BY SHIRLEY PEŅA
RHODES, Iowa - On April 20, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) sent Larry Ginter a letter ordering him to either remove or relocate a sign on his property by May 22.
The wooden, hand-painted sign on Ginter's land, which sits on the edge of a corn field along Highway 330 between Des Moines and Marshalltown, reads, "BRANSTAD & HOG FACTORIES = ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL DAMAGE."
Terry Branstad is the governor of Iowa and is viewed by many working farmers as being in the pocket of large factory hog farm owners.
If Ginter refused to tear down or move the sign, the DOT said they would "enter upon the land as authorized by law and dispose of the sign and supports."
On May 22, the day the DOT's 30-day deadline for the sign's removal was up, Ginter, his mother, and more than 20 supporters held a press conference and rally to protest the state's attempts to remove the sign.
Despite intermittent rain, the rally was well covered by a number of local television stations and newspapers. As Ginter and several other working farmers spoke to the press and rally participants, their comments were punctuated by the sounds of cars on the highway that honked their horns in support as they drove by.
Ginter and his supporters also erected a fence around the sign and vowed to fight any attempts to tear down the sign. If anyone crosses the fence, Ginter declared as he pounded fence supports into the muddy ground, "I'm calling it a violation of my rights and a trashing of the U.S. Constitution.
"Do we have a right to make a political statement on our own land?" Ginter asked the crowd that was gathered around the sign.
Farmer Gary Hoske, who has a similar sign in his yard, explained that the sign will "serve as a reminder of the environmental, economic, and social damage because of what the governor's done."
Ginter, secretary of the Iowa chapter of the American Agriculture Movement and an outspoken opponent of the large hog confinement facilities in the state, said he could not ignore the coincidence that for six months the DOT had nothing to say about his sign - until recent legislative debates began on hog confinement regulations.
The governor's office has attempted to counter the charges that the DOT's threat against the Ginter property is politically motivated. Branstad's spokesperson, Christine Martin, told the Des Moines Register that Branstad is on the side of small farmers. He received campaign donations from corporate farms, but "they are a minute portion compared to the thousands of individual donations" he received, she claimed.
The DOT also told Ginter that his sign was advertising and as such, violated the state's laws on billboards. But Ginter discounts these claims, saying, "I wasn't advertising a damn thing. It's a political statement."
Ginter's fight has been publicized on local television news and radio, in the Des Moines Register and the Omaha World Herald, as well as by an ABC-affiliated news radio station out of New York City. The Register editorial page also came out in support of Ginter's right to keep the sign on his property.
The day following the rally the Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Ginter's behalf in federal court.
Shirley Peņa is a member of United Auto Workers Local 997 in Newton, Iowa.