Not every town is willing to let the funeral crashers of Topeka's homophobic church spoil a soldier's farewell. The people of Weston, Missouri, stood up to the Westboro Baptist Church, which had planned to picket the funeral of Sgt. 1st Class C.J. Sadell on Saturday.
Sadell was wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan on October 5; the 34-year-old married father of two died on October 24. Fox 4's cameras rolled as hundreds of the townspeople took to the streets.
"We got everybody here early so we could take up all the parking spots," Rebecca Rooney told Fox 4. "We did that so Mr. Phelps wouldn't have a contingency that was really close."
Who knew it only took getting all the best parking spots? The human shield, American flags and patriotic music worked; the Phelps family didn't stay long. Weston 1, Phelps 0.
If only every community were this proactive in fending off Westboro's pickets -- and I'm not just talking about the funerals of soldiers. The Phelps family was picketing the deaths of gay people long before they were annoying the families of dead soldiers.
Here's Sadell's obituary and a piece on KBIA.org remembering him.
H/T: BuzzFeed.
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I wonder if they will protest the funeral and thank God when a member of their "sick" family dies ??? Are they being punished by "an angry God" as well? Will they even have a funeral? Will they bury or burn the body or just leave it to rot.
Yet another chance for Phelps..............I thought he was dead already? His hyporcisy is still infecting people.................
I live near Westminster, MD where the Westboro Baptist Church protested the funeral of the case the Supreme Court is now deciding upon. I hope they are paying attention to what this town did and every town should do to help in their decision and rule against his church. I'm all for free speech, but this is attacking, shameful behavior against someone who allows them to have that freedom.
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