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Zone:

Plattsburgh’s Response to

Fred Phelps

BY CYNTHIA Porrs

ou can still see the signs everywhere.
, In coffee shops and bookstores, auto

parts stores and insurance companies,
black and white placards announce “Hate Free
Zone.” It was a message the Reverend Fred
Phelps and the members of his homophobic
Westboro Baptist Church didn’t want to see.
After learning that Phelps was plan-
ning to come to the Champlain Valley to
demonstrate at the annual Mayor’s Cup
Festival, community members, led by Amy
MacLeod and Rebecca Leonard, came togeth-
er to form Plattsburgh for Peace.
“As soon as people heard that Fred
Phelps was coming,” said Sara Dean, of
Plattsburgh, “I felt that we needed to make -
sure that it was obvious that wasn’t how
Plattsburgh feels. That Phelps doesn’t reflect
our values.” Dean was instrumental in per-

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Economists say Vermont

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suading her Baptist church to support the mes-
sage of Plattsburgh for Peace.

“This was truly grassroots
Plattsburgh,” MacLeod said. “There’s never
been a movement with such a variety of vol-
unteers. People really came together to say .,
‘We don’t want this in our town.’

» “Plattsburgh for Peace had definitely
taken the stance that we didn’t need Phelps to
come here. We didn’t want to give him the
attention. So when he first arrived on
Saturday, we deliberately didn’t make any
appearances,” McLeod explained, delineating
the group’s strategy.

“St. Peter’s brought tears to my
eyes. They made a huge quilt-style banner that
said ‘Stop Hate’ -and hung it two stories up on
the front of their church. Then to see Mayor
Dan Stewart and his partner Jon Recor walk
hand-in-hand into the church? It gave me

‘ goosebumps.” Once the couple got inside the

Catholic church, the congregation stood up

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The Plattsburgh For_ Peace _Booth at uae._w'ia‘y6rs7c:a§  focused

months of vvolunteerf grassroots work creating a H_aIie-Free Zone.

and cheered, MacLeod recalled. “Y_ou_would
have thought they were rock stars.’-."
“Unfortunately, there was a lot of

counter-protesting at Trinity Episcopal,”
MacLeod said. “The community needed to get
it out of their system. There was a lot of

down the tube.

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‘shouting back and forth.” One potential inci-

dent was quickly contained by_ law enforce-
ment. “Phelps’s people neverlooked happier
than they did at thatvpoint.”

’ ' McLeod ' r 
continued, “But the Cont“ 0" P- 

News 1-3,

Editorial 4

Letters, Witt’s End 5
Features 6, 8-10, 16-17
Views 1 1-15

Arts 8. Leisure 18, 20-21
Calendar 22-24
Classifieds 25

The Source 26-27
Gayity 29-31

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