Entry tags:
March, the aftermath
The Backlash Begins
Google News is starting to show the backlash articles to the march. One article points wryly that the number of people reported seems to vary according to what the march is called... if it's called a pro-choice march, they say it numbered 500,000 to 1.1 mil. If it's called a pro-abortion march, the number can get as low as 300,000, with a corresponding rise in reported counter-protesters.
And then there's the op-ed pieces. "Pro-Abortion support losing ground" is one of my favorites, considering the huge number of marchers vs the tiny number of counter protesters. Several anti-abortion sites are writing articles about how all the marchers were told to throw paint or otherwise deface the counter protest signs. (Funny, the only vandalism arrest made was for one of them throwing ink at us!) Another called us all ugly. And there was a wierd little story on one of the sites that showed up about how a woman apparently left the marchers to tell one of the counter protesters that she regretted her abortion too. Which, frankly, I find hard to believe, because you don't go to the lengths many of these marchers went to just to be there if you're ambivalent. But it makes a nice story if you want to call us all "lying to ourselves" about our "damage" as another article has.
And then there's Karen Hughes comparing us to the 9/11 terrorists. She didn't learn from what happened to Falwell and Robertson when they told the country we liberal feminist pro-choicers were responsible for that?
"Go away, they don't care about you," one of the counter-demonstrators taunted me as I blocked him. "You won't be famous, you won't be on the news." No, I won't, not for this. But I stood up to be counted, and with each passing day, I'm gladder I did.
Props to the Cops
Put this in comments elsewhere, and wanted to say it up front here. Props to the cops! Between the anger and resolve on the streets, and the venom and hatred on the sidelines (it's sickening how many of them were laughing as they told us we were hellbound whores, such a convincing way of "turning our hearts") there was the possibility of a Watts-sized riot. And yet nothing aside from what the paper rather euphemistically called "shouting matches" went on. The cops, including the one who moved me out of the counter protest, were inevitably polite and professional. That the march was as peaceful as it was is due in large part to them. Well done, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.
Google News is starting to show the backlash articles to the march. One article points wryly that the number of people reported seems to vary according to what the march is called... if it's called a pro-choice march, they say it numbered 500,000 to 1.1 mil. If it's called a pro-abortion march, the number can get as low as 300,000, with a corresponding rise in reported counter-protesters.
And then there's the op-ed pieces. "Pro-Abortion support losing ground" is one of my favorites, considering the huge number of marchers vs the tiny number of counter protesters. Several anti-abortion sites are writing articles about how all the marchers were told to throw paint or otherwise deface the counter protest signs. (Funny, the only vandalism arrest made was for one of them throwing ink at us!) Another called us all ugly. And there was a wierd little story on one of the sites that showed up about how a woman apparently left the marchers to tell one of the counter protesters that she regretted her abortion too. Which, frankly, I find hard to believe, because you don't go to the lengths many of these marchers went to just to be there if you're ambivalent. But it makes a nice story if you want to call us all "lying to ourselves" about our "damage" as another article has.
And then there's Karen Hughes comparing us to the 9/11 terrorists. She didn't learn from what happened to Falwell and Robertson when they told the country we liberal feminist pro-choicers were responsible for that?
"Go away, they don't care about you," one of the counter-demonstrators taunted me as I blocked him. "You won't be famous, you won't be on the news." No, I won't, not for this. But I stood up to be counted, and with each passing day, I'm gladder I did.
Props to the Cops
Put this in comments elsewhere, and wanted to say it up front here. Props to the cops! Between the anger and resolve on the streets, and the venom and hatred on the sidelines (it's sickening how many of them were laughing as they told us we were hellbound whores, such a convincing way of "turning our hearts") there was the possibility of a Watts-sized riot. And yet nothing aside from what the paper rather euphemistically called "shouting matches" went on. The cops, including the one who moved me out of the counter protest, were inevitably polite and professional. That the march was as peaceful as it was is due in large part to them. Well done, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.