By Lyta Ringo –
The Westboro Baptist Church has made its mark all around the world. They’re known for protesting at funerals holding signs using anti-semantic sayings on them. The church members picketed the funeral of a fallen soldier, because they say they believe America tolerates homosexuals. The church was taken to the Supreme Court by the family of a York man whose funeral they disrupted. The court ruled the first amendment more important than privacy laws.
Westboro members had planned on showing up to the funeral held by a local family who had lost seven of their eight children to a fire that broke out in their home. However many local residents and members of other counties weren’t going to let that happen.
Bill Raber was among one of the many motorcyclists there to protect the family from the church’s protests.
“We’re here to make sure that these babies rest in piece [and] have a peaceful ending today,” said Raber in a local news report.
The only child to survive the fire was Leah Clouse, three years old.
The Westboro church decided to stay away from the Clouse funeral, making the bikers wonder… why did they make the threat of showing up in the first place?
“They go by the first amendment, we could always go by the second amendment,” said one of the motorcyclists known as Utz.
The amendment comment was in no way meant as a threat. In a video shot by WHTM, the bikers stated that they were only present at the funeral for a human shield. They did not want violence, but they want these people to stop and give the seven children a peaceful resting.
“They shouldn’t be protesting a funeral where seven kids died,” said Dakota Jordan, “they have nothing to do with what these church members support.”
Due to the no-show by Westboro Baptist Church, no violence or protest took place at the funeral, and all seven children were laid to rest peacefully.
The seven children, Christina 11, Isabelle 9, Brady 7, Hannah 6, Heidi 4, Miranda 1, and Samantha 9months old were all buried side-by-side.
An interesting discussion is value comment. I believe that you must write more on this matter, it might not be a taboo subject but typically individuals are not sufficient to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers