Last week, I received, via email sent to one of my synagogue’s contact email addresses, a flyer from someone at the Westboro Baptist Church, announcing the protests they were planning on holding this week in front of Jewish institutions in Boston.
I was appalled, and my initial reaction was to make a big deal out of it. I emailed the institutions listed on the flyer to warn them about the protest, made phone calls to personal contacts I had at some of those institutions, posted about it on my blog and on UniversalHub.com, and sent tips to the news media.
Some people commented in response that the WBC thrives on publicity, and the best strategy for dealing with them is to essentially pretend they don’t exist. I argued that things had gotten so bad in this country that the WBC was no longer completely on the lunatic fringe, and a response was therefore called for. My argument was legitimate; it’s not at all a clear-cut issue. However, as Bob Sutton says, one should always argue as if he is right and listen as if he is wrong. That’s what I did, and I’ve decided that I was wrong.
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