Posted on 07/20/2007 6:41:37 AM PDT by Cat loving Texan
By Mark Lisheron AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, July 20, 2007
Vincent Greene, an Austin artist, and Dan Frazier, an Arizona T-shirt vendor, have never met, but they have a lot in common.
Both used the slogan "Bush Lied, They Died" for their work. Both have infuriated people by incorporating the names of Americans who have died in the Iraq war into their work. And both could face prosecution for continuing to use those names.
Greene, like Frazier before him, is using his work to challenge a state law signed Tuesday by Gov. Rick Perry that will make it illegal to use the names of fallen soldiers in commercial ventures without the permission of a surviving relative. Texas will be the fifth state, along with Arizona, to outlaw the use of names or images without permission. Florida, Louisiana and Oklahoma are the others.
But what began as an effort by lawmakers to show sensitivity to the families and friends of these soldiers is shaping up as a battle over free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona filed a lawsuit June 28 on Frazier's behalf, contending that the state's new law is unconstitutional. Joel White, an Austin attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues and who has followed the Arizona case, said the Texas law cannot stand up to a court challenge.
"Let me say first that I have sympathy for the families of those who have been killed in the war," said White, past president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. "Having said that, I don't see how this law can stand. It is clearly a violation of the First Amendment guarantees of free speech."
Greene says he is considering asking for help from the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
"If I'm going to get in trouble for this, if I might go to prison for a year, yeah, I want as many people to know about it as possible," Greene said at Ruta Maya coffee house, where he sometimes offers his anti-war art for sale. "I did this with the intention of creating art the government says I can't create."
State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R- Irving, author of the fallen soldier bill, said Thursday that the issue was one of respect to men and women who serve in the armed forces and their families.
Harper-Brown acted after Robert Vandertulip of Irving told her Frazier ignored his pleas to remove from the T-shirts the name of his son, Spc. Josiah Vandertulip, who was killed in Iraq in 2004.
Robert Vandertulip "knew his son would not have wanted his name used for that purpose, but they wouldn't listen to him," Harper-Brown said. "I was just shocked. I would have thought it was a common courtesy to respect the wishes of the families of the men and women serving our country."
Frazier said he intends to continue facing the wrath of parents in the hope that his anti-war message and the war's end will mean other families will not have to grieve.
"I appreciate their grief. But when I feel their hatred, I think they're sort of looking at me as a scapegoat," Frazier said from his Flagstaff, Ariz., home.
Greene is well aware that he faces the same hostility, something he hadn't actively courted until last fall, when he saw ads for Frazier's shirts on an alternative news Web site.
Retired from construction and personal training after an injury, Greene, 44, had cobbled together a livelihood of jewelry making and organic gardening and as an herbalist's apprentice.
In his reimagining of the shirt design, Greene created a mosaic of names over a portrait of President Bush. He spread word through Internet chat rooms that he was selling signed and dated copies of his work for $10. He let it be known that he would be donating most of the money to Children of Fallen Soldiers, a Web-based fund, and Mystical Oasis, a Texas nonprofit devoted to struggling artists.
Greene guesses he has sold just 30 to 40 of the high-resolution prints. Although he had drawn inspiration from Frazier, Greene was unaware that Frazier went unnoticed, too. At first.
Frazier, an anti-war activist and Web merchant, originally had 100 shirts printed with the names of the 1,693 soldiers who had died up until the time he designed the shirt in June 2005.
After a year, having yet to sell out, Frazier slashed the price and intended to take what he couldn't sell to Goodwill. Then, a reporter called from Louisiana asking about his T's, which had so incensed soldiers' families that the Louisiana Legislature was in the process of passing a law curbing the use of the names of their fallen sons and daughters. Oklahoma, the reporter told him, was on its way to passing a similar law.
USA Today, CNN and Fox News picked up the story, and suddenly he became a kind of martyr to the new laws. T-shirt orders started coming in from all over the country. In the past year, Frazier has sold more than 2,200 shirts at a steady 200 to 300 a month.
"What started out as a statement about the war really became a rally around the right to protect free speech," Frazier said. "I think the people who passed these laws felt that if they could just shut me down, this would all go away."
Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who carried the fallen soldier bill in the Texas Senate, said she would do it again.
"I care very deeply for the First Amendment, but when it comes to a family's right to privacy, I am going to side with the family every time," she said. "What these people are doing isn't art. It is very simply greed, making money from people's grief for a political purpose."
Frazier and Greene, who have never met or corresponded, say the assessment of critics such as Shapiro ignores their right to make political statements, regardless of artistic merit, profit or even deeply hurt feelings.
"Some people say I'm using these brave men and women who believe in this great cause," Green said. "I think the outrage shouldn't be focused on my drawing attention to their deaths but by the deception that caused their deaths."
mlisheron@statesman.com; 445-3663
Oh wait, that just applies to phrase “War On Terror”.
They have NO problem with “Bush Lied! People Died!” and “No Blood For Oil!”.
Its been said many times that liberalism is a mental disorder, but these people are beyond mental illnes, they are pathological
The key word is COMMERCIAL, you illiterate liberals.
It is NOT free speech to profit from another’s likeness, etc.
If I may suggest a compromise: Alter the bill to make using the name of a fallen soldier in anti-war propaganda without the consent of the next of kin ‘fighting words’. Then this little maggot would have the right to express himself, and everyone else would have the right to punch him in the face repeatedly. It’s a win-win situation. :)
“I was just shocked. I would have thought it was a common courtesy to respect the wishes of the families of the men and women serving our country.”
Common courtesy is a concept unknown to liberal fanatics.
“I appreciate their grief. But when I feel their hatred, I think they’re sort of looking at me as a scapegoat,” Frazier said”
Delusion is a concept they are very familiar with.
Exactly, BenLurkin
Yet Bong Hits for Jesus isn’t protected. SIGH.
They sponsor the "boots displays" that travel the country. When the executive director of that project was presented with a petition of 300 families of the fallen who asked that the names of their loved ones not be incorporated into the display, Marq Anderson said, "We are not going to honor their request."
Also, the AFSC are grave robbing ghouls that make blood money off the display. FOr a contribution, you can put anything on a piece of paper and attach it to any name you wish. Imagine that. The moonbats would go batshit if I were to put my thoughts on paper and attach it to Casey Sheehan's tombstone. Cindy would claim a violation of privacy, that no one but the family should put anything there.
Yet the AFSC has her support.
While I agree with the intent of the law, I must disagree with how it is written.
Why stop at fallen soldiers. Why not stop commercialism that exploits the deceased from using the name or image of all deceased Americans if they do not obtain family permission? Give it a ten year limit to make it a proper time for mourning.
It would be the right thing to do for everyone and would silence the ACLU.
“Retired from construction and personal training after an injury, Greene, 44, had cobbled together a livelihood of jewelry making and organic gardening and as an herbalist’s apprentice.”
Musta been a HEAD INJURY!
Then I suppose the ACLU would support my right to have a Pro-Life T-Shirt using the names of the parent(s) of unborn children who were murdered (aborted)?
“The key word is COMMERCIAL, you illiterate liberals.
It is NOT free speech to profit from another’s likeness,”
constitutional PING!
I hate bumper stickers...
Some are funny and a good laugh, but some can make me so mad I actually wish I had the guts to tell the person driving the car what I think about them -the foul mouthed as well as the political.
I told my daughter that since we co-signed the loan for the car she’s driving now, she could have 1 and only 1 bumper sticker until she has paid the thing off.
I feel every bumper sticker, decal and -yes- even Christian Fish is just a target for someone out there looking for a reason to go off. I firmly believe that the Anti-Christian, foaming at the mouth Liberal scum bags are far more likely to slash tires, key and/or kick in car doors, but there are nut-jobs a-plenty out there.
In case you’re curious -our daughter chose ‘I believe in dragons, unicorns, good men and other fantasy creatures’ as her bumper sticker. At the time she was getting a divorce from a pathological lying, adulterous, abusive, money stealing sociopathic waste of skin, so I couldn’t convince her not to buy into the ‘men are stupid’ mind set.
... And wouldn’t you know it... She’s found a good guy, now.
I rest my case.
(And I’m looking for dragons and...)
Check this out (barf): http://carryabigsticker.com/bush_lied_shirt.htm
Here’s a video interview (from May) with Judy Vincent, who initiated the legislation in Oklahoma. http://www.kotv.com/e-clips/Default.aspx?id=6262
The legislation in Louisiana was started by Sharon McLeese and Yvette Burridge. I’ve corresponded quite a bit with these three over the last couple of years or so. They’re my buddies.
They'd crap their drawers all the way to the courthouse to file their usual nauseating, whiney complaint of interference with a woman's right to privacy (to murder her baby).
But, it is one helluva good idea.
I strongly urge all of you to contact your State representatives and Governor to enact legislation protecting Iraq veterans' families from those who would use the names and images of fallen heroes for profit.
Find your reps now, http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
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