What is a funeral? A funeral is a gathering of friends and family, an event designed to capture and celebrate the life of the deceased, and allow a community to grieve together. It’s a time of bonding, of setting aside differences, of release. Yet recently, a lot of publicity is being given to groups of protesters who show up to wave signs and chant at the funerals of U.S. veterans.
Classy. At the military funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder back in 2006, protesters from fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., stood outside waving signs that read “Thank God for IEDs,” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” Apparently, they feel that wars and terrorist actions around the world are God’s way of punishing us for the “sins” of homosexuality, rampant crime and STDs. The church’s founder, Fred Phelps, has been leading these pickets since 1991. This time, however, someone decided to fight back.
Snyder’s father, Albert, decided that even though it would cause his family additional hardship, he would sue Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church for emotional distress and invasion of privacy. He was awarded $11 million, which was later reduced to $5 million. Phelps argued that he and his following were perfectly within the rights of the First Amendment. The verdict was reversed, and Snyder was ordered to pay $16,510 to cover Westboro Baptist’s lawyer’s fees. He refused, and has taken his case all the way to the Supreme Court, where it will be heard this coming fall.
Death is always a tragic event. The first time I ever saw my father cry was when he got that early phone call from his brother, telling him that my grandfather had passed on. After the initial shock, paramount on everyone’s mind was the issue of raising airfare, allowing my father to return to England for the funeral. There was never any thought of not going. Expenses be damned. My grandmother and uncles needed the support, and Dad needed some closure. So, of course, the funds were raised and my father spent a week in the U.K.
Having witnessed firsthand what a family goes through when a loved one dies, it boggles my mind that anyone could use the anguished farewell ceremony of a complete stranger as a platform for political or social gain. It’s a soulless act of selfishness, completely throwing to the wind any sense of human decency in the face of another’s suffering and proffering a big middle finger to the universally accepted social norms regarding death.
Not only that, military funerals are considered even more sacred than those of regular citizens. There’s a reason they are conducted with such pomp and ceremony. Military service is a gift to one’s country: the essence of citizenship. You aren’t just protecting yourself or your neighbor; you’re protecting a way of life, without regard for personal safety or hardship. Payment for such a sacrifice is impossible. How can you place a price tag on the freedom of being able to roll out of bed in the morning and go about your daily existence without fear? The least we can do, therefore, is provide our warriors with a decent burial and show our veterans some modicum of respect.
Why should Snyder have to pay the bills of his harassers? He has done nothing except take offense at having the funeral of his beloved son interrupted by hooligans who welcomed the death as some sort of twisted message from God. He explains how he crept in through the back of the funeral parlor to avoid them, and how he tried to ignore their chants throughout the service. Is this what the father of one of America’s heroes has to go through? Is that just?
Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder gave his life defending his homeland from fanatical, delusional religious extremists in the Middle East. The sad truth is that his sacrifice is ironically being spat upon by equally obsessive zealots grown in his own backyard.
The Supreme Court needs to find in favor of Albert Snyder and come to its senses over this particular case of First Amendment rights. For too long that particular excuse has been used to explain away terrible acts committed by people who’ll do anything to promote their personal agendas. Finding the distinction between the ability to criticize the government or speak your mind without fear of reprisal and allowing a cult to stage self-promoting spectacles at the funerals of America’s chosen few doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch for our politicians.
After all, American soldiers have earned the right to rest in peace, and their families have lost enough without having to put up with the ravings of a spoiled and demented few.
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