Almost two weeks ago a helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan rescuing two wounded British soldiers. Four airmen were killed while three more are still fighting for their lives.
My best friend was on that flight and didn’t make it. He and I were like brothers, he was supposed to be my best man but then he got deployed. It is a very sad situation all around.
His funeral was today and luckily nothing happened, (so I heard. I wasn’t able to go. I was able to go to his memorial at Nellis AFB and that was hard enough to deal with).
But one of the four killed is having his funeral tomorrow and that “church” has decided to protest. I really hope they don’t. I doubt that any family and friends will let those people protest without a fight.
Really, protesting a fallen soldier’s funeral? Even if you disagree with the war these people were genuinely saving other people’s lives. Allied, American, Afghani, it didn’t matter. My friend had over a hundred saves while over there.
These men were genuinely fucking heroes. I really hope one day someone takes a bat to the heads of all those members of that crazy ass church and then gets off scott free.
Where were those biker assholes when it was just AIDS victims getting picketed? It’s easy to do it for the military. They refuse to show up for any of the Phelps clan’s targets who aren’t military. They’re phonies and hypocrites. They don’t impress me. They’re getting cheap applause. They didn’t give a shit about Matthew Shepard. The people who did the exact same thing when Pheps was only targeting fags, and who did so without trying to draw as much attention as possible to their own noble selves get the props from me. It’s extremely easy to show up and wave a flag at a military funeral. Nothing courageous about it. Cheap, easy glory.
I’m a dickhead? I’m not the one refusing to help the families of gay people…
My sincere condolences to Rand for the loss of his friend. That’s got nothing to do with my irritation at a bunch of hypocritical, glory-seeking Ted Nugents on motorcycles. If they really gave a shit, they’d help anyone who asked, not just opt for the most self-serving photo-ops.
This is something that annoys the hell out of me about conservatives and the conservative media in general. Phelps harrassed the families of AIDS victims and murder victims for years and conservatives never gave a shit. Once Phelps starting targeting vets, all of a sudden they cared. Well, it’s too little too late. They can go fuck themselves now. They were nowhere to be found when it was just fags being targeted.
Once again, Rand, my sincere condolences on the loss of your friend. It sounds like he really did die a hero, which is how we should all want to die. I don’t want that sentiment to be lost in th other stuff.
No, you’re just hijacking the thread over irrelevancies. Your motivations are not the same as everybody else’s, and your negativity does nothing to console RandMcnally over the loss of his friend or his comrades. Your agenda has no place here.
Can’t you just be a human being for once instead of trolling someone else’s thread for the attention you are clearly so desperate for?
A friend of a friend of my brother was shot down in a helicopter, and the funeral is tomorrow. I investigated online to see if that was the scheduled picket, and it is not, but looking at the website of the Westboro picket schedule made me feel like punching necks.
I was going to suggest that there needs to be an anti-Westboro organization, that follows them from picket to picket, shouting louder and holding more clever signs (the organization could be called PHAGS, an acronym for PHelps is the Anti-God, or the Eastboro Awesomists or something).
Further internet investigating shows that, while there might not be an actual PHAGS-like organization, people routinely show up to protest the protesters.
Click this link to enjoy the clever signage of the anti-Phelps picketers.
Even if you can’t be there personally to out-picket the hatemongers, at least you know that there are other people who can. It’s not as satisfying as a punch to the neck, but it is something.
Phelps was picketing gay people and AIDS victims for years and years, and nobody gave a shit. Now that he’s picketing fallen soldiers . . . true heroes . . . people act like he just started doing this a few years ago. If it hadn’t been for the wars nobody would still give a shit.
This is not about trolling; it’s about all of us being in the same boat.
Phelps and WBC won themselves a whole lot more publicity when they hit upon the idea of going after soldiers’ funerals, but they were met with counter-protests before then, too. Friends of mine participated in such, before 2001.
The Patriot Guard at military funerals make a point of not engaging the WBC people; they just provide a barrier between WBC and funeral, and a show of support for the fallen and family. But the publicity generated by the military funerals has, if anything, bolstered the pro-gay/pro-tolerance counter-protests that meet the WBC everywhere else.
In a weird way, Phelps himself is responsible for increasing the prominence of, and sympathy for, pro-gay demonstrators.
Airman, I agree with Dio. If they were really serious about it, they would go to non military funerals also. Think of it like the PETA joke, it is easy to throw red paint on a society dame in furs, not so easy to throw it on a hells angel in a leather jacket.
And I spent 20 years with my husband in the military, and my entire life with my friends and family in the military. Dio is not trolling the thread, he is stating a simple fact. Injustice happens to all not just selected ones. Westboro certainly pickets anybody and everybody that pretty much arent them so why arent the bikers at every picket opportunity that they can go to?
My condolences to you Rand. Truly awful what you have to go through.
I’m gay, if it matters.
I am more than willing to cut some slack here.
I have no problem with folks reacting more to something when it hits closer to home. (Human nature being what it is)
I may be passive about the plight of people with <x> cancer until it hits someone I love. And I might take flack thereafter because I am not paying as much attention to <y> cancer or some orphan disease.
If this results in “Now that I understand from personal experience how hurtful their actions can be, and I can more empathize with others they have hurt.” so much the better, but I do not see that as mandatory.
ETA: Granted, I would have reacted differently if it resulted in “Why don’t they go back to bashing fags like they should” I might react differently. But I hasten to add that obviously, this is not the case here.
The Patriot Guard came into existence because of the funeral protests. They are mostly veterans themselves, standing up to honor the memories of other veterans, policemen, and firefighters. They appear by invitation from the family of the deceased. They are not a gay rights organization, nor to they have any obligation to be. What they do is impose a physical barrier between the grieving families and the WBC crowd. Bashing them for not being something they never intended to be is just muddle headed.
But given that Dio hates them so much, I think I’m going to send them a donation today.
Yeah, can you really criticize someone for not taking on everything? Not everyone has the resources to right every wrong. Isn’t that like saying, “Oh, you’re raising money for Parkinson’s? You know that doesn’t affect as many people as HIV–why aren’t you raising money for that cause?” I don’t think they should have to take on every Westboro related cause if they don’t want to.
They also refuse to help the families of any Phelps targets that aren’t vets (i.e they don’t want anything to do with queers). They don’t give a fuck about those other grieving families. The notion that Phelps’ victims only deserve dignity and protection if they’re veterans is an offensive one. They’re attention whoring hypocrites and nothing more.
I can criticize people for sitting around and watching people get victimized for years and not caring, then all of a sudden deciding to “help” when the victims are more popular.