When Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder lost his life in Iraq on March 3, 2006, he set into motion a chain of events that leaves me wondering when the Constitution of the United States of America was shredded and discarded like so much junk mail.
Although Lance Corporal Snyder died in a non-combat related vehicle accident, he’d gone to Iraq to serve his country. His inner call to duty came just months after he’d graduated high school in 2003. Enlisting in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Matthew was assigned, in August of 2004, to the Combat Logistics Battalion 7. This battalion was deployed to Iraq, where Matthew met his death.
As Matthew’s body was en route back to his native Maryland, his grieving family planned, and indeed anticipated, a solemn ceremony commemorating his life and commending him to his Maker. The family was denied this right when a Mr. Phelps and members of his Westboro Baptist Church burst into the proceedings with jeers and placards dishonoring the dead Marine. The family was so shaken and righteously insulted that Matthew’s father, Al Snyder, filed a civil lawsuit against the offending parties; he had hoped that this action would prevent other military families from suffering in the same manner.
Al won the first round in court. However, on an appeal, the judge reversed the decision, citing the defendant’s “right to free speech.” To add further insult to injury, the dead soldier’s father was slapped with court fees of $16,000! Refusing to have his son’s sacrifice desecrated, Al then brought the case before the Supreme Court, where it awaits a decision.
I learned of this deplorable case through journalist Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, who was so outraged that he offered to pay the $16,000 in honor of the fallen Marine. I don’t know about you, but I am just as angered as Bill. Something is seriously amiss in our society when we ask that men such as Mathew Snyder defend our country with their very lives while we, in return, refuse to defend them against unjustifiable affronts — and abuse the Constitution in so doing.
Recently, President Obama surprised our troops in Afghanistan with an unannounced visit. In a soul-stirring speech in which he vowed to pursue our enemies aggressively and win the war, Mr. Obama also gave his solemn promise that the troops’ families would be cared for while the soldiers themselves “finished the job.” The part about caring for soldiers’ families seems mere rhetoric in light of the Snyder case now pending before the Supreme Court. As Commander-in-Chief, I feel that our President’s voice should carry more than rhetoric. It should defend Matthew Snyder as well as every other enlisted person that serves and protects our country. Above all, it should question the interpretation of “the right to free speech” when that right is abused, as it so clearly was by Mr. Phelps and his cohorts at the Westboro Baptist Church.
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You darn right this soldier should of been laid to rest in peace.
I’ll bet the people who were jeering him had not spent a day in the military. It certainly boggles the mind does’nt it that these jerks have no respect. This brave man as well as many others were trying to protect there stupid butts too. Without men and women willing to sacrifice thier lives this country would be in a bigger mess than it already is.
Have some regard for the greiving parents. Grow up.
I’m old enough to remember VietNam, how we protested the war, and how our country was torn apart; I remember the four students murdered at Kent State. What we were protesting then was our government’s decision to enter the war, not the soliders who were drafted to fight.
I don’t support any war, and I never will. But to do this to the grieving family of a soldier, in the name of free speech, is clearly a self-serving misuse of the Constitution. The protesters should be ashamed and the judge, defrocked, disrobed, or whatever happens when a judge is thrown off the bench. Clearly, that doesn’t happen often enough or we would not have incidents like this happening to families who have already given their greatest sacrifice.
This is so far from the facts as to be comical. Get real.
I am so glad Mr. Phelps finds this article comical he must be of the same mindset as the group that harrassed the funeral of a man who gave his life for his country
I’m old enough to remember VietNam, how we protested the war, and how our country was torn apart; I remember the four students murdered at Kent State. What we were protesting then was our government’s decision to enter the war, not the soliders who were drafted to fight.
I don’t support any war, and I never will. But to do this to the grieving family of a soldier, in the name of free speech, is clearly a self-serving misuse of the Constitution. The protesters should be ashamed and the judge, defrocked, disrobed, or whatever happens when a judge is thrown off the bench. Clearly, that doesn’t happen often enough or we would not have incidents like this happening to families who have already given their greatest sacrifice.