God Bless South Dakota
Picture 15 different gigantic posters of aborted fetuses, and that's what the campus looked like today. In the late afternoon, they moved their very productive work to in front of a Christian center, in front of Burger King, and in front of various other businesses.
When they were on campus, though, I got to let my hostile, bitchy side out. Normally, I'm very polite to strangers. Had they been outside promoting something I felt indifferent about, I would have either let them talk to me, or said, "No, thanks." These people, though? Well, it's different if you invade the campus of the school I go to. The school that will put me into $10,000 worth of debt every year. I'm not fucking paying to be harrassed and to feel unsafe.
A selection:
"You get that pamphlet any fucking closer to me, and I'm throwing my coffee at you."
"You get that pamphlet any fucking closer to me, and I'm putting my cigarette out on you."
*spit* (regretably, I didn't have the balls to spit in the guy's face, just at his feet)
*middle finger*
"I guess the soup kitchen turned you away from helping out over there, right?"
The only time I was nice was when someone's little boy held a pamphlet out to me. I simply smiled and said, "No, thank you."
Most of these people were men. I'm sorry, on most issues, I think people of different sexes have the right to their opinions. But until men are capable of getting pregnant after being raped, they need to SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Since a lot of the posters contained sentiments like, "PLANNED PARENTHOOD KILLS BABIES!!!!!", it's probably safe to assume these are the same people who oppose accessible, accurate information about birth control, and birth control itself. You know, because everyone waits until marriage to have sex, and when they do have sex, it's only to procreate. Rape never happens. And since rape never happens, and every female who becomes pregnant wants her baby, then they're certainly not going to want to have to pay taxes to support welfare mothers. In fact, when South Dakota passed the bill to ban abortion, a reporter asked the governor how women with unplanned pregancies were going to support their babies. His response? "I haven't thought about that." This is also the state that turned down a bill that would remove the parental rights of rapists who impregnante their victims.
While were on the subject of stupid posters, I think my favorites were the ones comparing abortion to the Holocaust. Excuse me? From what I've learned, people in the Holocaust were separated from their families. Sometimes they had to witness the deaths or murders of family members. They were dehumanized, they were forced into slave labor, they contracted horrible diseases, they were experimented on, they were denied adequate food, water, and shelter, amongst other things. From what I've read, it's not until fairly late in a pregnancy that a fetus can feel pain. Even if it were the case that fetus felt pain early on, it's probably quick. It's not the same fucking thing as what happened to the victims of the Holocaust.
Well, I need to get gussied up for the Amendent C (that would be banning gay marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships involving more than three people) debate.
EDIT: When the debate was over and I was leaving the building in which it had been held, there was another abortion protester in the hall. She extended a flyer to me, and I said, "No thanks." Then there was another outside. He asked me, "Would you like a pamphlet?"
"What's it regarding?"
"Uh, read it and find out."
Having had enough of aborted fetus pictures and suspecting that the pamphlets contained such images, I replied, "Well, then I'm not interested."
Where the fuck does this assertiveness come from? And where is it when I really need it? I was talking to Neil on the phone and I said, "You know how you're supposed to picture the audience naked so you feel less nervous when giving a speech? I think I'll have to start pretending everyone is holding an anti-abortion poster so I'll be more assertive."