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Sherwood 'patriot' goes to Beebe By Greg Rayburn Editor A Sherwood man, who recently attended the funeral of a fallen American soldier, says it took a tremendous amount of will power to stay calm during the antics of a Kansas preacher present who is famous nationally for protesting at the funerals of dead American soldiers. Kerry Gore is a member of the Patriot Guard Riders whose mission is to “protest” the protesting of a Kansas preacher who has made it a habit in recent times to set up protests at the funerals of fallen soldiers. “It was hard not to do something,” Gore said. Gore attended the funeral of the late Bobby West of Beebe, who died in Iraq on May 30. Patriot Guard Riders were requested to attend the funeral by West’s family because it became known that Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas planned on setting up a protest. “This was our first funeral we attended in Arkansas, so we didn’t know what to expect,” Gore said. Gore said he decided to join the Patriot Guard Riders because its mission was to support the families of fallen American war dead in contrast to what he sees as the outlandish behavior of Phelps’ protests. Gore said he thought very little of Phelps and his small group of followers before he saw their protests firsthand. Now he thinks even less of him. “When you watch him, you can tell he’s just out there,” Gore said. Patriot Guard Riders is one of the country’s fastest growing groups, started about one year ago, he said. “When I joined, there were 16,000 members and now it is up to about 34,000.” Patriot Guard Riders was created over the public outrage over Phelps’ protests at funerals, said Gore. The group also was instrumental in Arkansas adopting a new law which allows a 30-minute window where families can have some distance and time to honor their fallen loved ones, Gore said. Gore said he was shocked and angered by some of Phelps’ actions. He said Phelps had an American flag tied to his leg where he would step on and spit upon as he was speaking terrible comments about the war dead. “All I kept thinking is that it’s because of war veterans, who died on the battlefield, that this guy has the right to do what he is doing,” Gore said. At one point, one of the people supporting West and his family broke ranks and started racing toward Phelps and his small band of followers in what would appear as his getting ready for a fight. “The police stopped him but he ended arrested,” Gore said. “I think the biggest reason he (Phelps) was doing all that he was doing was just to get more publicity.” Gore said he believes Phelps would have been hurt if it weren’t for the police presence at the funeral. “You had some really tough bikers there that were really getting angry,” Gore said. Gore said one sight which disturbed him was seeing Phelps bringing little children to his protests. “I just couldn’t imagine what he is teaching those little kids,” Gore said. During Phelps’ antics, supporters of West’s family got so disgusted that they turned their backs in a unified demonstration to express shame.

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