Penetrating Quote from Buddy Bell

Sometimes quotes come out of nowhere and smack you upside the head. That just happened to me while I was reading Gordon Edes Baseball Notes in the Boston Globe:

Sure, [Red Sox manager Terry] Francona felt for his friend when the Royals lost 19 games in a row, but it was after a far more devastating loss that Bell turned to his friend for support. During the Royals' visit to Boston earlier this month, [Royals manager Buddy] Bell learned that his 22-year-old nephew, Lance Corporal Timothy Bell Jr., was among 14 Marines killed by a roadside bomb.

''I didn't hear from [Francona] about the baseball stuff, that's all part of the game," Bell said. ''But he called about my nephew."

Bell attended his nephew's funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.

''It's like those seats," Bell said, gesturing toward rows of empty seats in the ballpark and imagining white crosses. ''When you go in the gates, there are protesters, protesting the war. And I'm thinking, 'How ironic is this? I'm going in to bury my nephew for something he was fighting for. That's why these people can protest.' "

Protesting at Arlington? Have these people no shame?