger wanted to hold public rallies, wearing their sheets and it wasn't Halloween. In Meriden the Klan marched and the anti-Klan coalition, mainly made up of communist fanatics, held counter demonstrations. Each side had a violent inclination though the Klan preferred to do theirs under cover of darkness. Each claimed a right to use public property and each quoted the Constitution while both spitting on it on many other occasions. To protect the First Amendment rights to use public property, the state was forced to provide hundreds of policemen to keep the peace. The extremists got their five minutes of fame and the taxpayers forked out massive sums of money to pay the cost. The next year the Klan was offered the use of a private farm site. Foolishly they accepted. I say foolishly because the entire value, to them, of their march was the publicity they received by creating conflict over the use of public property. The same was true of the counter demonstrators. While the prior year's march garnered huge amounts of publicity this one got scant attention. Even the anti-Klan forces knew a counter-demonstration would do them little good. The Klan rally went on without notice. A tiny handful of protesters, as compared to hundreds the year before, were also there. Without the conflict created by public property neither of the extremist groups got what they wanted. Ninety percent of the publicity that Phelps is getting in this case is because he wants to use a public park to spread his gospel of hate. Had he erected the same monument on the front lawn of his church, few would have noticed or cared. Over 150 years ago the French writer Frederic Bastiat wrote that when law is perverted it becomes a source of discord and conflict. He wrote that "this odious perversion of the law is a perpetual source of hatred and discord." By "perverted" Bastiat meant that the state, instead of protecting rights, acts as engine for the redistribution of wealth. In some cases this process, which Bastiat called "legal plunder" is open and obvious. But in this case it is more subtle. In the Phelps incident the taxpayers of Casper are paying for a park which Phelps wants to use to spread his venom. But as long as the park is public such conflicts are inevitable. The streets in Meriden created conflict because both the Klan and the commies could claim it for their own use. Government ownership is supposed to mean "public" ownership which is supposed to mean ownership by everyone. But all communal property is overused and misused and this is no exception. The city of Casper is not thrilled with Phelps putting his monument there. But Phelps can use the park in many ways. He can hold his rallies there and as long as the parks are open for use by the "public" then can't ban Phelps. Such conflict is inherent in "public" property. Three churches in Casper have volunteered to have the Ten Commandments monument moved to their property. The Eagles Club said they'd be happy to take the monument back. They don't want to encourage Phelps either. The mayor wants the monument put on private property as well. But the conflict is not caused by a monument—it's caused by the public nature of the park. It would make far more sense to sell the park to the Eagles Club and let them run it. The city of Casper might win this battle but as long as they have "public" parks they'll lose the war. Jim Peron is the executive director of the Institue for Liberal Values, Auckland (www.liberalvalues.org.nz). |