THE ISLAND PACKET, 27 APRIL 2018, FEAT. PROF. LISA EICHHORN:

You’re pushing 60 mph, maybe 70, on the highway, shooting out of the curve near the car dealerships and that big American flag, and you flash by him — the man off to your right wearing golf spikes, holding the sign — and you have no idea you’ve just blown past a battlefield.

A war is being fought here, on a debris-strewn shoulder off U.S. 278. It’s a war of attrition that pits the First Amendment against business interests, one waged between a company that says it’s being slandered and a self-proclaimed patriot with a sales background — the man on the side of the road.

He holds the sign, and the sign holds the clues.