UPDATE I’ve been asked by many over the past few days to get involved with shielding the families in Newtown from the Westboro Baptist Church. As I explained in the Facebook group……..the difference is I knew the family of Westboro’s target, and I was sanctioned by them to move forward. I do not personally know any of the families in Newtown. Funerals are a very private and holy moment……possibly THE most holy moment, and I would not want to do anything that might distract the family. Our show of support in Nashville drove the idiots away after 6 minutes an hour before the family arrived, and they never even saw them. The church cleanup crew arrived and there was NOTHING to do. They said they couldn’t believe that the place was so clean after 2,500 people counter-protesting.
So, in short………at the end of this blog there are some pointers you can use on how to organize your community in a responsible way to shield a family from anyone that would seek to disrupt or cause stress on such a private moment as a child’s funeral.
God bless those children and teachers that died in Newtown, CT. I’m a father and it has brought me to tears more than once over the past few days. I pray that their families find some peace.
In closing, be peaceful and respectful in all that you do.
This past Monday Nashville united against the planned “protest” by the Westboro Baptist Church of Marine Sergeant Kevin B. Balduf’s funeral. They planned to hold up signs like “Thank God for Dead Soldiers”, and “God Hates Fags”…………their “protest” lasted all of six minutes before they hastily threw their signs in their car and the police escorted them away. I was then able to call my sister inside the church and tell her that the Westboro Baptist Church “protesters” were gone.
I hope this will serve as an inspiration for other communities and families of fallen soldiers that are having to deal with anyone who would try to disrupt the sacred, holy, final moments that they have with their fallen loved ones.
This blog post has pictures, videos filmed at our show of support, and includes a guide on how you can inspire and organize your community. It is a long post, but please bear with me and take it all in. I’m sharing everything I learned from the experience. When you are done reading this……please share it to your facebook wall. Spread the word. Let’s educate and inspire people.
Being a part of the organization of the show of support for Marine Sergeant Kevin B. Balduf and his family has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. It changed me, and I think the ripple effect of what transpired as we stood against what we perceive as something evil, and out of step with the norms in our society, will be remembered for a long time. Our Marine’s life brought us together.
Who is “us”? We were college students, single moms with toddlers, soldiers in full dress, vietnam vets, bikers, gays, lesbians, rednecks, high-tech rednecks, musicians, black, white, asian……the list could go on, but we were a diverse group who united to stand against something that we all recognize as unacceptable. Hate. But not only just hate, but hate with an agenda.
This Marine was my sister’s friend’s son…….and i’ve known his mother since I was a kid. I can write…….barely, and I know ALOT of people, and so I decided to make sure the Westboro folks never got near the funeral. Over the past couple of years I’ve discovered that at times I have the ability to organize, and mobilize folks for causes that I believe in. I want to teach others how to utilize what I have learned so they can organize to help their communities.
First, here are some inspirational stories from Monday, June 13th by members of the Facebook group that my high school friend, Dusty Belew set up-“Say NO to the Westboro Baptist Church in Nashville”…………….here they are:
From Nate:
“I want to tell you about my Monday. I was going to comment on it yesterday but after posting the pics and trying to get the editing done on the video footage. I was really just too drained from the sun,
emotinally I was drained and I had a few beers while editing the footage, and yesterday I cried more than I have since my father pasted away. So I decided to sleep on it and post today with a clear head.
My thoughts were on friends that I served with that are now gone (5 have died from combat related injuries), I thought about my father who was so proud to have served and told tales of service since
I was a kid. I thought about my brother who has been an officer in the Army for over 20 years and is still serving and just came back from Afghanistan. But mostly I thought about Kevin B Baldufs family
his 3 children and his wife. From what I have seen and heard Kevin was an awesome soldier and father. My friend Jennifer Pryor posted the link last week about the Westboro Baptist Cult intention on
showing up and protesting this AMERICAN HERO’s funeral. Not on my watch. This was a no brainer and my wife immediately went into help mode with finding a sitter for our kids. Friends who I havent
talked to in years knew I would be there. Im no patriot. I have major issues with my government and even the people that live in this country that suckle on the teet and promote hate and violence to our
government. Im not for the wars we are in anymore. There have been way to many lies and cover-ups to truly keep my heart in it. But each soldier is my brother or sister and when they hurt I hurt.
