Apr 26, 2004
women must decide their fate; not the church, not the state
sunday was the march for women's lives. angie and i got up early and metroed there. dean saw us getting off the metro so after some confusion we finally met up with him and all enjoyed the day together. let me say this about the march: ..IT..WAS..AMAZING.. the sheer volume of women (and lots of men!) there was overwhelming. the march organizers and cnn both estimate the crowd to be about 1.15 million. thats insane! that many people came to the march! and just think of all the people who supported the march but couldnt come for some reason or another. while in line for the bathroom i struck up a conversation with some women from montana and nevada. incredible! that people would travel that far for a march shows an incredible amount of passion and it really lit a fire under my apathetic ass. i am still in this glow where i want to just run out and volunteer and flyer and debate and slash the tires of every injustice. this is the type of political fervor that should never burn out. tons of celebrities and politicians were guest speakers at the rally before and after the march. it was great. i believe the official estimate of counterprotesters is 1500 (but from being there i believe this may be an over-estimate). what i do know for sure is that the anti-choice protesters were JACKASSES and many were grossly misinformed and off topic. everyone is prolife! i have not met one person who will sit there and say that abortions are the best thing in the world and should be used as often as possible. prochoice is prolife. this march was about legality. abortions will happen! in a perfect would abortions would never be necessary. but also in a perfect world rape would not happen and people would be educated about contraception. but thats just not the way it is. making abortions illegal will create unsafe conditions for the women who will seek abortions out. i saw a lot of posters with coat hangers on them that said "dont make me use this. keep abortions legal and safe." and other posters touched on a very true topic (judging by the looks of the counterprotesters) it read "77% of all prolifers are men. 100% of them will never get pregnant." and another sign that read "if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." but i digress, so more on the counterprotesters. here's my conversation with one woman on the other side of the fence:
woman: "welcome to the hiv capital of the country."
me: "thats baltimore not dc. and i'm a virgin and if i was having sex i'd use protection so what are you trying to say."
woman: "well condoms have a 20% failure rate."
me: "bullshit! its 2%"
woman: "well i'm a sex ed teacher."
me: "then you're lying to your students. what makes you think your information is more accurate than mine anyway."
i loved striking up conversations with the counterprotesters. and just being a mouthy little bitch with angie and dean. at one point angie told this group of guys to cut off their dicks if they wanted to decrease the need for abortion. they looked so offended. and to the guys with signs saying shame one you, we just screamed "you will never get pregnant!" because its so true. boys can, and should, form their own opinions on every political topic. but when it comes to abortion, a man will never ever ever be put in the position of having to choose. so a man (or a predominately male legislative body) CAN NOT tell a woman that she cannot have an abortion. and NO ONE can tell me what god's will is. i dont care how many times you've been to church or read the bible, you do not know what god's will is and you cannot use god's supposed will to justify your own beliefs or trample on others'. and even more, this is a legal issue! not a religious issue! you can quote all the scripture you want, that does not mean it should be written into law. gah! the worst were the fanatics. the people that had pictures of concentration camps, people being lynched, and partial birth abortions saying "this is what the freedom of choice does" what the EFF!!! that does not even make sense. i am just so so so very passionate about this now. and it amazes how much i have grown. when i was in middle school i was an adament pro-lifer. if you had told me then that i would be marching in a prochoice march i would have laughed in your face. but since then i have met new people, read new books, thought about things outside of what i learned from the bible or youth groups. i have grown a tremendous amount. i've learned more and seen things from many different prespectives. and all of this self-education brought about understanding and acceptance. i am still an adament pro-lifer but i'm also realistic and compassionate. i now can see the difference in how things should be and how things are. i dont regret what i used to believe because now i understand the people who oppose me. i understand that at their core, they are just trying to help. they are people who see an unjust world and they want to help. but they arent. the difference is simple. we're fighting for their rights. they're trying to take away ours.
posted by sarah 9:54 PM
