update on tomorrow - PEACE is the word, so far
this was posted on the evansvillescene.com forum earlier today:
----NEWS FLASH-----
We're trying to divert attention from the militant hate group--godhatesfags.
Tomorrow, 11AM there will be a walk down Main St. to riverside, then to the four freedoms monument to hold a prayer for the Pfender family, our soldiers,sailors, and the hate group.
If you want to show your support be there or tell everyone you know about it. We'll be carrying a banner---If I have not love, I am nothing.
Please spread the word.
This was posted in today's paper:
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_4373778,00.html
Vets to ignore protesters
'We're here to honor a fallen comrade and pay tribute to his family'
By JOHN LUCAS Courier & Press Western Kentucky bureau (270) 333-4899 or jlucas@evansville.net
January 9, 2006
Leaders of area veterans organizations called on their members Sunday to turn their backs on protesters expected at the funeral Tuesday of an Evansville soldier killed in Iraq.
Mark Acker, Vanderburgh County's veterans service officer, told the nearly 100 people who gathered Sunday: "Our theme is we're here to honor a fallen comrade and pay tribute to his family."
The veterans gathered at the Coliseum on Sunday afternoon to plan their response to the threatened protest by a Kansas-based group that has been called a hate group. Evansville police special operations Sgt. Chris Pugh urged those planning to attend the funeral at The Centre to refrain from confrontation or violence with the demonstrators.
Army Pvt. Jonathan Pfender, 22, a member of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., was killed Dec. 30 by a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq.
Last week, representatives of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., which uses such settings to draw attention to its radical, anti-gay platform, have said they will display placards with anti-gay slogans outside The Centre.
The church describes the deaths of soldiers, regardless of their sexual preference, as evidence of God's judgment against America for its tolerance of homosexuals. Recent natural disasters in the United States are further signs of this, according to the group, which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Hundreds of area veterans, including two motorcycle organizations, have indicated they plan to attend the funeral in an effort to shield Pfender's family from seeing or hearing the protesters.
The group has staged protests at other military funerals recently and has said it will protest at funerals for the West Virginia coal miners killed last week in a mine explosion.
"I can understand why you're going to be as mad as you're going to be," Pugh said. "But whatever they say, you've just got to let it go."
"For God's sake - and I beg you," Acker said, "if you've got a person who can't control his anger, snatch him up, calm him down, send him home. We can't afford a confrontation."
"They are not going to get our goat," Vanderburgh County Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave told the veterans. "How dare this group co-op this funeral to make some purely disgusting point.
"If they drag the flag burning down the street, we'll be there to sweep up the ashes," Musgrave said.
Acker and others said the protest group was only looking for opportunity to sue the city or the veterans organizations.
Some attending the meeting expressed disappointment that the Evansville Courier & Press and other news organizations publicized the group's plan to protest at the funeral.
Pugh said Westboro representatives contacted the Evansville Police Department on Saturday to say the protest group would consist of 12 to 20 women who would only hold signs with slogans and would be there for only 45 minutes. Pugh said they told police no children would be involved, as they have been in some previous protests.
Pugh said the protest group will be restricted to the public sidewalks, and no one will be allowed to block them. Protesters will not be allowed into The Centre, the funeral home or the cemetery, he said.
The Police Department, Pugh said, will have a zero-tolerance policy on law violations.
"From the Police Department standpoint, we're as prepared for this as anything in a long time," he said.
Police, he said, likely will block access to the still unfinalized route from The Centre to Sunset Memorial Park, where Pfender is to be buried.
----NEWS FLASH-----
We're trying to divert attention from the militant hate group--godhatesfags.
Tomorrow, 11AM there will be a walk down Main St. to riverside, then to the four freedoms monument to hold a prayer for the Pfender family, our soldiers,sailors, and the hate group.
If you want to show your support be there or tell everyone you know about it. We'll be carrying a banner---If I have not love, I am nothing.
Please spread the word.
This was posted in today's paper:
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_4373778,00.html
Vets to ignore protesters
'We're here to honor a fallen comrade and pay tribute to his family'
By JOHN LUCAS Courier & Press Western Kentucky bureau (270) 333-4899 or jlucas@evansville.net
January 9, 2006
Leaders of area veterans organizations called on their members Sunday to turn their backs on protesters expected at the funeral Tuesday of an Evansville soldier killed in Iraq.
Mark Acker, Vanderburgh County's veterans service officer, told the nearly 100 people who gathered Sunday: "Our theme is we're here to honor a fallen comrade and pay tribute to his family."
The veterans gathered at the Coliseum on Sunday afternoon to plan their response to the threatened protest by a Kansas-based group that has been called a hate group. Evansville police special operations Sgt. Chris Pugh urged those planning to attend the funeral at The Centre to refrain from confrontation or violence with the demonstrators.
Army Pvt. Jonathan Pfender, 22, a member of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., was killed Dec. 30 by a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq.
Last week, representatives of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., which uses such settings to draw attention to its radical, anti-gay platform, have said they will display placards with anti-gay slogans outside The Centre.
The church describes the deaths of soldiers, regardless of their sexual preference, as evidence of God's judgment against America for its tolerance of homosexuals. Recent natural disasters in the United States are further signs of this, according to the group, which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Hundreds of area veterans, including two motorcycle organizations, have indicated they plan to attend the funeral in an effort to shield Pfender's family from seeing or hearing the protesters.
The group has staged protests at other military funerals recently and has said it will protest at funerals for the West Virginia coal miners killed last week in a mine explosion.
"I can understand why you're going to be as mad as you're going to be," Pugh said. "But whatever they say, you've just got to let it go."
"For God's sake - and I beg you," Acker said, "if you've got a person who can't control his anger, snatch him up, calm him down, send him home. We can't afford a confrontation."
"They are not going to get our goat," Vanderburgh County Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave told the veterans. "How dare this group co-op this funeral to make some purely disgusting point.
"If they drag the flag burning down the street, we'll be there to sweep up the ashes," Musgrave said.
Acker and others said the protest group was only looking for opportunity to sue the city or the veterans organizations.
Some attending the meeting expressed disappointment that the Evansville Courier & Press and other news organizations publicized the group's plan to protest at the funeral.
Pugh said Westboro representatives contacted the Evansville Police Department on Saturday to say the protest group would consist of 12 to 20 women who would only hold signs with slogans and would be there for only 45 minutes. Pugh said they told police no children would be involved, as they have been in some previous protests.
Pugh said the protest group will be restricted to the public sidewalks, and no one will be allowed to block them. Protesters will not be allowed into The Centre, the funeral home or the cemetery, he said.
The Police Department, Pugh said, will have a zero-tolerance policy on law violations.
"From the Police Department standpoint, we're as prepared for this as anything in a long time," he said.
Police, he said, likely will block access to the still unfinalized route from The Centre to Sunset Memorial Park, where Pfender is to be buried.