But enough about me and my beliefs. Let us get back to why I want you to read this. I woke up at 0800 and at first I was like man do I really want to involve myself in this? It could get out of hand,
I am not really the most calm rational person in my family and money is tight these days and the profession I am trying to get myself into will frown upon an assault charge. I got out of bed and saw my kids
in the hallway and just like every morning they are all puffy from sleep and adorable as hell. It then hit me like a freight train that while I get to see this everyday Kevin will never see his children again.
Nate pack your shit and lets roll. So I grabbed my camel pack. Loaded it with granola bars,a pack of smokes,sunscreen and my new best friend my video camera. I checked the SOP for the event and noticed
that the rally point had changed due to the number of people that said they were coming. Hell yeah! The new meeting area was the Tennesse Fairgrounds. I got into my truck and it just kinda hit me about
where I was going and why I was doing it. Turn on the waterworks. I decided I needed to get some sunglasses for this event. After seeing my wife at her store and resupplied I set out to go meet these people
who hate my kind so much. When I arrived at the fairgrounds I was somewhat dissapointed with the number of cars there. 20-30 cars with room to add about 1000 more. I knew that even if I was the only
car to show up I would still take the bus there and “stand”. When I got on the bus it was full and that made me smile just a bit. They even helped me hold my flag while I climbed over coolers to get to the
back and find a seat. Im no protestor. But this wasnt about a protest. This was a counter protest. When we pulled up to the event there were about 100-150 people already linning the street and setting up
chairs and coolers. I walked abit to the middle of the line of flag wavers and decided to take a spot inbetween 2 families that had room. I never really thought of myself as a flagwaver so I was a little shy
about unrolling the flag and waving to cars passing by. I wasnt really talking to anyone for about the first hour. I was just watching for the Cult to show up. Then Kevins family started walking down the line
thanking each person who was standing at the edge of the road. Yeah Nate dont cry, try to talk to them and let them know you feel their loss as well. Im not sure who the first couple was that shook my
hand. I thought it was Kevin’s mother and father but after watching the news I realized they were not the parents. They thanked me for being there. What am I to say to these people who I dont know. I
could only come up with “I am sorry for your loss.” They were truly touched by us showing up. Then came a few Marines thanking each one of us. My responses to them were “No, thank you Marine. Stay
safe.” 
Then came Kevin’s wife. She was doing her best to hold it together but I could tell she was hanging by a thread. “I am so sorry for your loss.” Then came the grandmother and other family members
all thanking us for being there. I was even thanked for my service which is so small and obsolete in todays war that I cant help but almost hate myself for listening to family and friends telling me that I have
a family to think of now before I decide to run off to war. SFW! To die for what you believe in is one of my top 3 ways to go down in this world. After the family members , Marines, a few Army, and a Navy
sailor came by I knew that what I was doing was right and just and I will never miss a counter protest by the West Baptist Cult in this state again if the money allows me to go. We were told that the cult
was at the Jewish Center in Nashville and having trouble getting to us due to someone slashing the tires on their vehicle earlier today. Good for you man whoever you are. I do not condone violence unless
needed but sabotage is ok in my book if no one is hurt. Around 1300 you could hear motorcylces in the distance and before you knew it there were 300+ motorcycles pulling up to help with the counter protest.
It was almost the war movie version of reinforcements coming to help push back the enemy. This is about the time traffic starts coming to a stop in both directions from people rubber necking and even a few
pulling over to ask what was going on. Jesus what world do some of you people live in? Ignorance is bliss and also sometimes painful. Around 1400 word was getting out that they were on the way. Looking at
where I was and where all the counter protestors had stationed themselves you knew that more than likely the cult would have to set up shop by the bridge which the Patriot brigade was trying to fill up with
people so they only had a little section to protest from. I was asking myself if I was just going to stand here with the other familes and wave our flags or be the me that I am and go meet these cult
members. So of course I rolled my flag up. Thanked the families that I had been holding the street with for their hospitality and started to walk to where I knew they would show up. My heart started to
race and my hate started to surface. Calm down Nate you are here to just keep them back and make enough noise if they start spewing their hate chants on us. Around 1420 a lincolin towncar rolled up that
the Westboro cult rented ( along with a rented driver) about 100 feet from where I was. Around the same time about 10-15 bikes pulled up across the street from the towncar and started to rev thier engines.
