Picketing Military Funerals Rant

LeeFlower · Feb 5, 2009

This is some serious blowing off of steam. Please feel free to boot it to TIO or delete it if it doesn't belong on AW. I'm not trying to offend anyone. Onward:

I attended a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery today. Guess who was standing outside the Metro gate holding "Thank God For Dead Soldiers" signs?

I'm disinclined to find hate groups charming at the best of times, but picketing funerals? That's just ****ed up. Truly, deeply ****ed up. I honestly cannot fathom how anyone can profess to love God when they spend their days dehumanizing and disrespecting people who've never done them an injury in this life. I'm not a biblical scholar, but I'm pretty sure that Christ was pretty clear on that point. Maybe I've just got a bad translation, and "love your neighbor as yourself" was supposed to read "There's not enough misery in the world, so please be as big an a-hole as possible to people who are grieving." Someone want to check their copy for me and report back? I looked around at a few others, but all I could find was "That which you have done to the least of these, you have done to me."

At least his family didn't arrive on the train. When the United States Marine Corps is handing you the purple heart they couldn't pin on your son, the last thing you need to deal with is total wackos exercising their first amendment right to be the unwashed bottom of humanity's bell curve.

Beach Bunny · Feb 5, 2009

I thought we learned NOT to do this kind of thing during/after the Vietnam War.

While I don't necessarily support the war, I do support the troops. Those people are just sick. Sick and twisted. And the irony is that American Soldiers swear an oath to defend the enemies of the constitution so assholes like that can stand out there with their signs.

TerzaRima · Feb 5, 2009

This was Fred Phelps and his gang of knuckle draggers, yes?

LeeFlower · Feb 5, 2009

Terza: Yup*. The picketers weren't even protesting the war. They were those Westboro wackjobs who believe that God kills troops to punish America for tolerating homosexuality.

People who can't summon up enough basic human empathy to be respectful of those who are mourning are not in a terribly good position to call others immoral.

(ETA: *just his knuckle-draggers, actually--he wasn't there. Isn't he dead?).

William Haskins · Feb 5, 2009

they're despicable.

free speech is a hell of a thing.

Greenify13 · Feb 5, 2009

I am one for free speech and all, trust me. But I believe with it becomes personal responsibility and self-restraint. This sickens me to my core, I have-lets say I know people serving, who have served and who have died; just so these backstabbing 'Americans' can have their preserved civil rights. You would think the least they can do, if they have these feelings, is keep their mouth shut. And respect the dignity of the buried, and their grieving families. (yes I realize this particular family did not arrive, but many more have felt the sting of 'free speech')

Joe270 · Feb 5, 2009

Please feel free to boot it to TIO or delete it if it doesn't belong on AW. I'm not trying to offend anyone.

There's no way you can offend anyone here with this, the offense is Phelps and his crowd's doing.

I seethe with hatred toward them. I want all the worst of pestilence to infect them and for them to suffer the worst of deaths. I long for a special circle of hell for them, where they will suffer for all eternity, 'til the last flower blooms, the last sunset, the last star blinks out which they won't see because they are writhing in agony in a pit of fire.

The worst of the irony is that those soldiers they disrespect are those who gave their lives supporting their right to disrespect those same soldiers.

kct webber · Feb 6, 2009

Are these ridiculous monkeys still doing that? Damn. I hadn't heard anything about them for a while. They were in my town a while back. I wanted to speed my car through the group of them.

I was a soldier. I've been shot at. I've been wounded. Twice. I've had a lot of friends and co-workers get killed in various places during their service.

I wouldn't be even a little sad if these asshats suffered a very pinpointed asteroid strike. And then went to hell.

And yet... I support their right to say every damn dispicable word of it. Though I'd cheer like a maniac when some soldier's father punched one of them in the neck.

KTC · Feb 6, 2009

It's beyond contempt. Disgusting.

KTC · Feb 6, 2009

Here's the treatment our military dead receive upon arriving back to Canada.

Send those filthy bastards up here. We'll figure out something nasty to do with them!

Angie · Feb 6, 2009

KTC said:
Send those filthy bastards up here. We'll figure out something nasty to do with them!

I'm sure they'd never go up there. Canada, being a different country and therefore "foreign", is Bad, meaning "destined for hell", as all countries other than the US are.

StevenJ · Feb 6, 2009

Apart from all their other offences against decency, Phelps's lot seem more interested in controversy than their supposed beliefs. And (judging by documentaries I've seen) the younger members appeared to cajoled, if not intimidated into holding those beliefs.

Whatever one's views on the various wars going on, or even on military service itself, it's utterly despicable to intrude on someone else's mourning.

Wayne K · Feb 6, 2009

Did none of our snipers survive Iraq? I'd throw a few rounds at or near these people as a show of free speech of my own.

KTC · Feb 6, 2009

Maybe you can forcibly draft them and set them down into a high danger zone.

Yeshanu · Feb 6, 2009

KTC said:
Maybe you can forcibly draft them and set them down into a high danger zone.

Don't we wish.

There was a thread about Phelps a while back wherein it was postulated that he does what he does for money.

He exercises his "right to free speech" in a despicable manner, someone attacks him physically, and he sues them for assault.

