The woman who gave the obscene gesture at Arlington Cemetery and had her picture taken doing it has been fired from her job. Her friend who took the picture has been fired also. Lindsey Stone 30 of Hyannis, Massachusetts was the woman in the photograph, her friend Jamie Schuh took the picture. They were both fired by their employers Life, Inc. a non-profit organization that helps adults with special needs.
To me Arlington National Cemetery is as a hollowed ground as you can find in America. It is a very special place. I have been there a few dozen times in my life. The place is full of American heroes. Every year we take our 8th graders to Washington D.C. in April and beforehand I talk to them about the places they will see. There are two places I always remind them where they have to be silent and show the most respect, those places are Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.They always behaving accordingly. A great number of them every year after the trip ends will tell me their favourite place in the D.C. area was -Arlington National Cemetery. Any child of 5ive years old would be able to understand this and behave accordingly. I have no idea what was going on in these two women’s minds. How could anyone think this is funny? I don’t think even comedians with the most twisted minds would think of doing something like that. These women lost their jobs. I do not know if that was the right call or not. It was not my call to make. I don’t think if I were hiring people that I’d be rushing to hire either one of these people. I am sure their former employers were appalled by their actions. I think this woman is going to carry this with her for a long time. I do not buy her excuse. She thought she was being funny. Its kind of like another story recently in the area that I live. The day after the election a local McDonald’s had their flag flying upside down. A sign of distress. Local veterans were not happy. It was all over the news. The owner of this establishment knew what they were doing, their excuse was ‘there was some kind of malfunction with the flag pole’ I don’t buy it. President Obama is not very popular in that area and they made a bad decision with the flag. They didn’t expect the blowback. This woman thought she was being hilarious. I am sure she didn’t expect the photo to go viral on the internet and be featured on the Today Show.
slicethelife 
I drive by the Cemetery a lot and it’s a solemn reminder every time.