The Patriot Guard Riders

I’ve been suspicious of the group called the Patriot Guard Riders who show up in the news about funeral services for fallen American soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. They ride mostly Harley Davidsons, wear the usual do-rags and sleeveless denim vests, and fly gigantic American flags from the backs of their bikes.

They say they attend to honor the fallen but also to protect families from vocal anti-war demonstrators. They shield the families with their giant flags, and if demonstrators get too loud, they fire up their bikes to drown out the noise.

What anti-war demonstrators?

All of this smells faintly of the persistent rumors over the years of Vietnam veterans who were spit on when they returned home. No one can say with certainty that this never happened, but I’ve looked into it a little and it seems to be an urban myth. I can say that I frequently flew in uniform on commercial airlines when I was in the Army from 1967 to 1970, and I never saw an anti-war demonstration at an airport. Personally, I was met with complete indifference, even when I flew into San Francisco airport after my tour in Vietnam.

But last night after reading about yet another funeral of an Oregon soldier, I tried to find out what I could about the Patriot Guard Riders. It turns out they’re an informal network of biker types and a lot of Vietnam vets with links to the American Legion. They offer to attend military funerals but only show up with an invitation.

What was amazing to me is that they did form up in response to outrageous demonstrations at funerals, but not by your typical anti-war activists. Here’s an excerpt from a Time magazine story:

“They formed as a response to the Rev. Fred Phelps, an attention-crazed fanatic based in Topeka, Kans., who has logged 15 years as a kind of paleo-fundamentalist, gay-baiting performance artist. Last spring Phelps grabbed the already troubling line, taken by preachers such as Pat Robertson, that disasters like 9/11 were God's punishment for American sins, and spun it past the boundary of the outrageous by having his followers crash military funerals with signs like GOD LOVES IEDS (improvised explosive devices) and scream to grieving parents that their children were in hell as divine punishment for what Phelps calls the nation's "enabling" and "harboring" of homosexuals.”

Phelps hates “fags,” and his congregation of under a hundred makes news by gay-bashing their way around the country blaming 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and even the war itself on American tolerance, such as it is, for gays. They even carry signs saying “God hates America.”

I guess in crazy times you’re going to hear a lot more from crazy people.

Here’s a link to the whole article:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1189333,00.html