I know it’s short notice, but here goes:
Join Air America / Talk City 1240 / Christine Craft listeners, the ACLU, Sacramento for Democracy, Code Pink, Green Party and others as we protect our 1st Amendment right to Free Speech!!
Where:
California Department of Justice
1300 I St (13th & I St)
Downtown Sacramento
When:
Thurs. July 28th
11 AM – 8 PM
Optimal time period is from 4 PM – 6 PM. That’s when local media will be there. It may be national as well!!
More after the fold
I hope the Sacramento for Democracy group doesn’t mind any copyright violations, but here is more information on Thursday’s protest:
Un-patriotic and intolerant groups like Move America Forward and local Radical Right talk show hosts are trying to take away OUR right to free speech.
Come on down and show Stephen Pearcy and other artists that we treasure our right to free speech. Bring your signs and your artwork and let them know how you feel. We will not be there to suppress the Radical Right’s speech, but rather to show support to Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s support for free speech and expression, and political artists everywhere.
In fact, please give Lockyer’s office a call and let them know we are proud that he is defending the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution.
1-800-952-5225 or (916) 322-3360
The Radical Right groups say they support the troops. They support them dying in Iraq for the greed of the Neo-Con Corporate agenda and their illegal war profiteering. The Radical Right will be using this media attention to air their pro-war agenda. This is an opportunity for us to show the world that true Patriotic Americans demand the truth from our government. Let’s show our troops real support.
Honor the Dead. Demand the Truth!
Start Bringing Them Home Now!
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. – Benjamin Franklin
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. – Justice William O. Douglas
From the Davis ACLU:
From: James Schwab, Davis Campus ACLU
To: ACLU-NC Online Activists
Date: July 26, 2005Defend the Art of Dissent!
Protest Rally in Sacramento, July 28thIn defense of the independent and creative expressions of political thought currently on display through an art exhibit at the California Department of Justice, a coalition of advocacy groups have united in support of the preservation of free speech.
In response to the un-patriotic calls for censorship, the Davis Campus ACLU, Yolo County ACLU, Code Pink, and Davis College Green Party will host a rally at the California Department of Justice, 1300 I Street, Sacramento on Thursday, July 28th from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
The public is encouraged to voice their support for America’s heritage of free speech and diversity of thought with their attendance at the rally. Participants should express their support for freedom of speech through artwork featuring America’s free speech heroes like Mark Twain, President John Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Caesar Chavez.
For more information please contact the Davis Campus ACLU at Liquass@ucdavis.edu or call Lucas at (760) 617-6883.
Our coalition of free speech guardians serves to promote the principles of the First Amendment, which constitute the foundation of both self expression, and the preservation of our democratic state.
To get more involved, contact your local ACLU Chapter!
Yolo County ACLU: Natalie Wormeli (530) 756-1900
Sacramento County ACLU: Mutahir Kazmi (916) 691-0582
Davis Campus ACLU: James Schwab (530) 752-6914Time: Thursday, July 28, 2005 – 4:30pm PST
Length: 2:00Location:
California Department of Justice
1300 I St
Sacramento, CA
Some background:
Stephen and Virginia Pearcy are attorneys, who live in Berkeley, CA but also have a home in Sacramento where they sometimes stay. They caused quite a stir when they had a dummy with a soldier’s uniform mounted on the side of their house with a sign around the dummy’s head saying “Bush Lied. I died.” and later “Your tax dollars at work”.
As you might imagine, the conservatives were in an uproar, and a local radio show organized a protest in front of the Pearcy’s house, and those of us who value that pesky (to neocons) thing known as the Constitution, and the First Amendment to said Constitution organized a counter-protest.
Well, things had quieted down for a while, until an exhibit put up by the nonprofit California Lawyers for the Arts featured this painting by Stephen Pearcy:
Mr. Pearcy would be the first to tell you that he is no artist, and that his goal is solely to foster discussion about an issue he finds extremely important.
I agree with that philosophy, our country is sorely lacking in honest and open discussion about the Iraq War, and any attempts to question the quagmire is met with calls of being anti-American, a terrorist, or worse.
The wingers could have left this alone, but then again things aren’t exactly going so well for Republicans in this state. They should have just let it go:
Pearcy’s painting is in a second, smaller room at the far end of the cafeteria and is only visible by diners sitting in that room.
To the right of Pearcy is a poster with a dove above the head of a Palestinian peering grimly from behind barbed wire. Across the top are the words: “Palestine — Stop U.S. Financed Genocide in the Middle East.”
Pearcy could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but in a statement that accompanies the exhibit he said he had made the painting on July 4, 2003, to “show the direction this country was (and still is) headed under the Bush administration.” The painting also “confronted the absurd display of ‘fanatical patriotism’ following 9/11,” he said.
But, then again — why ignore it and let the painting be seen by very few people (after all, it’s in a cafeteria) when you can rally people into ratings and faux-Patriotism?
Certainly after reading the diary about WE being the Democratic Party I intend to be there — protesting for Free Speech. Although artistically I would not have selected the Pearcy piece, nor would I have necessarily hung the dummy on the side of my house — but I absolutely will defend the right for others to.
Finally, I would like to close with some thoughts by Stephen Pearcy, posted on the front page of his blog:
My wife and I are both attorneys, and our addresses and telephone numbers are listed. Unlike the cowardly conservatives who anonymously use blogs to sucker punch liberals, we don’t hide. And we stand behind what we say.