I dont know what I was expecting to see when I saw them but when I finally did it was disapointing. Westboro cult only sent 2 old women and a young teenage boy to spew thier hate. Really Westboro? I guess
your men were worried about us southern men. And you should be. We are the kind to handle shit on our own. But 2 old women and a kid? Even if they had started pulling Ak47’s out of their bags I still would
have felt bad for you. You didnt even chant. You just held your sign and took pics and film at us as we did to you. What a waste of gas on your part. The Metro police had deployed their horse units around them
to keep us back. But we didnt care. The law enforcement did an excellent job on keeping everyone on their own sides for about 8-10 minutes. And then the flanking maneuver came. About 15 people on the
Westboro Cult side started to walk to them and when the police officers were focused on them mainly the large force on my side walked into traffic on all sides and surrounded the cult. I got about 30 feet
to them before they started to use the horses to push us back. We didnt care. We meant no harm (at least most of us didnt) and Metro seemed to know this. We stopped traffic in all directions. For about 5
minutes before Metro had pushed us back. But no more than 2 minutes later the Westboro cult got back into the towncar and fled. Im not sure about you but I would think that if you had 300 people
surrounding you you may just want to get the hell out of dodge as well. The main reason they had to leave was due to the rented driver. He didnt know what he had gotten himslef into and when we surrounded
the cult he realized who they were and told them that he, and I quote from an officer of what the driver said,” I didnt know who they were until now and now I am getting the fuck out of here.” So they loaded
up and left. But in that 5 minute push on them I looked around and saw something I have never seen before and I pray to God I see more of… I was surrounded by bikers,businessmen,college students,kids,vets,
wives,children and retired soldiers.Someone started shouting USA USA USA! Which turned into a full blown chorus of everyone in the area joining in and with the bikes reving their engines just a few feet away
we still drowned the sound of the engines out. All pushing toward one goal. Get them out of here and let them know that when you come to Nashville to protest against one of our own you had better bring
more than just 2 old women and a kid. We take care of our own. Once they were gone people started to file back to their respective spots on the roads and started to wave flags again. We wanted them to come
back. We wanted more. I wanted more but at the same time I felt that as much bullshit as Westboro spews they were just as weak as the people who plant roadside bombs and run away. You talk a good fight
and you may get one or two along the way. But you are cowards at the end of the day and wont stand your ground and fight when confronted face to face. But alas they didnt return and their time frame they
were given to protest was from 215-300 pm. Around 1515 the Patriot Guard started to come around asking us to go ahead and leave so Kevin’s family could have time alone with Kevin and friends. So I rolled my
flag, snapped a few pics of the famalies I had stood with and said my goodbyes and wishes of luck on their family members serving in combat zones. I loaded up on the bus and was even thanked by the bus driver
for doing what we did today. Dont thank me anymore people. I cant take. I did this for all my brothers and sisters who have fallen and served to keep this country free. I thank you. I thank you. I thank you.
I thank you! I made it all the way home and even hung out with the kids before the wife and I stepped out side to smoke and I had to just let it all out.
I bawled and my wife held me and it is a day that I will
never forget and never want to forget. I walked away with a bigger heart and a little more hope for my country and my people. I love each and everyone of you that stood with me yesterday. I have a new
mission in my life now. Westboro you are on my radar now and I am here to ruin your mission of hate. Nate out”
Another Facebook group member, Cathy Sickels:
“Today, Marine Sgt. Kevin Balduf was remembered by his family and friends at Woodmont Church.
Outside, a couple thousand people who didn’t know him gathered in his honor. Every race was there. Men, women and children. Veterans, active duty military, bikers, housewives, students, working folk, retirees- all walks of life were represented. I met 2 ladies who had driven 10 hours from Texas to be there; a Marine mom just off vacation; a dad whose son AND daughter are Marines and a young country music fan who decided there was no better place to wait for the flight home to California than out in the hot Tennessee sun.
What did we have in common?
We had flags. Big flags, little flags, middle sized flags. Flags on shirts, hats, bikes, cars, taped to ambulance antennas. And the feeling that this was where we had to be. Our being there was, in part, due to the threat of the folks from Kansas showing up. Not because we wanted a fight, but because Kevin’s family needed our love and our protection. (Yes, we ran them off. and it only took us 10 minutes! Hoo-rah!) And still we stayed. Because Kevin was still there; and Kevin’s family still needed to know he was appreciated, respected and honored for his sacrifice.
