posted September 23, 2004 12:11 PM            

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 10:29 a.m. EDT
Anti-war Protesters Taunt Slain GI's Family

A candlelight vigil to commemorate the death of the 1,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq turned ugly last week when anti-war protesters began heckling the family of a GI who was among those killed.

According to NBC's Dallas affiliate, one North Texas family - whose relative, Chad Drake, was killed outside Baghdad on Sept. 6 - were among the mourners at Dallas City Hall Plaza, at an event organized by the Dallas Peace Center.

Mom Told Son 'Died for Nothing'
A family friend told NBC's News 5 that at one point during the ceremony, several peaceniks began hurling verbal abuse toward Drake's family after they learned Drake had fought in the war.

The friend, who witnessed the abuse, said Drake's mother was "harassed and yelled at, booed and hissed, [and] told her son died for nothing."

Mrs. Drake reportedly left the event in tears. Afterward, Drake's sister told NBC News 5 that the family thought some of the crowd was blatantly hostile to those who had sacrificed their lives while serving their country.

Lon Burnam, director of the Dallas Peace Center, said the event was not intended to be an anti-war rally, but acknowledged that e-mail notifications of the vigil were sent to a broad audience that might have included a few militants.

After family friends complained in the media about the mistreatment of the Drake family, the Peace Center issued an apology.

posted September 23, 2004 01:02 PM            

People like this make people like me look bad and make me sick to my stomach, all the way around!

Here's the part that you left out:

"He also said the event was planned to include political overtones, but the Drake family should have been informed."

posted September 23, 2004 02:11 PM            

What's your point Ozone? After agreeing the protesters were wrong, you went on suggest I left something out of the equation.

The people who left something out Ozone, are the people at the Dallas Peace Center. Would you care to hazard an opinion on whether the notices for this service that went out into the community contained any mention the Dallas Peace Center is itself an antiwar group and their members were being notified of the event as well as members of the general community?

Would you like to take a wild guess as to whether the Drakes were notified of the Dallas Peace Center's status as an antiwar group?

What rational person would permit the death of a soldier relative to be used for political purposes by a group directly opposed to everything that soldier stood for?

posted September 23, 2004 02:21 PM            

I'm stating that this is not right and I've also stated that this is not the 60s in the past on this forum, "That the last time that I've checked this is the 2000's!