The way to extinguish unwanted behaviour is to ignore it. They couldn't stand that--money or no, Phelps is an attention whore.

Perks · Feb 6, 2009

What I hope is that these families don't feel any hurt over it. And I actually think that's possible. Phelps and his loonies are inconsequential (and incomprehensible) enough, that I can't even muster up real offense. It's like getting angry at birdshit.

I'm trying to put myself in the family's position and I think I might be able to ignore them and focus on what's important. Maybe.

I hope so.

Susie · Feb 6, 2009

Really awful that the picketers do that.

May the soldier who fought for our country to protect us R.I.P. and may his or her family find peace.

Yeshanu · Feb 6, 2009

Sometimes I feel sorry for the guy. Just a little bit, mind you. He truly is mentally ill.

Williebee · Feb 6, 2009

Hmm, here's a thought. Send them after Perks' mailbox.

Mr. Haskins pretty much nailed it down. Free speech can be a challenging thing. I would defend their right to be such asshats, but asshats they are. And getting in their face to tell them so wouldn't accomplish a thing.

hmm, I do miss living in D.C.

regdog · Feb 6, 2009

Fred Phelps and his ~~mindless drones~~ followers should remember the saying "It's better to say nothing and have people think you're stupid, than open your mouth and prove them right"

Small, ignorant pathetic people will use any opportunity to promote their views.

That said those fools would make wonderful SuperSoaker/Paintball targets

Wayne K · Feb 6, 2009

If anyone here lost someone they know in a war, whether they're lurking or what have you. This is my picket line, and I say THANK YOU!

AmyDoodle · Feb 6, 2009

I work for a small Methodist church in the South. Because we have new facilities that were appropriate to be able to serve the purpose, we had the funeral of a local fallen soldier here a year or so ago. Some of Phelps gang were here. There was a small group of them who set up shop on the corner across from the church.

But also, the Patriot Guard was here. This a group of veterans who ride motorcycles. They gathered from several states away and, armed with American flags, sat on their bikes and formed a barricade between the protesters and the church. Local newspapers gave coverage to them and the Phelps gang had to go without the fun of upsetting people or the joy of publicity.

It still gives me chills to remember the Patriot Guard holding the line of honor. God bless'em.

TerzaRima · Feb 6, 2009

Last year, a banker and scion of a prominent local family bludgeoned his wife and four young children to death, then committed suicide by driving his car into the guard rail on the highway. This is a smallish community, and people were devastated.

Anyway, the Phelps people showed up to picket the mass funeral, which was pretty unspeakable and included four small white coffins being borne out of the church. Why? Their press release said that because this is a university town known for being gay friendly, the murders were "God's judgment" on the city. They are asshats of the very first water.

LeeFlower · Feb 6, 2009

As a motorcyclist myself, I've considered joining the Patriot Guard. They're not exclusive to veterans--they welcome anyone, regardless of bike, service, or politics, to stand with them in protecting the sanctity and dignity of funeral services.

Though I wanted to flip the Westboro Wackos the bird as I passed them, I recognize that there's no point in feeding the trolls. I settled instead for a nodding my thanks to the police officers present for standing outside in the freezing cold to defend the constitution.

I honestly don't wish those wackos any ill will. Refusing to forgive is like drinking rat poison and expecting the rat to die, as they say. But I didn't see them outside when I was walking back from the service, and the station manager was yelling at someone to get on the train or get out of his station (I didn't see who he was yelling at), so in my own little head I like to imagine that somebody Got Told.

benbradley · Feb 6, 2009

LeeFlower said:
This is some serious blowing off of steam. Please feel free to boot it to TIO or delete it if it doesn't belong on AW. I'm not trying to offend anyone. Onward:

I attended a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery today. Guess who was standing outside the Metro gate holding "Thank God For Dead Soldiers" signs?

I'm disinclined to find hate groups charming at the best of times, but picketing funerals? That's just ****ed up. Truly, deeply ****ed up. I honestly cannot fathom how anyone can profess to love God when they spend their days dehumanizing and disrespecting people who've never done them an injury in this life. I'm not a biblical scholar, but I'm pretty sure that Christ was pretty clear on that point. Maybe I've just got a bad translation, and "love your neighbor as yourself" was supposed to read "There's not enough misery in the world, so please be as big an a-hole as possible to people who are grieving." Someone want to check their copy for me and report back? I looked around at a few others, but all I could find was "That which you have done to the least of these, you have done to me."

At least his family didn't arrive on the train. When the United States Marine Corps is handing you the purple heart they couldn't pin on your son, the last thing you need to deal with is total wackos exercising their first amendment right to be the unwashed bottom of humanity's bell curve.

I've got my own sign for them:
"Thank God <or Random Chance> These Brave Men Gave Their Lives To Protect Our Freedom To Live As We Want And Protest What We Want, No Matter How Stupid We Are."

So where was the Patriot Guard? I've mentioned this group in previous threads about Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist ~~church~~ family protesting military funerals:
http://www.patriotguard.org/

Is Phelps and gang not announcing what funerals they'll go to anymore, and showing up as a surprise?

Picketing Military Funerals Rant

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