I expected to meet new people, to be hot and tired, and sweaty. What I didn’t expect was to have what seemed like dozens of Marines walking up and down the lines, shaking everyone’s hand and saying thank you. I didn’t expect to see Kevin’s mother in law and father in law, his sisters, his parents, his wife and other family and friends. They came out and walked down the long lines to shake hands with each person and say “Thank you for being here”. Nor did I expect the church elders to come out and thank us. I did get a chuckle from one of the Patriot Guard. He came down the line and was letting everyone know that in a few minutes, the church was planning to serve lunch for us. He said he asked the woman (pretty incredulously, I might add) “ALL of us??” She told him yes and he asked her “Ma’am, have you looked outside?” He was still pretty amazed as he related she informed him they would serve food until there was no one left coming in the door. I guess he never really ran up against the power of Southern church women in large numbers!
My favorite memory of the day was a Marine from Kevin’s unit. He was standing in the middle of the driveway, resplendent in his dress blues, scanning the crowd with his cell phone. I could clearly see him say “Holy cow!” He then came over to start down the row, shaking hands. I smiled at him and told him I’d seen his surprise at the turnout. He is a member of Kevin’s unit, and when the unit heard the Westboro folks were coming, they wanted to know what they needed to do. He said he looked on the Patriot Guard Riders website and told the others “Tennessee’s got it handled”. He grinned “I didn’t realize until I got here that TENNESSEE has got this thing HANDLED!”
And we did. Rural Metro ambulances had 10 units running as shuttle buses between the fairgrounds and the funeral home. The owner a very nifty bright red London doubledecker bus was shuttling from 2 other staging areas. A couple of tour buses were made available and CDL licensed drivers volunteered to drive so older vets could get there safely and in comfort. Everyone was sharing water and lunches back and forth. It absolutely was an atmosphere where if an issue came up, the only response on everyone’s lips was “What can I do to help?” There were lots of kids present, but not one meltdown. It was like a Sunday afternoon at grandma’s after a big dinner with all the family hanging out and visiting. The whole atmosphere was one of calm, dedication and purpose paired with love and cheerfulness.
And I am absolutely proud and happy to have been a very small part of a very big effort.”
From Karen Staley:
“It was an amazing day for so many reasons. I stood holding a big American flag beside people of every race, economic status, political party, etc for 6 hrs in the blazing sun on black pavement and never saw or heard ONE person complain. It was just fun and a total love fest. I got to meet so many cool people.
I will post a few awesome pics tomorrow but for now this one will have to do !
When I got to ride my Harley in with several hundred bikes it was so loud I thought the earth was shaking…but it was a wonderful sound !
What amazed me most was that I saw some of my most liberal friends standing with flags just like the rest of us. Because no matter what your political ideas are 99% of people have the decency to know that
Westboro is just evil and someone must stand in the gap against them.
There were a lot of tears……but all tears of shere thankfulness. Several Marine buddy’s of our fallen Brother Sgt Kevin came out and shook all of our hands and thanked US !!! Can you believe that ? They just got back from Iraq and Afganistan and were thanking us ! I swear they shook everyone’s hand there…and there were thousands. But it was even more emotional to have the family come out and thank us as well as seeing most of the family drive in and burst into tears when they saw how many
people came out to honor their friend, brother, son Sgt Kevin. It was a moment where you could see
where God took the pain and flipped it so there could be some true joy resulting from a terrible tragity.
I hopped on my bike early on and went over the 12thAve Mosque where I knew the Westboro morons
would show up. As I was getting some water for some hippie kids that drove down from Clarksville with their sweet signs about love….5 police cars with sirens blaring drove up and were actually escorting the Westboro nuts. I shook my head and said to one of the officers ” you must not be liking your job much today” and he gave me a quick grin and a shoulder shrug as to say ” it sucks but if you’re going to be for freedom of speech you have to put up with this shit too !”
I have looked into the eyes of crazy people and evil people many times in my time here on earth.
But there was a unique hollowness in the eyes of the Westboro robots. While everyone was screaming at them I said ” I am SO sorry for whatever has happened in your life to make you this hateful and I hope you take responsibilty for your life from this moment on…….it is YOUR choice to continue to hate because of what you’ve been taught or forced to do…….or to say, I refuse to be a pawn any longer”.
I don’t know if it made a dent but I did notice they looked down at their feet for a moment and had no reply for me. I left there saying ” The irony is, that God loves even people like you who are the epitome of all He does NOT stand for”. Then I rode back to my post at the church.
