Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Veterans Shield Funeral from Bigots

In a story out of Michigan, hundreds of military veterans from around the state showed up to form a human shield around the church where the funeral of Army Corporal Nyle Yates III was being held.

The funeral of Yates, himself a victim of the War on Terratm in Iraq, was targeted by three koolaid-drinking homophobic bigots from Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church who carried signs claiming god killed Yates because he "defended" a country that supports homosexuality. (Of course we can make the obvious argument that our soldiers are not "defending" the US when they have been forced to engage in an illegal occupation of a sovereign nation that did not attack us, but that's another argument...)

In addition to carrying signs, the three men trailed an American flag on the ground and stepped on it. I'm surprised they didn't burn it. But that will come later -- that's my prediction -- and it will give aid and comfort to those among us who want a flag-burning amendment.

But back to the Westboro Boys: This is an ongoing problem with these neo-Nazi Christ-hating Bible-denying Xian fascists from bleeding Kansas -- they are making a career of spewing their venom at the funerals of soldiers who have died in action. And it's nothing new; the same dickwad disciples of the Rev. Fred Phelps, Acolyte of the Antichrist, also made an avocation of protesting at the funerals of AIDS victims in the 90s, holding up the same kinds of signs ("God Hates Fags", etc.).

I am glad to see that my fellow veterans are showing up at these military funerals in sufficiently intimidating numbers to keep the innocent family members shielded from these subhuman trolls. Keep it up, guys!

Finally, a confession: As much as I am a supporter of free speech -- and I believe it is very nearly absolute -- I also would have no problem taking, shall we say, a personal interest in stomping the shit out of these bigoted assholes. Call me hypocritical if you want, but freedom of speech does not mean freedom from accountability for the contents of that speech. While I believe that government has very little business regulating freedom of speech, I also believe that an individual (i.e., me) does not have to tolerate this bigoted hatred spewing forth from the facial gashes of these mouth-breathing morons at a funeral for a soldier killed in action.

In short, let's see them show up to try this shit in MY town.

5 Comments:

Granny said...

For the second time in around a month, they're planning to come to a town about 25 miles from me. They didn't show up the first time. The motorcycle riders plan to be there as well as many of us from PFLAG, Equality California, and other related groups.

I posted the Equality CA letter on isamericaburning and Worried American wrote a long post about Fred Phelps.

The man is pure evil.

Anonymous said...

Phelps is a loathsome prick. He and his band of inbreds often announce they will show up to protest, but seldom follow through. While he was protesting at the funerals of gay people & AIDS victims, there wasn't much public outrage, although Michael Moore featured him on an episode of his 'Awful Truth' series when he followed the Westboro Weenies around in the pink Sodomobile. Phelps apparently thought rather highly of Saddam and I think I read somewhere that he even went to Iraq to protest those fags, the Clintons. That's probably why he is now picketing funerals of American service members that died in Iraq.

As if that wasn't sickening enough, evidently, he is a also a long-time registered Democrat. (I know we've got a big tent, but did we really have to let him in?) He held fund raisers for Gore. There are pictures of the Phelps with Tipper & Al. I think Phelps himself ran for office as a Dem.

Rumor has it that his wife is a lawyer who specializes in lawsuits against anyone who gets physical with the group during their little hatefests. They always videotape the events so they have evidence for these lawsuits. The out-of-court settlements provide funding for their 'church'. So, any smack-downs only further their cause financially.

Phelps is a phear-mongering, phag-hating phucker.

Kilgore Trout said...

Damn, this is such a tough subject because freedom of speech is so important to me, but this is simply disgusting. Im having a hard time thinking of a way to stop them without infringing on the first amendment. But heres and altogether different solution, does this group ever show up in florida? in case you dont know what thats in reference to florida passed a law which makes it legal to shoot a person if they make you feel threatened. you could try to have a normal converstation with the person and as soon as they started getting angry you could shoot them. Im not saying its a perfect plan but it would get the point across.

Farnsworth68 said...

Hey, L.J.--
Welcome to OPOVet. Thanks for your post.
I'll keep a good thought for you, brother. Hope to see you on the flip side when you get out of there.
--The F Man

Anonymous said...

The best way to deal with these
"true believers" is to augment the motorcycle riders with an "action team" of 5-10 people armed with Super Soaker water guns filled with sticky grape juice. When they begin their deed, cool'em off with some sweet, sticky grape juice. Teammembers should beware that these "Christians" are all attorneys who rely on frivolous lawsuits as their meal tickets.