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The Wright Perspective℠
Social Commentary from the C-Suite to Main Street℠
A Blog by Gary Wright II
Karma in Kansas? Westboro Church tires were slashed at funeral protest on Friday
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Westboro Baptist Church held a protest at the funeral of Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey on Friday. Over 1,000 people chanted, "USA! USA!" and made enough noise to completely drown out the protesters.
Karma sometimes can be a real bitch! After protesting at the military funeral, the members of Westboro discovered their minivan had two slashed tires. None of the locals would assist them, so they drove away on two flat tires. Eventually, AAA towed them to a Wal-Mart to get their tires fixed.
After protesting at a military funeral, they should be grateful it was only their tires that were slashed and not their throats. Albert Snyder, the father of Marine Matthew Snyder told CNN: "Something is going to happen. Somebody is going to get hurt. You have too many soldiers and Marines coming back with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they (the Westboro protesters) are going to go to the wrong funeral and the guns are going to go off."
The Snyder family filed a lawsuit against the church, and the jury awarded them millions in damages. Westboro appealed the case up to the US Supreme Court who last week ruled in their favor by giving them protection under the First Amendment Right to Free Speech.
I feel so bad for the Snyder family. Their 20 year old son being killed was hard enough for them. They couldn't bury him in peace because of the Westboro protests. They won millions from a jury, but on an appeal the amount was reduced. Through all of these years of legal proceedings, the family has never been given a chance to grieve the loss of their son.
Here is the saddest part: Because the church finally won the case in court, the family is now stuck with all of the court costs and other legal bills. Al said, "The worst part of this is I know they are going to use that money to do this to other soldiers."
Can you imagine having to pay for the costs of the signs that were used to protest at the funeral of your own child?
A lot of celebrities have stepped forward to help and thousands of people have pledged to support this family. The attorney for the family is Sean Summers whose law firm took the case pro bono (for free). [Thank you Sean!!!]
For more information on the Snyder case visit: MatthewSnyder.org
Please do two things for me:
1. If Westboro Baptist Church holds a protest near you - please go there and help drown them out!
2. When the Reverend Fred Phelps dies, I want to see the world record broken for the "most attended funeral." I want to see thousands of people standing along the funeral route holding up the same signs that his church holds during their funeral protests.
Best regards,
-- Gary Wright II