Patriot Guard Riders

(November 2006)

 

by Linda Heinztman

 

          This piece is not really a historical piece or, for that matter, it really isn’t a piece on genealogy, but please bear with me.  Verda Gerwick, the founder of The Fort, made a point to try and find where every veteran was buried in our area.  She used to call them her “soldier boys.”  She was even known for getting a government stone put on a few of those graves.  She also made sure that in The Fort there was a small flag sticker put on each soldier’s obituary page so that everyone who saw the flag would know that they were veterans. 

 

         I guess my memory of Verda’s concern for veterans was one reason why, when I was watching the news the other day and this piece came up on a group called Patriot Guard Riders, I stopped to see what it was about.  I had never heard of this group before and was pleasantly surprised that it is a group of veterans, which do a great service.  As I watched the piece I was shocked to hear what this group did.  When invited by the family of a fallen soldier, the Patriot Guard Riders come to the funeral and stand in silence to honor this fallen comrade or, if need be, shield the mourners from hate groups seeking to disrupt the funeral service.  The report I was watching showed a group of what looked like normal everyday people shouting out about how bad this country was because they took our sons and sent them back in body bags.  Someone’s child or parent goes off to protect our freedom and losses their life in the attempt to make our lives better here at home and these people have the gall to disrupt the funeral of a person who should be honored.  I just sat there, and couldn’t believe what I was seeing!  Talking to a co-worker later in the day I was still so upset.  I don’t normally stand on a soap box to preach, it just isn’t me. But something about this group just touched my heart.  I came home and looked up information on the internet about the Patriot Guard Riders and the good deeds they do. The next thing I knew, I had changed the subject of the article for this month.  With November 11th being Veteran’s Day, it just seemed like the thing to do.

 

 

 

         I learned that in September of this year hundreds of motorcycle riders rolled into Chicago as Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn declared Patriot Guard Day in Illinois.  There are more than 52,000 Patriot Guard Riders, with more then 2,700 in Illinois and that more then 800 of those riders are from around the Chicago area.  I was also happy to learn that Illinois has passed a “Let Them Rest in Peace Act,” requiring protesters to stay at least 200 feet away from family and friends as they mourn soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice.  A first time violation of the Act is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine and a Class 4 felony for a second or subsequent offense, which is punishable by one to three years in state prison and a fine of up to $25,000.

 

 

 

Here are a couple of quotes from the articles I read:

 

         “The Illinois Patriot Guard ensures that the servicemen and women who have given their last full measure of devotion to our country are laid to rest in peace,” said Quinn. “Today, I salute the Illinois riders of the Patriot Guard for their tireless commitment to honoring the memory of true heroes of the Land of Lincoln and protecting the families who mourn their loss.”

 

         “It is unfathomable to me that anyone would stage a protest at a funeral.  How can any decent person think that disturbing a family grieving the death of any loved one, let alone the death of one of our soldiers, is acceptable?  It’s not, and the law I’m signing today makes that clear by making protesting within 200 feet of a funeral a crime in Illinois,” said Governor Blagojevich.

 

 

         “No grieving military family should be subjected to vile epithets and disruptive protests at the funeral service of their loved one who has made the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” said Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, who has attended every funeral of fallen Illinois soldiers from the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The Let Them Rest in Peace Act protects the First Amendment religious rights of families to bury their dead with reverence and dignity, and everyone in the Land of Lincoln believes in this fundamental principle of human decency.”

 

Here are a few links you might want to check out to learn more:

 

                      http://www100.state.il.us/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=2&RecNum=4891

 

                      http://www.smalltownveteran.net/posts/patriot_guard_riders/index.html

 

                      http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=14&RecNum=5264

 

                      http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=westborobaptist

 

 

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