Mom of fallen Guardsman needs help fighting Westboro

Patty Sourivong thought she heard the worst words when she was told her son was killed serving in Iraq. Then came news that Westboro was going to to picket the funeral. This meant her son was selected as a target. They don't protest every military funeral. They pick the ones they think will get them the most attention. It also meant that Westboro stalked the family, showing up at the funeral.

The Westboro Group has lawyers that can fight any legal battle for free. Some of them are lawyers. They manage to be protected under free speech and as a "church" so the law protects whatever they do more than they protect the families they target. There is so much wrong here it is hard to know where to begin.

Free speech is important and needs to be defended, no matter what people want to say, but this isn't about free speech. No one has tried to silence them, even though most people in this country wish they would stop. What this is about is forcing families to listen to them, see their signs at the moment they are trying to bury someone they love.

Mother of fallen 'Ironman' soldier fighting ruling on funeral protests

By MARK CARLSON, mark.carlson@sourcemedia.net
Thursday, March 17, 2011

IOWA CITY --- The mother of a fallen soldier wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling that permits protesters outside military funerals. Patty Sourivong said she is launching a campaign to collect signatures from others who, like her, don't support the ruling.

"Everyone who signs it is a voice for those soldiers," she said.

The ruling was in favor of members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who have protested at hundreds of military funerals nationally. The group says the casualties are God's way of punishing America for tolerating homosexuality.

Spc. Kampha Sourivong, an Iowa City West High School graduate and a member of the Iowa Army National Guard 1st Battalion 133rd Infantry "Ironman Battalion," headquartered in Waterloo, was killed by enemy fire while serving in Iraq in 2006. Members of the church traveled from Kansas to picket at his funeral.

"They're just plain heartless," his mother said. "Who goes to a service or a gravesite to picket somebody?"
read more here
Mother of fallen Ironman soldier fighting ruling on funeral protests

The rest of us have the right to listen or walk away. We have the right to read something or avoid it. The court managed to protect kids from having to see x-rated magazines by passing laws but they can't manage to pass a law to protect families during a funeral? Free speech only means something when people are also free to listen or not. Being forced to listen to it during a funeral with a captive audience is not free speech. Sourivong needs all the help she can get to fight for all the other families to come so they won't have to feel her pain.