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do."

A few minutes past one, about a dozen people came marching up with angry looks on their faces and carefully covered signs. When they stopped on their own corner and got ready to protest, you could literally feel the hate emanating from the group. The Honolulu Police Department was there waiting (and taking pictures with their camera phones) for the trouble that was almost sure to ensue.

An older woman - I'm assuming she was Mrs. Phelps - tied the corner of an American flag around the top of her massive calf. Just the corner. The rest of the flag was draped down so that she could trample it beneath her foot as she paced back and forth like a snarling hyena, shouting "God hates America."

They unveiled their signs amidst gasps from us (and even the police). A little boy, somewhere around six years old, held one up above his head: "Pray for more dead Soldiers." My stomach turned; I saw another sign that read "Thank God for IED's" and one that said "God hates Hawaii."

Now, I'm not at all religious. Even so, the whole idea behind their protests is way off. They claim that God hates homosexuals; they say that He hates the military because we defend a nation who allows homosexuals to live in peace. What are we supposed to do - run around lynching homosexuals? That's incredibly ridiculous.

The entire group is extremely homophobic. Although we weren't supposed to talk to them, I couldn't resist telling a woman who carried a sign reading "God hates Fag Enablers" that I didn't think she had anything to worry about - no lesbian in her right mind would hit on her.

A friend of mine suggested to one of the women that if they had been to Iraq, if they had only seen what weve seen, they wouldn't be out there holding up those awful, hate-filled signs. She asked, "You've been to Iraq?" When he replied in the affirmative, she asked, "How many women did you rape over there?" Of course his answer was none - and she proceeded to call him a liar and a "faggot."

I took around fifty pictures that day, although I don't need them to visually recall the horrifying spectacle that's going to be etched in my mind forever. As much as flag-trampling disgusts me and my fellow Servicemembers, the Westboro Baptist Church is (and should be) allowed to do it. The worst part? We'd die for their right to keep up their insanity.

Learn more about this author, Angie Papple.
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