Patriot Guard Riders

If a person looses their life whilst serving their country I believe that respect must be shown to the greiving family as this is the ultimate sacrifice that can be made. I recently read on the VTX forum about a mob who seek out and actively protest at the funerals of killed service personnel in the US. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church (church?? - huh) attend funerals chanting and holding signs that say "Thank God for dead soldiers". They also produce leaflets like this. What absolute and utter wankers!! People are entitled to their opinions on war but to invade a very personal and very private moment for a family like this is going too far - these freaks are way out of line.

There is a group of people called the Patriot Guard Riders who attend these funerals and try to shield the grieving families from these morons, using their bikes to drown out any chanting and positioning themselves so that the protestors are not visible to any of the family. These guys also attend many funerals where there are no idiot protestors, offering their support and showing that people do care. Some of the PGR spend many hours travelling to and from these funerals and do all of this out of respect for their fallen contrymen. I think that is fantastic.

Check out KT Did's blog - she attended one of these funerals and gives a great account of what it was like. Well done KT for showing your support - I know if we had a similar situation down here I would be doing the same.