from the Lake County News-Sun

'Laid to rest with dignity'

Durbin authors bill to protect veterans' funerals
(http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/172393,5_1_WA14_DURBIN_S1.article)

December 14, 2006

By JUDY MASTERSON jmasterson@scn1.com

GURNEE -- Bob Ochsner of Beach Park became emotional when he recalled the picketers who showed up a year ago at a memorial for his son -- Army Sgt. 1st Class James Ochsner, who was killed Nov. 15, 2005, in Afghanistan.

"They were carrying placards that said I'd go to hell and they were glad my son was dead," said Ochsner. "They have no idea the pain they're causing."

Ocshner and his wife, Sandra, attended a news conference held by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Wednesday at the Gurnee American Legion hall to publicize his authorship of the federal Respect for the Funerals of Fallen Heroes Act.

The bipartisan legislation, approved by the House and Senate last week and headed to the president to be signed into law, is aimed at limiting access to military funerals by groups like the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., which has demonstrated at 152 funerals around the nation since June 2005. Seventeen of those protests were in Illinois, including the funeral of Army 1st Lt. David Giaimo of Waukegan, killed Aug. 12, 2005, in Iraq.

"Our soldiers, our veterans and those fallen heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the good of our country deserve to be laid to rest with dignity," Durbin said. "This is a victory for our military personnel and their families."

While Illinois this year enacted the Let Them Rest in Peace Act, which creates a 300-foot "zone of privacy" between pickets and the site of a funeral service, Durbin said the federal legislation was needed because Westboro is challenging state laws.

"We worked with constitutional lawyers to address conduct, not content," Durbin said. "We're not going after the right to free speech."

The proposed law would make it a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by a fine or up to a year in jail, for anyone who disturbs the peace or impedes access to a military funeral location. Protesters would not be allowed within 150 feet of the funeral site and couldn't block access within 300 feet -- the length of a football field.

The new act will build on the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, signed into law in May, which prohibits demonstrations at and around federal cemeteries, by expanding the demonstration ban to the funerals of the approximately 700,000 U.S. veterans who die each year.

"The families of deceased veterans have enough on their minds trying to get their loved ones buried," said Legion Post Cmdr. Don Nys. "They don't need protesters chanting at a time like that."

Ochsner, a deacon at Our Lady of Humility Parish in Beach Park, said he prays for the members of Westboro Baptist.

"I feel sympathy for them," said Ochsner, whose oldest son, Master Sgt. Robert Ochsner is serving in Iraq. "They call themselves Christian, but they don't understand what Jesus Christ is all about."

Andre J. Jackson ? ajackson@scn1.com

Bob Ochsner of Beach Park pauses while addressing the media as Sen. Dick Durbin looks on Wednesday at the American Legion hall in Gurnee.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/172393,5_1_WA14_DURBIN_S1.article