FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. — It took Dan Frazier a long time to figure out how to make a living.
He cared for a quadriplegic. He sold health food from the back of his bicycle. He drove a van for disabled people. Then, after years of drifting from job to job, Frazier turned to the Internet. Marrying his politics and entrepreneurial instincts, he began selling left-leaning bumper stickers.
He designed one in 2003 that listed the names of troops -- about 500 then -- who had been killed in the Iraq war. The phrase "Bush Lied" was superimposed over the names. As the casualty count grew, the bumper sticker became a T-shirt, and Frazier added the words "They Died."
The venture started out as a way to pay the rent, but it landed Frazier in the middle of a fight over what is free speech versus what is exploitation of the dead.
Frazier says that he has an inherent right to use the names and that he's not ascribing any political belief to anyone. "The shirt doesn't say these people opposed the war. Just that they died," he said.
Some parents say their children would not want their names used this way. When they asked Frazier to remove the names from the shirts and he refused, the families turned to their elected officials.
Five states -- Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida -- have since passed laws requiring permission from members of the military or their next of kin before their names can be used commercially. A version of the law has been introduced in each chamber of Congress.
After Arizona's Legislature unanimously passed its statute in May, Frazier said, he had to find a new printer because his first one feared breaking the law. Frazier has received so many irate calls he is afraid to answer his phone, and he believes someone has been watching his apartment.
"A lot of those soldiers died thinking they were fighting for American values like freedom of speech, and now their loved ones want to take that right away," said Frazier, 42.
The parents say it's a matter of respect.
Margy Bons argued furiously with her son Michael Marzano about the war. He was so gung-ho to go to Iraq that he hunted for and joined a Reserve unit that was scheduled to quickly deploy. Marzano, a sergeant in the Marines, was killed in 2005 -- by a suicide bomber in northern Iraq -- just weeks after writing to his mother in Phoenix that he remained convinced he was "doing the right thing."
