Respice, Adspice, Prospice.

scared-bob:

So it seems that the good old WBC is planning to come to Penn State to protest JoePa’s funeral. And naturally, people were thinking of ways to counter-troll them. And some of them came up with a glorious idea. If it gets enough support, this idea could make their presence something good. 

The plan is to set up a pledge drive. We go around, asking people to donate $1 for every hour the WBC protests JoePa’s funeral, with the proceeds going to the Paterno family. The Paternos get to decide what to do with that money; we think it’s likely that they will give it to Thon or some other charity. Then we send the WBC thank you cards, saying something to the effect of “Thanks to you, we were able to donate $X to the Paterno family. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

Penn State is very fond of the Paternos, and is used to this sort of charity drive, largely thanks to Thon. So say we got a solid eighth of the main campus population to pledge. That’s $5,000 an hour. If the WBC protests for 3 hours, $15,000 goes to the Paterno family. It wouldn’t even be difficult to set up, logistically.

Now what really excited was the possibility of this happening again, wherever they go. They protest a soldier’s funeral? Money gets raised for the soldier’s family. They protest a same-sex marriage? That couple receives the money. Or maybe an LGBT support group. Instead of getting angry, attacking them, and getting them tons of money in lawsuits, people can just walk across the street and donate some pocket change to the very cause the WBC is picketing against.

The Westboro Baptist Church is one of the most detestable religious groups you can find. They literally get people to hate them for a living. If we get enough people on board with this idea, we can make their presence something helpful and worthwhile. This is the age of memes. Let’s spread an idea.