So, its official. Topeka, KS, is a city under siege. When do we liberate?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=369727&mesg_id=369727


My personal fav...

It sounds like the whole damn town is really scared of the man and that's ridiculous. Something must be done but I am not sure boycotting a whole terrified town is the answer.

...

They are more like a Jim Jones type thing. They are a cult. Surely the government can do something. This town is being held hostage.



From a Texan, no less.

cause Phelps is from Mississippi. It's their fucking fault he even exists.

that his parents had sex?

I really hate Thomas Frank. I think we should boycott Thomas Frank.

Don't you be messin with one of my home boys. :grr:

He's turned against us. He's the cause of all my ails. He's the bane of my existence.

My gawd woman, have you no decency?

but, is that really so surprising? :shrug:

I am glad you all were there to take this on. I would have totally gone nuts had I seen this, y'all did good.

One other point to make when it comes up again and you KNOW it will. This thing about Topeka being held hostage and in fear of Fred is a media talking point. Some business is chicken but many use his protests to better their business and it works for them. Have those "brave" people ever been written about? Nope. The one's who are afraid and will not let the press use their names are quoted over and over. This was made very clear to me after my interview with the NY Times during our Vote No campaign against Fred's proposed city ordinance. I sat with that reporter for over an hour and she was having none of it when I told her she could and should use my name. I was not afraid, none of us working on the campaign were afraid. She tried as hard as she could to come up with something I might be afraid of. When it was all over she went back to New York and wrote only about the businessmen that she had interviewed. They were all anonymous and they were all afraid of retaliation from the WBC.

Just another point in defense of Topeka but mainly in defense of Kansas. I HATE those threads but I do love the way you all turned the tables and wailed on their states. There was nothing else you could do. Bravo!

My blood pressure was really soaring halfway through reading that thread - until I saw our Kansans mocking 'em! I loved the "Savage Kansans" post.

About ten years ago, when the Phelps hate site godhatesfags.com was first getting attention, I did some research on it and discovered it was being hosted on the KSU server. I called my sister, a KSU alumni, and she and a small group of activist friends went to the media and KSU administrators about the university hosting a hate site.

At first Kansas State refused to act, claiming first amendment rights of the student (a Phelps relative, who later went to work for KU). Finally, after much pressure from the KSU community, they decided that hate speech was not protected speech and asked the student to remove the site.

It was a small act, but at least a taxpayer-funded server wasn't hosting that sick, evil site. When I hear DU'ers bitch about how we never do anything about Phelps it makes me kind of sick - I know what hell he's put Topeka through and it's like blaming the victim.

Good for you. I remember thinking that K State was going to be a real problem if they would not recognize the difference between allowable free speech and hate mongering. I was very happy they finally did. Thank you for being one on the front lines of this.

Our feeling on it was that if the Phelps klan wanted to pay to have the site hosted somewhere - if anyone would, many have regulations about hate speech - then more power to them. But to ask the taxpayers of Kansas, including gay and lesbian taxpayers, to foot the bill for hate speech was going too far. KSU finally conceded the issue and while they hated to take on a Phelps they did the right thing in the end.

Interesting that we got so much support from the KSU community, which often takes a rap for being a conservative campus.

groups in Manhattan.

I am so glad you did this. Nobody wants to really have to take on the Phelps clan. Protesting is one thing but this could have caused KSU some real problems. They did the right thing and I am glad.