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Rogers Proposes the Respect for Fallen Heroes Act



While attending the funeral of a Michigan soldier who died of combat wounds suffered in Iraq, protestors attempted to disrupt the funeral by shouting vile and harassing slogans at the family and other mourners. Military families mourning the loss of a loved one killed in the defense of our nation deserve the right to say their final goodbyes in peace. America honors and respects our soldiers, and none more than those who die defending freedom and our nation.

Next week, I will be introducing federal legislation to protect grieving military families by banning protestors from military funerals. This legislation, the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, will prohibit demonstrating one hour before and one hour after the service for a fallen solider and keep the protesters 500 feet from the grieving family. No family burying a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a brother or sister, should be faced with the insults, verbal attacks, and intimidation that these protestors were screaming or displaying on signs. This common sense legislation will help to protect military families in their most difficult hour and is narrowly tailored to fit within the time and place restrictions consistently upheld by the Supreme Court.

Giving citizens an opportunity to participate in the process and support the legislation, I launched an on-line petition. The petition will allow citizens to express honor and respect for our American soldiers who make the ultimate sacrifice for the nation, as well as support for the people they love and leave behind. The petition and comments from citizens will be presented to the House Veterans Affairs Committee at an April 6 hearing in Washington.

Petitions can be signed at www.mikerogers.house.gov/fallenheroes.aspx I encourage you to forward this site to your friends and family and ask them to help protect military families.

yes. my parents are buried at arlington. when i was a little girl my dad took me there to learn respect. he told me one day he'd be there. and be proud to be there.

Every family deserves to say their goodbyes in peace. I have a real problem with these protestors and would have the same problem if the funeral were that of a convicted child murderer. Why make a rough time rougher. The protestors do it in the name of religion. They will get theirs in the end, but until then, I could not blame someone if they shot every last one of them.

Such people as those who do anything to detract from the showing of respect for the fallen who have died in defence of their country and their famies, especially at the time of a funeral, should be ashamed of themselves.

Especially when they are of the same nation as the dead and the mourners.

There should not even need to be a law to make such a thing an illegal act but if people are acting in this way then a law is needed so that they can be prosecuted and shown up for the human excretia that they are.

As much as I admire and respect the sacrifices of our soldiers and their families, I cannot in good conscience support a law that restricts the very rights they fought and died for.



Far better to see the citizenry block them with flags and loud bike motors.



:yh_flag

Have you all heard of The Patriot Guard? They escort the fallen heros to their final resting place and ensure no protestors can disrupt the service.

google Patriot Guard

Accountable wrote: As much as I admire and respect the sacrifices of our soldiers and their families, I cannot in good conscience support a law that restricts the very rights they fought and died for.



Far better to see the citizenry block them with flags and loud bike motors.



:yh_flag


Exactly so. Yet more legislation is not the way to handle this kind of situation; besides, laws would not stop such people, who have already demonstrated an arrant disregard for the rules of society. Grass-roots organizations such as the Patriot Guard are a much better way to deal with wastes of oxygen like that person (I refuse to dignify him with the respect most people accord a preacher) and his family.

Erinna1112 wrote: Yet more legislation is not the way to handle this kind of situation


It sounds as though you in the 'States have got a dose of what we in the Yook

suffer from - people trying to "make a name for themselves" by introducing

extraneous laws. I'm sure there must be existing ones that could be applied!