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The only thing I find more offensive about this situation than Phelps and his cronies spewing hate at helpless people is the fact that he has taken it so far that lawmakers feel a need to curb his right to spew hate. Without permitting hate speech we hav no way to understand just how far we have to go until we eradicate hate, and once we justify bannning speech or non-violent action of any kind, we set a precedent that it is acceptable to gag our speech if we're uncofortable with what's being said. If we want any chance of tackling serious issues, we need to encourage people to talk about them, not jam socks in their mouths and pretend the problems don't exist.
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