Being America ain't easy

Today, the Supreme Court today ruled that the First Amendment protects hateful protests at military funerals. It was an 8-1 decision (Justice Alito dissented). Read the Snyder v. Phelps excerpt here. The case made its way to the court after the family of a Marine sued an anti-gay church for protesting at their son's funeral. The group appears at hundreds of military funerals bearing signs like "God hates Fags." As the New York Times reports, the church contends that God is punishing the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality.

“Speech is powerful,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the majority opinion. "It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain." He's right. I mean, just look at that photo above. Frankly, I'd love to grab these disrespectful clowns by their scrawny stacking swivels and, well, do something inappropriate. But this is America, the "land of the free."

In the movie The American President, fictional President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) summed up the dilemma best:

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".

America is advanced citizenship. Ergo, the court's decision is correct, and we'll just have to swallow hard on this one.