Common Decency

posted at 1:10 am on April 14, 2010 by Doctor Zero

Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder was twenty years old when he died in a non-combat vehicle accident in Iraq.  Four years later, his father Albert has committed to a grueling battle on the front lines of free speech, where he mans the crumbling ramparts of common decency.  The odds would seem to be stacked against Albert Snyder.  Marines don’t pick easy battles, and neither do their fathers.

When Lance Corporal Snyder returned home, to pass through the arms of his family one last time before proceeding into the warm embrace of the Earth and the radiant hands of eternity, the atmosphere was fouled by the virulent hatred of the Westboro Baptist Church.  (Writing their name always makes me feel I should offer an apology to Westboro, Baptists, and churches.)  The Westboro cult believes that America deserves to suffer for its embrace of homosexuals.  Actually, they’re convinced God hates the entire world, and probably the other planets of the inner Solar System as well.  Just look at Venus, sinfully naked beneath hot clouds of sulfuric acid, strutting through her orbit like a wanton tramp, while Mars pouts and preens in a red cocktail dress.  There used to be another planet after Mars, but God especially hated that one, and look what happened.

After America is done suffering for its embrace of gays, it will have to move right along to suffering for its embrace of Jews.  With all that suffering on the agenda, the Westboro folks have no patience for those who dedicate their lives to defending this country.  This leads them to stage noisy protests at the funerals of soldiers.  According to the Associated Press, their contributions to Corporal Snyder’s service included signs reading “Thank God For Dead Soldiers,” “You’re Going to Hell,” and “Semper Fi Fags.”  They pull this garbage at a lot of funerals… but this time, Corporal Snyder’s father stood up and pushed back.

Albert Snyder filed a lawsuit against Fred Phelps, alpha moron of the Westboro Baptist Church, charging the WBC with defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.  Snyder won his initial suit, but the decision was overturned by the 4^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which took the unusual step of socking Mr. Snyder with over sixteen thousand dollars in court costs.  The case is on its way to the Supreme Court.  The American Legion, along with many individual donors, has stepped into help Snyder deal with these costs.  To his great credit, talk-show host Bill O’Reilly has pledged to cover the entire sixteen thousand dollar tab from the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Mr. Snyder devotes his every free moment to preparing for his day in the Supreme Court.

I’m no lawyer, but I can see some formidable obstacles in Mr. Snyder’s path.  Phelps and his Indefensible Mission Force were careful to obey the laws for public protest, and contacted the police in advance.  The WBC wouldn’t be the first unsavory group to probe the outer limits of free-speech rights, and remind us that reprehensible speech must be protected, too.  Legal sanctions against “unacceptable” speech could swiftly become an extreme snowboarding run down the slippery slope into tyranny.  Three guesses who the current government would love to sanction for their “unacceptable” speech.

And yet… there is such a thing as common decency.  There are quite a few things we would not allow the WBC to display on its placards, such as pornographic images.  The reasoning behind those restrictions is the maintenance of a civil atmosphere.  It’s not true that we would tolerate any speech that threatened such an atmosphere.  We have no shortage of hate-speech laws in this country.  The Snyder suit will task the Supreme Court with deciding where the line must be drawn, but there’s no question that a line does exist.

This isn’t a matter of defending Corporal Matthew Snyder’s honor.  It is far beyond the reach of such creatures as inhabit the Westboro Baptist Church.  This is about the dignity and peace of grieving families.  They have a right to speak, too… expressing themselves through reverence for those who have passed on, and the quiet communion of shared memory.  This is about all of us, and our refusal to abandon simple common sense to elaborate legal arguments, whose thousands of pages form a maze where our responsibilities as human beings can be forgotten. 

Our honored tradition of civilian authority over the military means politics, including the degenerate variety practiced by the WBC, constantly intrude into every aspect of military life.  We can at least go the extra mile to keep them from intruding into military death.  I don’t think creeps with “God Hates Fags” signs should be within a square mile of anyone paying their last respects… but if we can’t bring ourselves to enforce such decency at all funerals, we should go the extra mile and do it for the troops.  The nature of their sacrifice makes their caskets exceptionally attractive as political props.  Our body politic should swear off that temptation, using tasers to help its more dimwitted extremities go cold turkey, if necessary.

I can’t begin to guess how the lawyers and judges will settle this case in the Supreme Court.  I see Albert Snyder standing on the hallowed ground of his son’s final resting place, and it takes me less than a heartbeat to decide where I stand.  His son demanded no guarantees of victory or survival before pledging his last full measure of devotion to us.  I require none to pledge my last full measure of devotion to Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder and his family.

Cross-posted at www.doczero.org.

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