In summary, it was a very emotional day on so many levels. I have never been prouder to be a Christian, an American, a Nashvillian, a biker & patriot. The love from the thousands who showed up
and the prayers of the tens of thousands who sent their well wishes to us was felt deeply.
And what I loved seeing were the countless silent heroes who volunteered so generously with no hint of expecting a pat on the back. They were doing it for the shear joy of serving and honoring all that is good about America and humanity. Helping with traffic, passing out water, picking up trash…….they were the hands and feet of Jesus today.
I wish you could have been there.
God Bless,
Karen”
Those three stories inspired me.
A beautiful video………..
Now, I will, to the best of my ability, teach you everything I learned in organizing this show of support for our Marine. To me, the fight was easy, because I was already personally ticked off that these folks planned to disrupt my friend’s son’s funeral.
1) Start a blog, or have one of your fellow supporters blog about what is happening. Make it personal. Educate where you can, and use that blog post as an anchor for the rest of the campaign. The more “shares” it gets on Facebook…..the more weight readers will give it when they go there. How? Use wordpress, find a host for your blog, and start posting. Use Woothemes for a ready-made template.Make sure you add wordpress plugins that will allow readers to easily “share” back to Facebook, AND most importantly, add “Facebook Comments” to your blog. My anchor post had 72,000 Facebook shares-which is pretty much unheard of for an independent blog. I challenge you to find a post on the Huffington Post that has had that many “shares”-I may be wrong, but I don’t think I am. Having an anchor post like this is also important so you can analyze the impact your post is having via Google Analytics. In addition, you need to control something outside of the Facebook format, because when your campaign of support becomes operational you will need a central location for your supporters to find info. If starting a wordpress blog with your own hosting plan is too much, then use other blogging formats like blogger.com, or Tumblr.com-you can be up and running in minutes, but i’m not sure that you can add “Facebook Share” buttons. WordPress is the best in my opinion. You can literally have your blog up and running in hours.
2) Start a Facebook group-The new facebook groups can be a powerful tools to organize, educate, instruct, and mobilize your group members. Your job is to moderate the group. Pick a friend or two to help you moderate it. Our group of 14,000 people was very difficult to moderate due to the number of postings, and the activity that it inspired. I would recommend that you let “all members” of the group post to the wall for the first couple of days, and then turn off that ability for members to “only admins” and then hone your message. I say this because every time a group member posts to the wall an email will go out to all members of the group. Your goal is to create a vibrant, inspired group without your members clicking the button that stops them being alerted when someone posts to the wall of the group. It is a balance. During this process you will need to stamp down any trouble makers by removing inflammatory posts, or abusive posts. If a group member gets out of hand, and off message, then I recommend you blocking them from the group. After your event…….let the group members post photos and video for a day or so……they will need that release, and you will hear some inspiring stories.
3) Identify and empower your co-organizers-I wrote the blog post, Dusty formed the Facebook group, and I very quickly reached out to Edward Forrest, a college friend who is a former Nashville Metro Police Detective. He was our liason between our activities and the Metro Police, and the City of Berry Hill. I encourage you to build a good working relationship with the police prior to the event. Edward spent days scouting out the area, and personally going to the local churches to ask permission for our group members to utilize their parking lots.
4) Encourage your Facebook group members to create an “Facebook Event” and invite their friends-I saw this happening within our group, and this can be very powerful. One young man from Kentucky got activated and ended up bringing about 100 young folks down to Nashville. Your friends will listen to you. It is one thing to ask them to join the group, but “Facebook Events” allows the “event creator” to send out messages and communicate with his/her “event” members. Ask those events to pop up to point to the original blog post that holds up-to-date operational info.
5) Keep pointing group members to the anchor post-this blog post should have up-to-date operational info, and should be sharable. As your group swells in numbers you will need to keep reminding the new members to share the post to their wall. Their friends will therefore see it, and quite possibly become activated as well. Here was my anchor post.
6) Do reach out to your State’s Patriot Guard Riders-Upon the request of the family of a fallen soldier the Patriot Guard Riders will escort, shield, and protect the soldier and his family. They are organized, disciplined, and have a central command. Reach out to them, and link up with them as a group. Work with them to ensure your soldier is honored.
7) Think about logistics and plan-We organized three parking lots with shuttles constantly running to our area for our show of support. It is one thing to call people to action, but you need to have a clear time and place for them to show up.
