Patriot Guard not patriots

Friday, June 2, 2006

Editor, Register-Mail: Patriot Guard. What does that mean? They ride into our town and harass citizens who are peacefully exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights of assembly and speech! Prior to the Memorial Day Parade on Monday, one of them put their hands on and bullied a 60-plus-year-old woman. Others surrounded and intimidated a high school girl, and threatened a college professor because those members of our community express a different opinion about the war.

They are not bikers. Bikers have character. They are just some guys who have loud, over-priced, poorly engineered motorcycles, and they think that makes them something special. It's hard to see them as real men. Their rhetoric means nothing. Their actions speak volumes.

They claim a noble cause of honoring the sacrifice of our war dead. There is nothing in the creed of the Patriot Guard that says, "Defend the U.S. Constitution." That's what those who serve in our military swear to do, and if need be, die doing it. That's what the original patriots sacrificed to create. This Patriot Guard should read it.

On Monday, these people deeply dishonored those whom they claim to honor. This Patriot Guard thinks they are justified in telling other Americans what they can and cannot put on a sign, or where they can and cannot display a sign. Their cause is not so moral or just that it supercedes the Constitution. How dare they use the fallen soldiers' bravery in defending the Constitution as an excuse to deny the Constitutional rights to others who think differently?

The Knox County Peace and Justice Coalition honors our fallen war heroes by exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed right to challenge the government's war policy and by publicly counting those killed in Iraq. There's no disrespect of the soldiers in it. This Patriot Guard, with their brand of "protection," disgraces the heroes' sacrifice. There is nothing patriotic or honorable in them. - Gary Tomlin, Galesburg