I was very upset when I read this today in my hometown paper, how could any person go to a funeral and protest their beliefs during such an awful time for a family? I find it disrespectful, and mean spirited. I am all for free speach, but there is something a common courtesy, and understanding when someone is hurting where was that?

The New London Day Article:
The memorial service Saturday in East Lyme for Army Capt. Jason Hamill was remarkable in many ways, not the least of which was the love and respect shown the fallen soldier and his family by drama students from Waterford High School and from a parade of motorcyclists. Both groups were there to shield the Hamill family and friends from the vituperative and sick attitude expressed by a protest group from Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas. Its message was full of hate for human beings. God, they said, is killing American soldiers as a punishment for the tolerance of homosexuals in the United States.
There were at least three remarkable parts to this sad, solemn day. First was the respect demonstrated by many people who did not know Capt. Hamill. Among them were the high school drama students who just a week earlier had performed “The Laramie Project.” This play depicts the murder in 1998 of Matthew Shepard, a gay man. One character in the play is Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Church.
The second remarkable event was the fact that Westboro church members would be so mean-spirited as to travel across the country to a funeral for a soldier and spread their hostile theories about gay people. We ask ourselves: How could people be so unkind as to invade the family's privacy and to speak with no understanding or sympathy?
The difficult part in the face of such outrageous action is to acknowledge vulgarity and rancor are as much protected in our laws as the right to assemble to praise others for their goodness. The defense of liberty is not simple in nature. It requires great patience. It even makes necessary the suffering of indignities that may cut deeply into the human spirit.
The third and most striking part about this extraordinary day was the affirmation of the right to free speech. Americans have a remarkable tolerance for allowing others to speak their beliefs, no matter how distorted, hateful and distasteful their ideas may be. It was this respect for free speech, terrible though the words were, that created this dramatic scene in East Lyme.
Yet on noting this painful occasion, Americans can feel good about the values that protect this form of freedom. It's easy to listen to arguments with which one agrees. Permitting others to speak with most venomous statements requires great character. Such discipline and dedication to constitutional freedom in all its forms has made the United States a respected nation among the countries of the world. In a dramatic way, the character of Americans showed in the funeral on Saturday.
Democracy and freedom get tested every day in this country. The memorial Saturday gave a graphic and even grim display of how this nation endures even the most vile of individuals in order to defend the liberties of all. Capt. Hamill died trying to help give access to freedom for the Iraqis. His memorial service, with protesters and supporters on hand, reminded this region of the many kinds of sacrifices required to keep a nation free.