Hearsay

We have to remember that the First Amendment is not a multiple choice test. The freedoms of speech, religion and of peaceable assembly, as we have learned from numerous lessons and court decisions, apply equally to good folks and bad dudes.

It must have taken some kind of willpower for colleagues and friends of Greg Bowman to resist the urge to curse aloud the twisted theology that brought war protesters to the sacred ground where his funeral service was held Sept. 15 in Princeton.

In its own, obnoxious way, the assemblage of picket-bearing gonzo activists from Kansas was reluctantly paying as much of a tribute to Greg as was the convoy of about 150 Patriot Guard Riders who cycled in from widespread communities in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The hate-mongers knew that Greg had been in the cortege that sheltered mourners during the service and interment of Waukegan attorney Shane Mahaffee in May 2006. They tried in vain to get even with him, posthumously.

Since these outsiders have come to expect the Patriot Guard Riders to form protective phalanxes for grieving families, they extended the focus of their fire and brimstone to a patriot like Greg Bowman for having been an organizer of such crusades in Illinois.

The misguided zealots who picket the funerals of service members killed in action in Iraq say they do so as a celebration of God's punishment of the United States for being nice to gays and lesbians. Now isn't that just a bubble to the left of level?

“God Hates Your Tears” is just one of the legends emblazoned on the primitive placards they have toted from the basement of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, under First Amendment cloaks of both religion and assembly, to military funerals across the Midwest.

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center has nailed them to the cross they bear as blustery homophobes who chant “Thank God for AIDS.” In a recent Intelligence Report, Dees notes that the insensitive antics of this hate group are even decried by workaday anti-gay factions that have been around for awhile.

Assembly member TJ Thurston, one of Greg Bowman's eulogists last month, tells us that the bleatings of protestors in Princeton were drowned out by the revving of Guard Riders' motorcycles, and were shielded from view by police cars and fire trucks.

The church carillon's renditions of “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful,” along with songs from inside the church, “completely drowned out any further sound of the protestors,” TJ said. Our First Amendment turned out to be more effective than theirs.

Under a blue sky with only a few wisps of clouds, “It was a wonderful way to send off Greg to a much better place,” he added.

Like many busy people who feel too full of life to anticipate the end of it, Greg Bowman died without a will or life insurance. He has left six children and an unemployed widow.

TJ Thurston has established a sustenance fund for the family as a tax-exempt volunteer organization. It is not a 501(c)(3) charity, but donations are deductible as gifts, he says.

It is the Bowman Family Fund, Tax ID 26-1106887, at the Algonquin Bank and Trust, 4049 W. Algonquin Road, Algonquin 60102. Contact Kristy Smith or Mary Caporale at (847) 669-7500 for participation details.

The outpouring of grief on the ISBA list-serve prompted one observance that “a person's mark on this life isn't determined by how big an estate he leaves behind or how many prestigious offices he held. Rather, it is established when the everyday people, the average citizens, acknowledge your passing.”

How and why did such a thing happen to such a respected leader and careful cycler? As Greg Bowman, himself, posted on the list-serve two years ago, “There have been close calls but I exercise extreme caution at all times. And I always wear a helmet.”

A good guess, shared by some, is that he ran off the road after swerving suddenly to avoid hitting an animal – perhaps just one more random act of thoughtfulness in a life that was filled with them.