5-Year-Old Protests the Westboro Baptist Church With Pink Lemonade
Offline Wasn't sure where to put this - I think Irrationalities covers it.
The always controversial Westboro Baptist Church just earned itself another critic, but this one is only a few feet tall and her chosen method of protest is pink lemonade.
On June 14, five-year-old Jayden Sink held her first "Pink Lemonade for Peace" event on the front lawn of the famed Equality House—a rainbow-wrapped home located directly across the street from Westboro headquarters in Topeka, Kansas.
Equality House belongs to one of the founding members of Planting Peace, an organization dedicated to spreading good will. The brightly colored home opened its doors this March in an effort to stage a peaceful counter-protest to the hatred and fear-mongering perpetrated by the Westboro organization.
When Jayden learned that WBC compound belonged to people who were spreading hate, she came up with the idea to stage her own peaceful protest in the form of a pink lemonade stand. The five-year-old wanted to raise money to put towards “spreading messages of love and peace.”
With a sign that read, "Pink Lemonade for Peace: $1 Suggested Donation,” Sink wasn’t expecting to raise a massive amount of money, but hundreds of dollars were handed over to her that day as a multitude of people showed up to chip in. She’s since started a complimentary online fundraiser as well—and it currently tops out at over $5,000.
But even though their opponent was a five-year-old girl, that didn’t stop the WBC from attempting to obstruct Jayden’s efforts. They reportedly tried to get police to shut down the lemonade stand, and when that didn’t work, they shouted obscenities.
While that level of vitriol is not new for Westboro, they may be especially intolerant of opposition as of late; just a few weeks ago, one of their websites was brilliantly hacked by an activist who goes by the name of JESTER. The WBC had set up a website attacking victims of the Oklahoma tornadoes for being "sinners", but shortly thereafter, JESTER turned that site into a donation page for viewers to fund the state’s recovery efforts.
Jayden’s protest is obviously far less sophisticated, but no less meaningful. Her altruistic nature may due to the fact that the kindergartner has the activist gene—her father Jon, is the founder of the philanthropic organization, FRESHCASSETTE-Creative Compassion.
Like most dads, he's probably proud of his daughter for a host of reasons, but we're guessing that watching her become a champion of love and peace might just have made it his best Father's Day ever.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
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That's awesome.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Cute, but it doesn't sit well with me when activists use their children as mascots.
me neither, but let's not jump to conclusions. a five year-old is smart enough to have their own opinions. i know i had plenty of them at that age--probably more than i have now--and i probably would have been much more confident and fearless in telling a rabid group like that they're wrong at that age.
i'm sure her parents helped her focus her ideas and of course with the execution, but when it comes to parents manipulating children ideologically, the line is very fine, and my philosophy is innocent until proved guilty.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I had no opinion about that. I was more concerned about the WBC calling the child names. How to lose any sympathy might have had for your church. Not that they had any sympathy from me to begin with. Not that showing up for military funerals showed them to be anything but jerks. Calling a 5 year old names is also jerk-like.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
sympathy is the last thing they're looking for. they believe that if they were to become popular, there would be a serious problem with their message. all christians feel this dilemma, but WBC takes it to its logical conclusion. i remember as a christian in college sometimes looking around in dismay at our filled-to-capacity meetings, brimming with nonthreatening, whitebread, pop-flavored worship music, approachable, guilt-free motivational speakers, and scrubbed upper-middle class kids tricked out in hollister and A&F, talking about how "god's awesome," and thinking, "we must be doing something wrong--people like us too much."
honestly, what pisses me off way more than WBC are those christians who go on TV and denounce them for distorting the bible's message, and all the WBC folks do is throw scores of bible verses back in their faces. the WBC are exactly what they claim to be: the purest, most bible-believing christians you'll ever meet.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I think it's more than simply using the child, they are teaching the child morality in the process. Something most parents do.
I have far more of a problem with parents who use their kids to advertise products than those who do it to advertise ideas. Children have been used in such a way throughout all of history. It's not likely to ever end.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I posted this story this morning here.
Anywdwho, good for her.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
What the fuck? So it is ok to tell kids that gays are evil? Homophobic parents do that all the time. So when someone teaches a kid acceptance that is the same as teaching bigotry?
I don't remember you ever talking about having kids, but if you do I hope they turn out to be a liberal commie who marries a mixed race commie like Obama.
Did you choose to be heterosexual?
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
No. I am saying this as someone who was used as an activist when I was a kid to support many positions that since I have matured and studied, I do not hold today. A 5 year old has absolutely no concept of what it means to be gay, has no possible way of forming an educated opinion on the use of military force and has no way to have an informed opinion on religion. She is only fucking 5. Odds are really high that she simply parrots what her parents say. Whether I am sympathetic or agree with her parents position is irrelevant. I don't think it is appropriate to throw your kid into the spotlight of a controversial political issue, especially when you know the assholes at the WBC are going to be assholes. It is easy for an adult to brush them off as assholes, a 5 year old might have a much more difficult time dealing with the harassment, because a 5 year old doesn't know what to expect when you make the national news cycle. I think parents have a responsibility to protect their kids and I think these parents are negligent, even though I agree with their position.
I am incapable of having kids, but if I did, I am sure they would be very glad if they became commie that I didn't encourage/force them to be libertarian activists when they were 5. My point exactly, parents should allow their children the freedom to come to their own political positions and not use them for the political gain of whatever political causes they are fans of. A parent should recognize that it is impossible to prevent a child from picking up their personal biases, but encourage the child to think about issues and come to their own opinion, even if that opinion is different from the parent's. For example, I think that atheist parents should encourage their children to attend a variety of churches and be exposed to opposing beliefs. And in the realm of politics, parents should encourage their children to really think about political positions rather than simply adopt whatever the parents believe as the "Truth".
