First off, this is going to be a bit of a lengthy rant, and second off, i just want to say that I'm a very big proponent of free and uncensored speech. However, i think people can take it too far.
So a friend of mine had to go to a funeral over the past couple of days for his brother-in-arms who died in the line of duty. His friend was apparently a homosexual, which is fine by me, no big deal. Do what you want and all that, doesn't bother me.
However, at the funeral people were there protesting it, with signs such as "God hates fags" and things like that.
Like i said previously, i believe people should be allowed to hold and express any views they hold dear. However, in this instance, i really feel they crossed the line in their "free speech".
A funeral of all places is one public/private function people shouldn't be able to protest for ANY reason. Especially not one held in honor of someone who died for this country.
Honestly, I'm not even that big of a patriot, and i've never undertook military service, and heck, i don't even AGREE with the war we have going on. However, that doesn't stop me from respecting anyone who joins the armed forces for the courage and willingness to do what they do. Those who die in the line of duty have my respect even more so, for what they sacrificed believing it will do good for all of us who live here.
This brings me to an even larger area of discussion. For the past few years, people have been protesting at military funerals in general claiming that soldier deaths are the result of the US tolerating homosexuals.
This is even worse, because now not only are they blaming deaths on a group of innocent people, they're attempting to further their own anti-gay agenda by a sort of "shock and awe" campaign.
Luckily, this is very issue is going before the supreme court very soon, and I hope they rule against the protesters.
Anyways, I just mainly wanted to see what everyone else thinks. Are they justified in doing this? Are they going about it correctly? Why or why not?
Note that nothing you can say will convince me that they're in the right, because in my mind, they're so far from it, it's not even funny.
[/rant]