I live north of
I have gone ahead of the main
group to Abraham Lincoln with Wolfman a few times and part of the PGR
experience is seeing the same faces at several funerals. This time I was in the company of guys I had
never met before, and who knew nothing of me.
Of course that didn’t matter to the mission. We all knew how to follow orders.
Unfortunately, the joker
in charge didn’t know how to give them.
Instead of simple instructions, he wanted to have conversations about
everything. Well, we were not in combat,
so what was the harm? In hindsight,
there was harm.
Our waiting time at the
cemetery was governed by the length of the service being given at a distant
church. It was an unseasonably hot day
and we sought the small comfort of the shade of a big tree near the cemetery
entrance. The National Guard guys were
in two groups, both near the grave. One
group was practicing folding a flag. The
other group was practicing aiming their rifles.
Our group was listening to
the joker in charge talk non-stop. It
became evident that he considered the spotlight to be on him and that he was
the star. He even brought his
girlfriend/wife along to see him in his glory.
I grew tired of the sound of his voice.
“Beans, boots and
bullets”, right? That is what every NCO
is supposed to be all about. I figured I
owed him respect – it would be embarrassing to everyone to have a conflict
right there in the cemetery. Then he
told a joke.
It wasn’t really a joke –
more of a story with a punch-line. His
captive audience was growing weary of him and he clearly wanted to force us to
love him. He said that the Patriot Guard
should announce a two-week stand-down so that all the Westboro people would
stay at home. He went on at length about
how we should assure them that we would be idle on the theory that they only
want to confront us, and that in our absence, they would huddle in their
compound near
The idiot.
His punchline was met with
silence. Maybe we were all tired of
hearing him carry-on, maybe it was just the heat of the day. I am inclined to believe that none of us
thought his suggestion was a good one.
Nor did we find it humorous.
Still, after an awkward silence, a few of us laughed about it just to
fill the void, and a couple of us even tried to make a favorable comment. I walked over to hang with the National Guard
guys.
In retrospect, I should
have confronted him forcefully right on the spot. Except for the joker in charge, we all would
have been inspired if I had said, “We do not honor this fallen hero by sitting
under a tree joking about how our government should kill our fellow Americans
because we don’t like what they have to say.”
I will always wish I had
spoken-up. That was my worst PGR
memory. My first PGR experience was
March 27th when I rode 250 miles in freezing temperatures because I
was inspired by the PGR mission statement. That feeling was reinforced as I stood
shoulder-to-shoulder with the other black leather jackets in front of a few
Westboro people chanting “God hates Private Yates”.
I remember feeling
compelled to look over my shoulder at them, only to be promptly corrected by
Larry Helser shouting at me, “Sir, don’t look at them! Turn your back on them Sir!”
I remember proudly
thinking, “Only in
Martin Luther King could
not have conceived of a better, or more American, way of defeating those
loudmouths. The Westboro people are
exploiting the First Amendment to be rude and even inflammatory. The brilliance of the Patriot Guard is that
we fight fire with fire, using the First Amendment and our status as invited
guests to neutralize and overcome their disrespect. We have limited control over how we are
portrayed in the media and I resent it when we are characterized as
counter-protestors. But we are never
characterized as thugs because we aren’t.
I remember the inspiration
I felt in a parking lot in
I remember the
determination I felt in a parking lot in Onalaska as a modest Henry Lange told
me what he hoped we would do for the fallen hero that day.
I remember the confidence
I felt in a parking lot in Osceola as Richard Wilbur described the impact we
have on the grieving families.
But there is no need for
the Patriot Guard if the job of enforcing courtesy is delegated to the
police. We can simply sit at home and
pay our taxes, confident that people with improper comments on their signs will
be ticketed.
Or maybe not. “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances.”
(1) free exercise of
religion, (2) freedom of expression and (3) freedom to peaceably assemble are
three reasons the government should not be ticketing the Westboro people. Besides, if a couple hundred bikers stand is
solemn silence holding flags, they look like fanatic idiots. If the cops ticket them, they are merely
scofflaws.
The cops I talk to at PGR
events know the various laws that have become fashionable are all
unconstitutional. But cops don’t write
law, they simply enforce it. So
responsibility shifts upstream to the legislators who voted to enact the flawed
law. But, like Senator Durbin, they are
simply catering to the perceived groundswell of enthusiasm for such laws. So ultimate responsibility shifts further
upstream to their constituents who clamor for government punishment of people
who exhibit bad taste.
And some of those
clamoring are members of the PGR. This
fellow, for example.
He has a PGR hat, a couple
of colorful patches and a tag that identifies him as a “Chaplain”. He says that it doesn’t matter what the
Westboro people put on their signs because he knows their hearts are dark. Their motives
are the reason they should all go to prison.
Also he instructs us to tear the Book of Leviticus out of our Bibles
because it doesn’t apply anymore. Let’s
put him in charge.
No doubt, when a judge
strikes down the
I met him three months ago
at the Shaun Novak funeral, but I write this after-the-fact on December 13th
because I have another nominee to put in charge of setting morality for the
rest of us. My wife has an
“interrogator” MOS. 18 months ago,
Senator Dick Durbin compared her to “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some
mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings.”
(This morning, the new
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy announced that the new
Majority Whip Richard Durbin “will chair a new subcommittee on human rights.
The new panel's agenda will include overseeing legislation on torture and
detainee treatment.” Swell.)
Yesterday, Durbin visited
American Legion Post 1207 in
Today he visited Post 771
in Gurnee with the Patriot Guard as window dressing:
I understand why Durbin
would want to associate himself with us.
Nazis, Soviets and Pol Pot would have been glad to have had us holding
flags in the background, too. But this is
not about what he wants. It is about
what is best for us and our sacred mission.
Even if I am wrong – even
if these laws are constitutional – even if we do want to associate ourselves
with him – still, do we want to advocate legislation? Wouldn’t that taint our reputation as an
honorable, respectful, charitable organization?
Wouldn’t we be just one more special interest group lobbying a
politician?
(Happily (in my opinion)
the local print media did not mention us and the ABC affiliate did not broadcast
the tape they made. Unhappily (in my
opinion) the paper did print a picture (similar to
mine, above) that partially shows the PRG flag in the background.)
I suppose that if the most
important thing is to keep the Westboro people away from funerals and we are
bound by the law, twisting the law to target their activities is a
solution. But if the most important
thing is to honor the fallen hero, to respect the values he stood for and to
protect American tradition, we should distance ourselves from these laws and
these politicians.
Only then will our actions
be as pure as our motives.