• Darth Vader fights city hall in Odessa, Ukraine

    By Robert Hood

    Sometimes my heart goes out to the long-suffering civil servants who work on the front lines of political protest. That goes for the workers in the Odessa City Hall and also for some of the police officers and sanitation workers who are forced to deal with the Occupy demonstrators. I’m pretty sure that many of them just want to do their job and go home at a reasonable time without causing or getting into trouble.

    AFP - Getty Images

    A Ukrainian wearing a Darth Vader costume speaks to a policeman in the city hall of the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa on Nov. 14, 2011. "Darth Vader" demanded a plot of land on which to park his spaceship.

    Reuters reports

    In an event that was well covered by local media, a man dressed as the Star Wars villain visited the mayor's office this week to claim a free land plot citing Ukrainian legislation which grants every citizen the right to own 1,000 square meters of land.

    His visit followed a decision by city authorities to grant attractive land plots along the sea coast to a group of people for free, prompting public concerns about corruption, according to local media. Read more...

    Watch the youtube video below to see Vader’s visit to city hall.

    Darth Vader came to Odessa city council to ask for free land near the sea.

     

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  • Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

    Shirley Phelps Roper, member and spokesperson of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, protests outside the White House in Washington, DC on Oct. 5, 2010. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case challenging anti-gay protests at military funerals. Members of Westboro believe god is killing American soldiers for America's tolerance of homosexuality.

    Protect or prohibit?

    I support freedom of speech, but I struggle when I see these folks protesting at soldier funerals. It makes me wonder if a family’s grief should also be protected. This case is coming to the Supreme Court. How would you balance a family’s right to grieve in peace against this country’s need to protect political speech if you were a judge?

    See Newsweek.com's coverage for more information.