Sad and Disgusted....

I wrote this blog a few weeks ago and was hesitant to post it because, with my current situation, I don’t want to deal with hearing other people’s dramatic bullshit if they disagree with my political or religious views, I have enough to deal with already…This is a personal venue.  If you don’t like it, stop reading. Go reply on your blog or wherever …just don’t come at me right now…essentially, I could care less if you disagree with me.

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It seems that this blog has become a venue for venting for me. If only a place for me to express opinions on topics of which I am passionate, particularly when I am pissed off. Previously, my blog entries have taken a humorous undertone, even if the subject is not humorous, i.e. “Dear Michelle Obama.” However, today as I sat in the Dallas Airport waiting for my connection flight back to DC, I was already missing my husband, who I left in Cali, worrying about when I would see him again as he prepares for deployment. While perusing some pictures from our time together, I looked up to see what was on the news. Immediately, I saw a hot topic headline flash across the screen….”Are funeral protests free speech?” It was followed by images of angry Americans holding horrific signs along a funeral procession route…..

“You are going to Hell!”

 “God Hates America!”

“Thank God for Dead Soldiers!”

“Thank God for IEDs!”

They showed the protestors outside the funeral home and cemetery. The family had to be maneuvered around back and use a service entrance as not to be further harassed as they entered the funeral home.  I couldn’t believe my eyes. How DISRESPECTFUL!!! I became violently angry, putting myself in the shoes of that fallen military members’ family….What if he was married? What if he had children? He was someone’s CHILD! How DARE you infringe on his family’s mourning time!

Sitting in this terminal, watching this news story, thinking of the possibility of my children being that lead car seeing those signs of hatred and ignorance, I am brought to tears. The anger and hurt that his mother must feel. I can’t imagine what kind of sick outrageous monster would think it would be okay to demonstrate in this forum.

I don’t care if you don’t support the war. The luxury to express your personal politics is one of the freedoms afforded us by the very life that you are protesting. Again… I could care less what your personal thoughts on the war are. BUT you have to support the service members. Many of them don’t necessarily agree with why they’re fighting. However, they believe in their country and the freedoms that our country provides its citizens and they made a promise to protect it. They’re just doing their jobs. Lord knows I was the farthest thing from a supporter of Bush and this war but I support my husband. I support my husband’s co-workers, my fellow military spouses and all their families.

Haven’t we learned anything from how we treated our returning Vietnam veterans? Now don’t get me wrong…I support your right to freedom of speech. Please go ahead and protest and stand up for what you believe in…..in the appropriate time and place. Protest outside every base, the White House and Congress. Go ahead and protest at my husband’s homecoming, at his retirement ceremony, wherever….I don’t care. It’s your right. But let a grieving family grieve. THAT is a human right!

I am an Indian woman and come from a family of activists and protestors. My grandmother was at Wounded Knee in 1973, my mother was on the Longest Walk in 1978 and I’ve joined my family to protest the murder of Melvin Coombs and Indian Hate Crimes in Rhode Island, as well as protesting against racist Indian mascots in Connecticut. I am no stranger to protests and picket lines; that is the beauty of our Constitution and the rights it upholds for all our citizens. However, I was raised with respect for other human beings, despite our differences. Clearly, that was left out of your upbringing.

These anti-Semitic and anti-gay protestors are a church group from Kansas and spew about the wrath of their God and that it is his fury with the US’s toleration of homosexuality is causing the justified death of our military members and most recently…the Coal Miners in West Virginia. Conversely, what about your Christian Priest pedophiles? Why is your God not smiting them and the priesthood for making excuses and cover-ups?  Isn’t turning a blind eye not along the same lines as tolerance? History is overloaded with atrocious measures that have been taken against human beings in the name of your God. I’m trying to understand your reasoning and justification for one person deserving to die for what you identify as being an ultimate sin and then turning a blind eye to the other offences?

If God hates Americans and America is doomed, as you preach, for their acceptance of Jewish people and homosexuality, why not move? Get the fuck out…that’s always an option and a freedom you have as an American citizen.

Today, (4/19/10), the Westboro Baptist Church is protesting at the memorial of PFC Jonathan Hall in Chattanooga, TN. This statement was on their website, “ Pfc. Hall gave his life for the Constitutional right of WBC to warn America. To deny us our First Amendment rights is to declare to the world that Pfc. Hall died in vain, and that America is a nation of sodomite hypocrites.” It turns my stomach and weighs so heavy on my heart for his family and friends that they would turn and twist the death of this young man to serve their own hateful agenda…. PFC Hall was a combat medic, like my husband, and died April 8 in Afghanistan from a roadside bomb. He was 23 years old.

Now, let this serve as fair warning, my husband and his fellow military members also fight for our right to bear arms. One day you might “preach” to a military family that chooses to exercise that right…. Would that be God’s wrath if someone beat you senseless with a baseball bat? Just askin’. So, God Forbid, I am put in a position where you have an opportunity to protest….I warn you…don’t. If I were mourning my husband and found protestors disrespecting his life along a funeral procession, I would spin off into a dimension of pissed off I have never experienced in my life.

So, Hand Over the Coffee…and some basic human respect, please.