Word: guarde
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They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and in a culture in which a 24-hour news cycle and habitual political spin can make the most earnest public gesture seem tired or canned, they appear to be the real thing: a spontaneous mass movement. They formed as a response to the Rev. Fred Phelps, an attention-crazed fanatic based in Topeka, Kans., who has logged 15 years as a kind of paleo-fundamentalist, gay-baiting performance artist. Last spring Phelps grabbed the already troubling line, taken by preachers such as Pat Robertson, that disasters like 9/11 were God's punishment...
...bikers to form a human shield between Phelps' disciples and the bereaved, blocking the protesters' signs with flags and occasionally revving their engines to drown out the insults. Soon the riders outgrew the protesters. Phelps' church has only about 75 members, mostly his relatives. But the newly named Patriot Guard expanded exponentially and today claims 28,000 bikers and supporters. They attend every single military funeral for which the family gives permission. "We joined because of Fred Phelps, but now the whole focus is off Fred Phelps," says California state coordinator Cheryl Egan. "It's more about the troop...
...leader of the group at Captain Ian Weikel's funeral in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week, "and we want to say thank you to this next generation." Others are hobbyists a generation younger and simply happy to pay respects. The group is strictly culture-war neutral. Notes Patriot Guard California state ride captain David (Scooter) Bolton: "Nobody cares if [a rider is] gay or not. It's not a meet-and-greet-and-date organization. It's to honor fallen heroes...
...They had no reason to be suspicious: Tuesday was family day at the clinic and Kugenthirasah had been coming for weeks. A guard offered her a lift. She arrived at the clinic just as the commander of the Sri Lankan army, Lt.-Gen. Sarath Fonseka, was leaving his nearby office for lunch. Eyewitnesses say Kugenthirasah walked away from the clinic and strode toward Fonseka's heavily guarded convoy. A motorcycle outrider spotted her, says military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe. Her determined manner, that bump-it didn't look right. The outrider swerved, blocked her path and, when she kept coming...
...outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. At the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he urged antiwar protesters not to commit acts of violence against members of the National Guard. "Just remember, they're draft dodgers just like you are," he recalled saying...