Keep calm. Control your anger.
That’s the message veterans’ group leaders sent out Monday, following word that a fringe church group from Kansas planned an anti-gay protest at Saturday’s funeral for Sgt. Corey Dan, a 22-year-old Norway man killed last week in Iraq.
“I think that lit a fuse, a bad fuse,” said Arthur Roy, spokesman for Maine’s Veterans of Foreign Wars. “I’ve had to calm a lot of people down.”
The Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps, aims to incite anger. Across the country, the organization has picketed military funerals with slogans such as “God Made IEDs” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”
“That’s total grossness,” Roy said. If the signs appear in Norway, he worries some veterans might fight with the protesters. “I honestly think someone’s going to lose it,” he said.
Leaders of the Kansas group have described their protests at soldiers’ funerals as retaliation for the nation’s tolerance of gays and lesbians.
“I don’t get the connection,” said Robert Sessions, a former commander of American Legion Post 82 in Norway. “I can’t even imagine what they have in mind.”
The protesters were also denounced by religious leaders, including Catholic Bishop Richard Malone and the anti-gay Christian Civic League of Maine.
“Phelps and his church are despicable,” said Michael Heath, the league’s executive director. Their actions are “beyond condemnation.”
The bishop also condemned the plans of Phelps’ church.
“I am shocked and disgusted that anyone representing a church would go out of their way to add to the burden of a grief-stricken family,” Malone said in a prepared statement.
He also sent along his admiration to Dan’s family, who said Sunday that they respect the Kansas church’s right to protest.
“I admire them for their tolerance of the picketers’ inexplicably malicious actions,” Malone said.
Veterans agreed Monday that the group has a right to protest. Like the family, they hope Phelps’ crowd has its say away from the solemn service, scheduled for 1 p.m. at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.
“That’s the wrong place and the wrong time to make a protest,” said Joseph Cooney, commander of the VFW post in South Paris.
Roy hopes they go somewhere else.
“I fought for the right to free speech,” said the 61-year-old Vietnam veteran, who lives in Auburn.
No counter-protest by veterans is planned, Roy said. However, that may not stop individuals from replying to slogans that celebrate a soldier’s death.
Veterans take it particularly hard, Roy said.
He spent part of Monday trying to calm an 81-year-old man who served in World War II.
“He’s ready to fight,” Roy said. “I told him, You’ve got to bite your thumbs.'”
It’s advice he hopes he can follow.
“I’ve had a hard time myself,” Roy said.
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