Pat Dollard

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I swear these people are more than “misguided”…good to see they were countered.

On one side of Bragg Boulevard on Wednesday, American flags whipped in the wind, from toothpicks, from veteran’s hands, from the top of a pole attached to a pickup.

On the other, American flags were being dragged on the ground.

On one side, Army wives, veterans and bikers held signs that read “I Love My Soldier,” “Our Husbands, Our Heroes,” and “God Loves The World.”

On the other, four members of Westboro Baptist Church — including a 22-year-old woman and 7-year-old boy — held signs that read “God is Your Enemy” and “America is Doomed.” The child’s read: “God Hates the U.S.A.”

The two sides were there for just an hour, but it was clear that more than six lanes and a median separated them.

The church sent a handful of members from its headquarters in Topeka, Kan., to Fort Bragg to preach that the death of Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, the pregnant soldier found in her hotel room last month, was prompted by God’s wrath against the United States.

The church, a small group made up almost entirely of a single family, believes that natural disasters and murders are God’s way of punishing the U.S. for the country’s acceptance of homosexuality, the war in Iraq and the worship of symbols such as the American flag. The church has attracted national publicity for picketing the funerals of homosexuals and of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dannell Shafer, whose husband is a combat medic in the 82nd Airborne Division, wanted the members of Westboro Baptist to know they were not welcome here.

She posted messages on the Internet and sent out e-mails. The word spread. Her friends — Army wives, mostly in their early or mid-20s, got together and painted signs. They had T-shirts printed with “Enjoying your freedom of speech?” on the front and “My husband says you’re welcome” on the back.

And by 10:30 a.m., more than 200 people had stretched into a line along Bragg Boulevard, near a check cashing business and the Knox Street entrance to Fort Bragg.

At that moment, in the gravel parking lot across Bragg Boulevard, a middle-aged woman wearing a red T-shirt stepped out of a sedan. She pulled an American flag around her waist and tied it like a sarong, then fished two posters out of the car.

Dannell whipped her sign over her head.

“She’s wrapped in the freaking flag,” she said. “Sorry, but they need to see they don’t need to be here.”

Another middle-aged woman climbed from the car, and a younger woman, and a young boy. The older woman tucked one end of an American flag in her pocket and let the other end trail behind her on the ground.

The woman wearing the flag started shouting: “They’re not heroes! They’re murderers!”

Across Bragg Boulevard, the military wives, veterans, bikers, friends and gays chanted back: “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

Tractor trailers, minivans and motorcycles flew by, beeping their horns and waving in support of the pro-troops demonstrators.

Westboro Baptist, which has sent demonstrators to Fayetteville twice before, is headed by Fred W. Phelps. The protesters in Fayetteville on Wednesday were two of his daughters and grandchildren.

“When a nation refuses to obey God, you’re cursed,” said Elizabeth Phelps, one of Fred Phelps’ daughters. “You’ve got worse and more coming.”

Her niece, 22-year-old Megan Phelps-Roper, said she began picketing when she was 5 years old.

“This is our religion,” she said. “These are our religious beliefs.”

She looked across the boulevard to the people protesting her protest.

“It kind of amazes me that they’re standing there in opposition to this,” she said. “Because these are women our age who are being killed by their soldier husbands and we’re here to tell them: ‘You’ve raised your daughters to be a generation of whores and God is punishing you for it.’”

Westboro Baptist’s message might have been divisive, but the protest brought people together.

Until they started making signs for their counterprotest, most of the Fort Bragg wives had only chatted on the Internet. Middle-aged bikers stood next to young military wives, who stood next to a gay man, who stood next to Vietnam veterans.

Jessica Nicholson and Stephen Sugg drove to Fort Bragg from Goldsboro to join the protest. Sugg, who is 21 and gay, wore a light blue shirt with the word “SODOMITE” printed across it.

But the Phelps family’s opposition to homosexuality was not the only thing that brought Nicholson to Fayetteville with her friend. Her husband is an Army Reservist and she comes from a family of veterans.

“They’re against everything that matters to me,” Nicholson said.

Biker groups roared up around 10:30 a.m. to raise a 28-foot flag pole and fly an equally long American flag.

When the members of Westboro Baptist Church arrived, Dale Neal was there in a leather vest, standing protectively over the Army wives, holding a sign that read three times: “God Is Love.”

Neal is part of Bikers for Christ. His shift a the Goodyear tire plant ended at 7 a.m., but he didn’t mind missing sleep.

“These people don’t know what God is,” he said. “God’s not hate. God’s love. And all they’re showing is hate.”

By 11:30 a.m., 250 people had gathered and Dannell was bouncing on her toes and smiling.

“I’m so excited,” she said. “I had no doubt in my mind that Fort Bragg wives would be here to support this. I said that, when I heard (Westboro Baptist) was coming, I said, ‘Dare them. Dare them to come here.’”

(FayObserver)

Nods to Wendy.