A Quiet Neighborhood: How the Right Wing Tried to Suppress Our Anti-War Message

by Stephen Pearcy November 22, 2006

When public support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq was at its peak, my wife and I voiced our dissent in a very public way. For that, we were demonized by the media and attacked by conservative hate mongers. See the 30-minute video showing the story the way it should have been reported--i.e., without a right wing spin!

The story of Stephen and Virginia Pearcy. February 15th, 2005. Poltical dissent and free speech issues. "Bush Lied, I Died" symbol at the heart of the controversy, in which media and the right wing reacted to the sign and generally misunderstood its meaning. In classrooms, this video could be used to start discussion about current issues, and gives insight to the difference between an event in reality and how different it comes across to the viewer when presented on the media.

Regardless of opinions or political position, this video can be used as a springboard for open discussion on important issues such as war, types of wars, history shaping the present, free speech, political dissent, radio,television,and newspaper media reporting, symbolism, and political groups.

Their Story...


September 24, 2005

Stephen Pearcy Reports: "Another of our 'Bush Lied, I Died' soldier displays was ripped down and stolen yesterday from our Land Park (Sacramento) home. This is the 4th time in the last 8 months that this has happened, and the 2nd time in less than a month." Since February, their home has been attacked in several other ways: Their cars, their guests' cars, and their house have been egged on several occasions; Bush re-election stickers have been affixed to their living room window; their house was fired upon with multiple rounds of paint balls at 2am; US Marine stickers were affixed to several windows on their house; a shovel was stuck in the middle of their front lawn between two orange cones spaced about 7 feet across from one-another (the way a grave site is marked for digging in a cemetery); numerous "hate" letters have arrived in the mail; numerous threats have been left on their answering machine; they have received numerous annoying hang-up calls; garbage has been thrown on their lawn on many occasions (McDonalds bags, beer bottles, etc.); someone subscribed them to about 40 different magazines; police have mysteriously and inexplicably gone to their house while they were at work in Berkeley; and more.

Stephen Pearcy tried to get information about one of the vandals by using Craig's List, but his posts have repeatedly been "flagged" and removed. When he complained to Craig, the Craigslist CEO (Jim Buckmaster) emailed him back and accused him of berating them and said he should use someone else's site. Pearcy has asked supporters to email Craig to encourage him not to allow flaggers to thwart his attempts to identify the right-wing vandals. Craigslist people, however, have continued to allow the flagging. Stephen and Virginia Pearcy had planned to spend vacation time together away from their home by participating in activities such as the anti-war protest in San Francisco, but they have been discouraged by the lack of official support for their battle to get the criminal justice system to help them. He wrote, "We're getting a bit tired and disappointed." Read more