The father of a Marine killed in Iraq took the stand in his invasion of privacy suit against a fundamentalist church that pickets soldiers' funerals, saying protesters carrying signs at his son's burial made him sick to his stomach.
Albert Snyder said Wednesday he had hoped for a private funeral for his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder.
"They turned this funeral into a media circus and they wanted to hurt my family," Snyder testified. "They wanted their message heard and they didn't care who they stepped over. My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside."
Snyder is suing the Westboro Baptist church, whose members have picketed the funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming the deaths are punishment for the country's tolerance of homosexuality. The York resident is seeking unspecified monetary damages in the case for invasion of privacy and intent to inflect emotional distress as a result of the Topeka, Kan., church's protest at his son's funeral in Westminster in March 2006.
The church's protests have inspired several state laws and a federal law about funeral protests, but the Maryland suit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.
Asked Wednesday about a sign that read "Thank God for dead soldiers," Snyder said he thinks about it daily.
"I see that sign when I lay in bed," Snyder said.
Here's hoping he wins, and wins big. This sort of thing really cannot be adequately compensated with money alone, but this father is doing exactly what his son did: Fighting evil when he found it, where he found it, so that others won't suffer in the future because the bastards were left to run amok, spreading their vile poison hither and yon. God bless you and your family, sir.
In the meantime, let us all go and do likewise... |