A young couple, Steve and Virginai Pearcy who live in Sacramento, CA hung an effigy of a soldier with a noose around his neck, and the words "your tax dollars at work" as a way of protesting the war and the way our soldiers are being treated by this administration.
You can read an incomplete article on this story here:
http://fox40.trb.com/news/ktxl-020905soldier,0,354910.story?coll=ktxl-news-3
I say incomplete because last night this couple, Steve and Virginia Pearcy, were on KGO radio for two hours, and they told the whole story.
More....
The Pearcy's are against the war and have been putting up antiwar signs for some time. When they put up this effigy radio stations in Sacramento encouraged listeners to go onto the Pearcy's property and take down the effigy. As the story above states, two people broke the law and removed the effigy (since then the Pearcy's have put up another effigy with new signage that I think states "Bush lies, soldiers die.")
The two people who took down their effigy broke the law, and were filmed doing so. These two people also gave their name and contact information to the media that filmed the removal. The Pearcy's contacted the police to ask that the people who had violated the law be dealt with. The policeman who talked with the Pearcy's stated that he found the display offensive as well, and nothing has been done to those who violated the Pearcy's constitutional right of free speech.
Last night on KGO (mind you this station is in very liberal San Francisco) callers were attacking the Pearcy's for being "anti-American" and stating that the Pearcy's are the problem and that people have a right to remove whatever they deem to be offensive.
On Tuesday the right winged "Move America Forward" is going to have a vigil at the Pearcy's home, you can read their press release here: http://moveamericaforward.blogspot.com/2005/02/support-our-troops-dont-hang-them-in.html.
The Pearcy's have had their rights violated, the police have decided to not enforce the law, rather they are supporting the violation of the constitution.
We can disagree on whether or not the Pearcy's effigy is a proper way to voice their opinion, I am not sure myself that they chose the best way to get their message across, but the real issue here is about the supposed freedoms we claim to be valued in this country.
If you had heard some of the callers on KGO last night you would have been scared, very scared. Over and over I heard "you have no right to offend me" and "I know you hate the troops" (when they don't, they just happen to express their concern in a way that is controversial, the Pearcy's support the soldiers, not this administration.).
You can google their name and find many right wing websites that have postings of what should be done to the Pearcy's, I won't post any here, but you can see for yourself how much we value freedom of speech in this country.
I hope that some of you who live near the Pearcy's might be able to show up Tuesday night in support of their right to freedom of speech to counter those who seek to silence any dissent in our Nation.