“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

-The First Amendment

Topeka is famous, or rather, infamous as the home of the Rev. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. We don’t like it, but that’s just the way it is.

Phelps and his followers (family), know the world over for their signs that read “God hates (insert random word here),” are Topeka’s elephant in the room and, impressively, we’ve managed to do a pretty good job of ignoring him.

And our city should be proud of that.

The Phelpses have done more than enough to deserve a public lynching, especially from Topeka residents that are forced to deal with his act on an almost-daily basis. But rather than taking a vigilante-mob mentallity towards this vile group of people, Topeka residents have done the proper, Christian, thing and simply chosen to ignore the Phelpses. Since we can’t “legally” kill them, the best thing we can do is to ignore the Phelps family and go about our daily lives.

Through their actions, the Phelpses have done more to benefit the homosexual community than just about anyone else. They’ve made homosexuals into an underdog group… and there’s nothing more that America loves than an underdog.

Topeka needs to be applauded for rising above the hate and putting the Phelpses in their right place… the trash can.