Thoughts on Westboro Church

There is a potential tension in society when ideas come into conflict. This Conflict of Visions (Thomas Sowell) lies at the heart of both civil and tolerant discourse or action as well as violent, ideological, intolerant discourse and action.

A free society protects the rights of all, particularly to articulate divergent points of view, in fact freedom of speech is only necessary when the speech is so extreme that most would find the content and form offensive.

That said, the delicate balance between liberty and responsibility constantly challenges the participants in a free society.

This blog posting could not take place in North Korea.

The political system that emerges to confront conflicts of vision will leave the majority in a state of discontent. Whether the issue is special interest influence in governance (labor unions, military industrial complex, envirornmental activists, large business, etc) or the reaction of elected officials to the conflict, we have a process that is far superior in composition and outcome to the vast majority of the planet - if our biggest problem is labor union unrest or religious expression I suspect an overwhelming number of residents of the People's Democratic Republic of the Congo, Parguary, the country formerly known as Somalia, or 170 other nations would willingly trade their problems/discontents with the fortunate residents of the US.

That said, I wonder what responsibility we have to our predecessors to extent the life of our mostly free and mostly civil society.