Counter-Protest

While I am rather heartbroken I couldn't be there this morning, my university both surprised and sincerely impressed me today. The Westboro Baptist Church, commanded by the horrible bully, Fred Phelps, had arranged a protest of the Rutgers Hillel for today. There was much frantic scurry and disagreement on facebook about what responses we should give to this protest. I was so glad to see groups organizing a peaceful counter-protest. I made sure to invite everyone I know who goes to my school, but I really didn't think that many people would show up. (It started at 8:00Am, supposed to finish 9:30) But after hearing from so many people about how amazing it was that over 1,000 students showed up to give support to our Hillel and counter-protest the WBC, I was shocked, and so glad to be at Rutgers! From what I heard from four different groups of people was that the WBC protesters had already left by the time they got there, which they said was about 8:30Am.

I love that my University can pull together the support of so many kids like that, even when the weather was horrible, and this definitely increased school pride from what I've seen, as well as my own trust and security in the amazingness of my student body. If anyone would like to see some excellent photos, or read more about the protest, here's my friend Lauren's article about it: http://literarylens.org/2009/10/rutgers-united-against-hate/