Like I said, I am coming at this from the perspective of someone who was used as a child to pass out flyers, work parades and help out politicians that I would actively oppose now. As a child, I enjoyed it simply because it was something I did with the family and I got a lot of positive reinforcement from my parents. In my family, working in politics was the equivalent of the little boy who pushes the toy lawnmower to cut the law with his father. I was able to hold a pretty in depth political argument, but I didn't really have a root philosophy, I was simply parroting what I had heard from my parents. I was probably 9 or 10 before I had enough understanding to actually start disagreeing with my parents and it probably wasn't until about 14 when I had a firm enough grasp on political theory to really start to develop my own philosophy.
I started reading books like Das Kapital, Atlas Shrugged, Utopia, The Republic, The Prince etc. and really thinking about what I believed. Until you start reading those kinds of books, there is absolutely no way you can have an informed political opinion. I suspect that I had such abilities much earlier than the average child simply because I always had an intense interest in politics and my parents living room was always full of important political figures. While all the other kids went to play in the basement, I sat and listened. Naturally, my beliefs followed the reasoning of the people I listened to because I was only hearing one side of the argument; even when they disagreed, it was disagreement from the same general political side.
A 5 year old didn't start reading long ago if she can even read now. She hasn't read Das Kapital, The Wealth of Nations, On Liberty, The Prince or the Bible. She simply has not been exposed to enough points of view to really know what she believes. Maybe 10-20 years from now she will hold beliefs identical to her parents, maybe she won't. For now, I think the parents are being negligent allowing their daughter to attract national media attention being an activist for a political issue that she simply does not have the ability to have a side on. If she was born in a family that belonged to the WBC she would be a fundy and I am sure you would be right there with me pointing out how wrong it is for them to use a child to support their argument.
I don't think parents should use their kids as activists. Which can be hard, because kids generally want to do what their parents are doing. I am sure this girl really wanted to be like her activist parents, because all kids want to do what their parents do (the same reason why many kids toys represent what parents do like mowing the lawn or cooking dinner). But just like a parent would be called negligent for letting their kid push a real lawnmower (which some dumb ass parents do and often results in catastrophic injury), I don't think parents should let their children be activists that attract national media attention. Let them do small things in the background that do not find their way onto the internet forums and the inevitable assholes that are going to throw profanity at them. Give them something they can do to imitate their parents, that makes them feel involved, but does not put them in any real danger- physical or emotional. When those fuckers at WBC are throwing profanity at her, I doubt she has the ability to understand they are assholes and simply brush it off. Kids are hurt by insults, especially when those insults come from adults and like most kids, she is probably taught to give adults more respect than kids her own age.
Kind of. And if the wager were high enough I would set out to prove Anonymouse wrong and attempt to adjust my preference, because I believe it could be modified. What does that have to do with the subject though?
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
@Vastet
I find it equally disconcerting parents who use their children for advertising and even child stars in Hollywood. At some point, a child is capable of making that decision, but I think often such decisions are made by the parents and the child naturally trusts their parents. The sheer number of childhood actors who have gone on to have completely fucked up lives is evidence of this. If I were a parent, my kid would have to really be pushing hard and really want to do it before I allowed it, I think too many parents are swayed by the money and rather than it being something desired by the child, the parents put pressure on them to do it. Of course, I have seen the same thing happen on a smaller scale with parents pressuring their kids to be involved in some particular sport or some group like the boyscouts or whatever to the point where the kid is literally afraid that their parents would be disappointed if they said "hey, I don't want to do this anymore".
Unlike iwbiek, I am unwilling to give the parents the benefit of the doubt, probably because I was the son of activist parents and I was in that position as a child. The daughter of an activist engaging in a very public activist activity smells like more than coincidence to me. I just hope that the attacks she has received from the assholes at the WBC and are no doubt spread around online by various trolls don't have a lasting negative impact on her. I don't think that the thick skin to put up with scum like Jean is something that is natural in humans, it is something that develops over time and if I had a 5 year old, I would be worried about making them the center of such negative attention. If it were my niece, I would be calling my brother and saying "what the fuck are you doing?"
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Name me one kid full of hormones and idealism doesn't want to change the world. That quote stupidly assumes I am the same person I was as kid. Please tell me you are not that dense.
Now please tell me what the fuck this has to do with bigotry? People have the right to be bigots? NO SHIT SHERLOCK! And other people have the right to call them out. Now that kid's adult input is on the right side of history, unlike the assholes on the other side of the street who teach their kids that gays are evil.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I doubt a 5 year old is filled with hormones yet. Puberty shouldn't be hitting for awhile. And no, I am not assuming you are the same person you are as a kid. My point is the exact opposite. In 10-20 years, she might regret what she is doing today precisely because she will be a very different person.
It has nothing to do with bigotry. I don't think parents should use their kids as tools to gain sympathy for their political side regardless of whether I agree with their political position. The position is not the problem I have. My problem is using your child as an activist for a political position. Any political position. The WBC does it, and it is wrong. That doesn't make it right for their opponents to do it (perhaps worse because we all know the WBC are a bunch of assholes who would make excellent worm food while we expect their opponents to be better human beings).
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
CJ beat you to it by 11 hours.
Posted on: June 16, 2013 - 7:03pm
Yours:
Posted on: June 17, 2013 - 6:25am
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
as i said above, i did, especially on questions of right and wrong. i can remember having fierce religious debates with my classmates at that age (and i did not grow up with religious parents--they had literally no opinions on those matters). our arguments weren't terribly sophisticated, but they were passionate. don't sell little kids short.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Kids tend to be smarter than most people give them credit for.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.