Bit of a Rant About Protesters.

Jun 10, 2007 13:06

This community looks slightly inactive so I thought I'd cross post from my journal about my first day as an escort.

Well, yesterday morning I completed my first volunteer shift as a clinic escort for NARAL. Anne and I arrived at about 6:20AM and there were already protesters on the sidewalk, including a woman sporting no fewer than four rosaries, walking around the block, praying and sprinkling holy water all over the sidewalk.

This woman turned out to be the worst of them, shrieking like a harpy at the top of her lungs about how we were all going to go to Hell until almost 8:00AM. I wish I could remember all of the things she called me, but "little devil" was probably the most repeated among her angry, imposing spate. It felt like she really singled me out since I was obviously the youngest escort there. More than once she walked up behind Anne and me and literally screamed a string of antagonistic garbage at us. I wish I could have turned around and slugged her in the face (yes, that's how close she was.) Instead, Anne and I tried to have a conversation over her voice, completely ignoring her until she gave up and went back to her group.

By far the most upsetting, though, was how the protesters treated the actual patients. Now, whether you're anti-abortion or pro-choice, I don't think anybody reading this could find a single sane person who is pro-harassing-emotionally-fragile-women; or Hell, pro-harassment period! It was easy to tell that a lot of these women -- some of them just girls probably no older than I -- were going through a lot. A couple seemed almost on the verge of crying. And why shouldn't they be? They had probably very recently made one of the toughest decisions in their lives. I know I would be crying in their shoes, or at least fighting hard to swallow tears.

And then these self-righteous, misguided religious nutjobs take it upon themselves to intimidate the women in every way possible, from screaming, "Your baby loves you!"; "Give it to us, we want to adopt your baby!"; "Why are you turning your back on God?!"; "Don't embrace this evil!"; "Don't listen to that little devil who wants to kill your baby!"; "That is worse than slavery!" and "You're killing your race!" (said to some black women); "You're going to go to hell if you kill your baby!", etc. -- making them feel like royal crap, to cornering and crowding them in on the sidewalk, shoving brochures in their face and trying to bait them into conversations. It went on and on like that.
It was so hard to watch, and I was glad to help the women and their companions even in the small act of walking them to the front door.

Now, this brings me to a related subject. I dislike protests and demonstrations in general -- from the ones held on campus promoting a particular political ideology (which seem much more like rock concerts and block parties than any kind of organized crack at the First Amendment) to the bullshit I saw this morning. Why? Well, let me put it this way: I'm a very "put your money where your mouth is"-type of person and protests are, well, just talk. Most don't accomplish anything, really, apart from providing a venue for people to complain in large groups. If you want to see a change in the world around you, that's fine, but don't just sit in front of a building with a cardboard sign and scream; do something about it!

For example, if you're not happy about a political situation, write letters (not emails, letters) to your local representatives, organize a boycott of businesses affiliated with undesirable causes, or even just donate money to the people who are doing that already! If you want to help the environment, buy a bicycle; use biodegradable products and get your ass out there and clean shit up! If you honestly want to help kids, why not volunteer your time for youth programs, the foster care program or adopt some children yourself rather than simply trying to intimidate their would-be mothers with a barrage of hateful hoo-ha? And if you really want to prevent abortions, why not try working towards more comprehensive sex education, and nip the problem in the bud?

Then again, I suppose anyone who gets up at the crack of dawn every Saturday just to harass women isn't exactly the most rational person, so maybe it's not reasonable to expect them to take their intentions and actually use them productively to benefit the lives of others. Naw, that would make way too much sense.
In any case, Anne and I are going to keep doing clinic escorts about once a month for as long as we can handle the early Saturdays.

I don't usually throw rants at my journal, but this experience just begged for it. It affected me pretty deeply on a few levels, from empathizing with the women we were escorting to disgust for the behavior of the protesters to general bewilderment and annoyance. Thanks for humoring my opinionated side, guys.

Have a cookie.

Tschüß,
=/\=Hal
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