In central Florida,(Orlando area) two firefighters died in a training exercise a couple of days ago. It was a terrible way to die and a tragic loss. I was surprised to hear today that one is a Witness and that his funeral is being held at a convention center (Tupperware?) and that thousands of firemen and others have convened for the two funerals. The one that was held today had bagpipers, Amazing Grace, and had a flag draped over the coffin. I am wondering how the Society will handle this, or the family. I remember how they kidnapped my grandfathers funeral and made it a recruiting drive. I hope that doesn't happen with this boy.
That is the first link I have ever tried to post. I hope it does the trick. You can go to the Orlando Sentinel and get there though. The article I went to first was on a fire crew that came to the funeral and wound up putting out a house fire, but there was a link there that led to the one on the two funerals. The older guy was a Lt. and had been a fireman for over ten years, the Witness was a boy named Beggs, and had just gotten the job. The older man, still in his thirties though, was a Catholic and his funeral was held today. The young boy's will be in the Tupperware Convention center. I think about 11,000 firemen and others are in town for the funerals. A large captive audience might be hard to resist, on the other hand, a great chance to avoid looking like a cult. Sad deal, two lives lost in great pain, for a practice fire.
This is truly sad that he lost his life in training.However he was training to save lives of others.
I was a Lt in FD and also a Paramedic in my county .I was looked down on by the JW because I was required to wear a flag on my uniform.The fact that everyday I worked to help people in the worst conditions and in times of need did not matter.
I hope that they do not belittle his death or the men and women who attend to pay there respects to there comrade.There is no greater sacrifice than to give your life for another .
Id like to see the Jehoober Witlesses try to disgrace the honor of a fallen firefighter during the funeral amidst a crowd of hundreds or thousands of loyal, burly, firefighter brethren.
I would not be surprised for the Dubs to attempt to make his funeral a recruiting drive by virtue of their outlined informercial, but I also do not think the firefighter community would stand for it.
I was surprised to hear in Erica's trial that a Witness in the congregation was a cop. I would think being a policeman, a paramedic or a fireman would be difficult to do as a Witness. I didn't think carrying a gun and being willing to use it, would work for a Witness. Chief, how did you get around the blood issue as a paramedic??? I would think fireman would have been the easiest to reconcile, at least up until 911 when the firemen seemed to symbolize the country or at least to have become national heroes due to the sacrifice of so many at the twin towers. My heart goes out to all the poor dubs, kids and adults, twisting their emotions into balls trying to live normal lives, have friends, fulfill obligations and yet not violate the rules of the legalistic cult they belong to.
Osceola County Fire Chief Don Adams called Mickel a humble man who would have been pleasantly surprised to see the crowd who had gathered to mourn his death and celebrate his life.
Hey, isn't Don Adams Watchtower President? Wow, he gets around!
No "Amazing Grace" nor "Flag-draped Coffins" in this service. I wonder how Kingdom Melodies sound played by bagpipes?________
Notice when the service is held: MONDAY. Delaying to a weekday to reduce the number of firefighters present???______
They're bringing in a Bethelite-Heavy to make sure that the funeral service pacifies the firefighters while toeing the party-line. This could give the WTS GOOD PR if all goes well._______
JW Cops, firefighters, etc....... _________ Not in my day.
I guarantee they will do the standard JW Infomercial at this boys funeral figuring "he would have wanted it that way" as well as it being standard practice now to "buy out the opportune time" to witness to every captive audience. It will be repulsive to say the least. But the nonJWs will probably not even notice that it is the INFOMERCIAL because like the JW funeral I went to two years ago of my DAd friends JW husband...they inserted the deceased's NAME into the outline at various spots to make it sound like it was geared for him alone. "Dave loved the bible....Yes..Dave loved the Bible so much he wanted to share its wonderful good news of the kingdom with all his neighbors. Dave had many FAVORITE scriptures like this one at Matthew 24:14 (reads it) Dave lived by that scripture as well as this one which Dave often quoted "You are my witnesses..."
You get the idea. Except at this particular funeral when the widow stood to thank everyone for coming and to introduce her husbands nonJW children who were going to read poems they wrote about their daddy...ALL the JWs in the audience stood up simultaneously and LEFT THE BUILDING. Milling about outside and laughing and joking to the horror of the deceased's family and coworkers.
Yep..they'll read it. Somebody go to the funeral will ya and hear what they say.
