SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
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- Sep 23, 2003
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If I had known about this I would have been there.
Protest sparks tension, but ends peacefully
By DAPHNE DURET
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 23, 2008
STUART — When Vic Marciano came back from the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, he got off a plane in California and walked, leg wounded, across the airport as anti-war protesters booed, cursed and spit at him.
On Friday, he stood across the street from Veterans Memorial Park in Stuart and stared at Sarah Phelps. She smiled at him, holding up a sign that read "God Hates Your Tears."
"It was a flashback," Marciano said. "It did bring back some memories."
Marciano said it made him angry to see Phelps and the other picketers, part of an anti-military hate group, show up to a planned memorial service at the Stuart park for soldiers from eight counties around southern Florida who died in combat.
The picketers, members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, held up signs with anti-gay messages along with slogans like "God Killed Your Sons," a message to the military who they say their God hates. The group believes events like Friday's are "hero worship" and "worship of the dead."
News that about a dozen protesters would be at the event brought out increased crowds, some of whom began singing patriotic songs as the protesters held up signs.
Col. Michael Roberts, board chairman for both the Victory Forge Military Academy and the Road to Victory Museum, who set up more than 2,100 crosses and flags for the event, said the official count of supporters neared 2,000 people at the height of the event.
"Their message was just drowned out," Roberts said of the protesters. "What we're trying to show people is that this is what Memorial Day is about. It's not about the retail sales or about worshiping people, it's about respecting the people who have given up their lives so that those people could have the freedom to protest."
When the protesters sang, hundreds of bikers who rode to the event revved up their engines to drown out their songs.
Tamara Moyer, 31, of Stuart, showed up to the event and countered their signs with her own: "Ignore the Idiots, My God Does Not Hate" it read. "The God I was raised to believe in is a forgiving God," Moyer said. "He doesn't like sin, but he doesn't hate people."
Moyer walked by the group with her sign, but hers was among the only signs from supporters.
A group of bikers - which at one point included Marciano and his friends - who drove down from Palm Bay to attend the gathering stood a few feet away from the protesters and at times hurled heated words at them.
Maricano said he saw Phelps, a granddaughter of the group's leader Fred Phelps, mouth the words "God killed your sons," to him over and over again.
Phelps was still smiling near the end of the protests, which she said was a success.
"They're a bunch of God-rejecting freaks," she said, raising her voice as the bikers began singing. "Yikes. And they're singing isn't the best, either."
Phelps and the other picketers, which included a child, packed up their signs and walked away a few minutes before the memorial service began.
Stuart police officials escorted them away from the area as a few people yelled for them to go back home.
During the memorial service, Marciano sat with friends and fellow veterans Thomas Wirtz, 60, and Chris Hamrick, 43, veterans of the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm, respectively, who were also wounded.
Marciano said there was one big difference about the hate he encountered after Vietnam and his interaction with Phelps - something he hopes every soldier has.
"Back then, when I encountered hate, I really didn't have anyone that I could talk to," he said. "People around me, my neighbors even, for years didn't know that I had been in combat. Today, I have these guys."
Then again I might not have had the self restraint needed to not beat the living shit out of them.
Cat
Protest sparks tension, but ends peacefully
By DAPHNE DURET
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 23, 2008
STUART — When Vic Marciano came back from the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, he got off a plane in California and walked, leg wounded, across the airport as anti-war protesters booed, cursed and spit at him.
On Friday, he stood across the street from Veterans Memorial Park in Stuart and stared at Sarah Phelps. She smiled at him, holding up a sign that read "God Hates Your Tears."
"It was a flashback," Marciano said. "It did bring back some memories."
Marciano said it made him angry to see Phelps and the other picketers, part of an anti-military hate group, show up to a planned memorial service at the Stuart park for soldiers from eight counties around southern Florida who died in combat.
The picketers, members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, held up signs with anti-gay messages along with slogans like "God Killed Your Sons," a message to the military who they say their God hates. The group believes events like Friday's are "hero worship" and "worship of the dead."
News that about a dozen protesters would be at the event brought out increased crowds, some of whom began singing patriotic songs as the protesters held up signs.
Col. Michael Roberts, board chairman for both the Victory Forge Military Academy and the Road to Victory Museum, who set up more than 2,100 crosses and flags for the event, said the official count of supporters neared 2,000 people at the height of the event.
"Their message was just drowned out," Roberts said of the protesters. "What we're trying to show people is that this is what Memorial Day is about. It's not about the retail sales or about worshiping people, it's about respecting the people who have given up their lives so that those people could have the freedom to protest."
When the protesters sang, hundreds of bikers who rode to the event revved up their engines to drown out their songs.
Tamara Moyer, 31, of Stuart, showed up to the event and countered their signs with her own: "Ignore the Idiots, My God Does Not Hate" it read. "The God I was raised to believe in is a forgiving God," Moyer said. "He doesn't like sin, but he doesn't hate people."
Moyer walked by the group with her sign, but hers was among the only signs from supporters.
A group of bikers - which at one point included Marciano and his friends - who drove down from Palm Bay to attend the gathering stood a few feet away from the protesters and at times hurled heated words at them.
Maricano said he saw Phelps, a granddaughter of the group's leader Fred Phelps, mouth the words "God killed your sons," to him over and over again.
Phelps was still smiling near the end of the protests, which she said was a success.
"They're a bunch of God-rejecting freaks," she said, raising her voice as the bikers began singing. "Yikes. And they're singing isn't the best, either."
Phelps and the other picketers, which included a child, packed up their signs and walked away a few minutes before the memorial service began.
Stuart police officials escorted them away from the area as a few people yelled for them to go back home.
During the memorial service, Marciano sat with friends and fellow veterans Thomas Wirtz, 60, and Chris Hamrick, 43, veterans of the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm, respectively, who were also wounded.
Marciano said there was one big difference about the hate he encountered after Vietnam and his interaction with Phelps - something he hopes every soldier has.
"Back then, when I encountered hate, I really didn't have anyone that I could talk to," he said. "People around me, my neighbors even, for years didn't know that I had been in combat. Today, I have these guys."
Then again I might not have had the self restraint needed to not beat the living shit out of them.
Cat
