Veterans Voice Rally Unplugged

Veteran Rally Goes On – Without The Mic
By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: April 2, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Just past noon on Wednesday, John Russell walked to his Honda Accord parked in front of the old courthouse and started unloading public address equipment as Brooksville Police Chief George Turner and seven other officers from the department watched.

The day before, Russell vowed that his Veterans Voice rally would go on as planned despite warnings from Turner that it was against city code to use the PA system at the event. That policy, Russell contends, pulls the plug on his free speech rights.

For a few moments, it seemed Russell was ready to test the code – and Turner's mood – by using the PA system anyway.

Russell toted one speaker to the top courthouse step, then the other. Out came the amplifier and microphone.

Then he grabbed a can of black spray paint and a couple of old signs, turned them over and wrote "Veterans Unpluged." Even without the necessary second "g," the point was clear: the PA system had been reduced to a prop this day.

He set up a video camera and gave the handful of veterans who showed up the chance to speak.
"I was never going to violate the law," Russell told a reporter. "The veterans are free to fight and die for our country, forever altering their lives and the lives of their families, and they are free to speak as along as they say accepted things."

Russell, a Democrat who has twice run unsuccessfully for U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite's 5th Congressional seat, says he organized the rally to bring attention to problems veterans are encountering as they seek benefits and services from the Veterans Administration.

He maintains that the county had given him the OK to have the event with the PA system. But Turner, still a little new to the city, checked with the city attorney, who pointed out a chapter of the city code that disallows amplification systems for "the producing or reproducing of sound which is cast upon the public streets for the purpose of commercial advertising or attracting the attention of the public to any building or structure." There are exemptions for parades, charity events and events organized by the government.
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