Thank you, Becky Lourey

I can’t let the Dean Johnson story get in the way of sending my thanks to State Senator Becky Lourey for her “No” vote on the ban on funeral protests, which passed the Senate on a 58-1 vote. Not just for the vote, which I agree with, but for the example she sets by casting it.

Talk about courage. On a personal level, to cast the vote that she did, she first had to come to grips with the death of her son in a war that she does not support. Yet as she noted of her son in casting her vote --

“He always send said that freedom of speech, our Bill of Rights, our way of life -- that’s what he wanted to protect.”

Still want to talk about courage? She then casts a vote that gives free speech to people that say her son deserved to die because this country is becoming a haven of homosexuality, speech that can only be described as despicable and demeaning to her son.

More courage. Her vote is going to be unpopular. The bill is a flag-waver that both sides of the political aisle can jump on, although if they heeded the words of Lourey’s son and followed her example, neither should support.

And finally, Lourey doesn’t shirk from the consequences of her vote.

“I know this will cause pain to mothers,” she said. “I don’t like that.”

Lourey could of added, “because it is the right thing to do,” but she didn’t because she wasn’t ashamed of her vote and felt it needed justification. She was simply expressing real human empathy with mothers, like herself, that had lost a child in the war. I don’t agree with much of her politics, but Becky Lourey is one classy lady. She did the right thing, and it took a helluva lot of courage to do so.