8) Be clear and concise with the when, where, and how-You have to give people clear, up-to-date information on where to show up. No matter how many times you post it, or put it in the Facebook group documents……you will still have folks asking for the info. For this reason, once again, your anchor blog will be important. Your blog will be a place where ALL of the information can be found. Here is an example.
9) Do contact your local councilmen/women, State Senate Reps-Get them involved in your show of support. They may very likely be able to put emergency legislation through that will ban, or put very tight restrictions on the activities that anyone that wishes to “protest” a funeral.
10) Do suggest a “code of conduct” for your group members-You have a responsibility to suggest to your members that they adhere to a Code of Conduct. You must stress at all times that your members remain peaceful. The Westboro cult looks for opportunities to use our own legal system for their gain. DO NOT give them the chance to come at you legally. This is what they want. Please refer to the “Code of Conduct” that I asked those in attendance at our Marine’s show of support to adere to.
11) Do be prepared to face opposition-Be prepared to receive threatening, cryptic emails, and summarily report them to your local law enforcement intelligence wing. You are standing up to evil, and as a result…….you will face opposition. Be strong.
12) Communication-Use Twitter, your Facebook group, and Texting to communicate with your supporters. I recommend using these very carefully. Only use them to update your group with relevant info on parking, staging areas, facilities like porta-potties, etc. Refrain from using them to direct your support. Use your brain. See my blog to see how we utilized Twitter, and here is a very kind offer from Michael Stribling from Izigg.com after I asked him if he would donate his services to families in need of help:
Click on this site then click on ‘Wow,’ ‘How’ and ‘Now,’ http://www.izigg.com/ These short videos will explain the concept. Then if you’re interested you can e-mail me at mstribling919 at gmail.com with the subject line ‘90210’ or text goviral to 90210 and we’ll begin this journey together. I will walk you through the process, get you the information you need to make an informed decision and then you can decide if this is right for you. We suggested to group members: “If you have a twitter account: Follow @kevinmontgomery and @bonepony
How to get texts via Twitter? Go into “Settings”, then “Mobile” and link your phone with your twitter account, and then go to @kevinmontgomery and @bonepony and find the little phone symbol next to the green “FOLLOWING” button, and click on it. You will then receive texts directly to your phone when one of us tweets. We will update you with info on parking, water, portapotties, and basic info as it changes on the day…….including the route of the procession.”
13) Make your show of support about honoring your fallen hero-While it is true that the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church fall outside what most Americans, and indeed the world would consider acceptable………make your show of support about your fallen soldier. I found very quickly that the Westboro folks palled in comparison to the celebration of our Marine’s life and service to our country. Yes, these people are insignificant in the big picture. Make them even more insignificant by drowning out their hate.
14) Remember these three things-Activate, mobilize, and ignore. Get your people out there, and then ignore the hate of the Westboro Baptist church. That is your mantra.
15) You are responsible for the person standing next to you-if you see someone next to you getting too emotional………it is your responsibility to remove them from the situation. See our “Code of Conduct”……
For those that think that hateful protests should be ignored…….well, while researching videos for this blog I found two from June 13th in Nashville. In the first video, Westboro “protests” outside the Islamic Center with a collection of citizens showing support for our country by counter-protesting. What I see in the video is a group that feels emboldened. They are singing “God Hates America” in their snarky voices, almost laughing at the counter-protesters………
Minutes later they showed up at our Marine’s funeral, and we had them running to their car within minutes………
Remember, Standing up for what is right is not always easy. You will be met with naysayers, and opposition, but I can tell you…….Nashville, with the help of good people from across America, stood up to the message of hate from the Westboro Baptist Church on June 13th, 2011. You can as well. Make it happen.
Please share this post to your Facebook wall. There are scheduled “protests” literally as i’m posting this. Remember, be peaceful, but stand up. Please tell your story from Nashville on June 13th in the Facebook comments section below. Also, I want to thank Jessica Bleu, Julie Hutchinson, Kevin Rainbolt, and Rachael Cockrell for the photos for this blog.
**Special note-The “Say NO to the Westboro Baptish Church in Nashville” will remain functional, and will become activated when needed, so please join. Also, I want to personally thank Dusty, Kevin Rainbolt, Jonathon Miller, and Edward Forrest for the hard work they put in on the ground in the days leading up to June 13th, and on the day. I’m so thankful to be one small element of what transpired.
