I Meet the "Anti's"

[Rusty5329]

Today, I had my first real experience as an abortion clinic escort. For those of you that do did not read our recent pieces, we at Sum of Change Productions are in the early stages of a documentary on the work that clinic escorts do and the stories attached to it. Volunteering as an escort is a part of our research, ideally making our film stronger by giving us a deeper understanding of the work. There is about 8 trillion things I could say about today, but I will keep this somewhat brief, and just run through the day...

continued at http://sumofchange.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-meet-antis.html

[lamp_shade]

1. Bookmarked. I'll read the whole thing in a little bit. Thanks.

[Forkboy]

2. Nice recap, and well done.

I never did volunteer escorting, but I did take two women to get abortions, and at one of them Operation Rescue was there. I really wanted to lay into them for a few hours and repeatedly poke them with a verbal stick, but I was there for someone else, not my own personal amusement.

[Rusty5329]

5. that's pretty much...

how I felt too.

[BlooInBloo]

3. :)))))) I would like to do that some time...

"Then we had the first patient arrive. Nothing about this had scared me up to this point. I am not afraid of the threat of violence, or of confronting an anti in vigorous debate. None of that scares me (as a political organizer, those are pretty much part of the job description). However, approaching a woman walking up the street who might be a patient, who is being yelled at about killing babies, and trying to reassure her that I am here to help, that she can talk to the protesters but does not have to, that she does not have to answer personal questions from them... that scares me. That moment is so real, so quick. That is definitely out of my comfort zone. Luckily, our trainers handled most of that today, and us two newbies mostly acted as a human wall to help guide the way into the clinic. However, one of us slightly bumped into an anti, and "Assault!" they screamed. As I said before, do not ever escort alone."

[valerief]

4. Congrats for what you're doing. Facing angry crazy people is very dangerous.

You're very brave and kind to help these women in need.

[uppityperson]

6. k&r with many thanks

[angstlessk]

7. I tried to post a comment, but seems I do not own my wordpress name

maybe any longer? Been awhile since I posted. Good luck with your venture.

[ohheckyeah]

8. I hate to admit it but I'm not sure I've ever heard

of an abortion clinic escort. What a great service to women who are likely to be attacked, at least verbally, for their choice of getting an abortion. Kudos to you!

I hope this doesn't offend you but I can't read the whole post at your blog. The dark blue background with white letters really bothers my eyes.

[geckosfeet]

10. Me too. That color combo is rough. So many websites have horrible

color contrast. It is hard to imagine that many website authors are color blind.

But I did read and appreciate the post.

[ohheckyeah]

11. I belong to a blogging group that

gives good advice on how to make blogs more readable for visually impaired people. They recommend a light background with black print and a size 12 font. I like the looks of the dark themes but I think they are hard for a lot of people to read.

[Rusty5329]

12. thanks for the tip...

much of this site is temporary while we develop something more extensive and user friendly.

Thanks again.

[ohheckyeah]

15. You're welcome.

I'd offer help if you were using Wordpress because that's what I use. I quit blogspot so long ago I don't remember how the themes are coded.

[Rusty5329]

17. we're switching out of blogspot ASAP...

It's just to restrictive on what you can do. Most likely, we're switching to wordpress or expression engine.

Anyways, I flipped it to something that is easier on the eyes.

[ohheckyeah]

20. I have a self-hosted

blog that uses Wordpress. I don't know anything about expression engine but Wordpress free blogs are pretty liberal unless you are hoping to advertise and make money for the blog. I manage a wordpress site for a friend who has a band and I find it very flexible. You can find a plug in for most anything you want to do with wordpress.

[Rusty5329]

14. I changed it up...

and no, I take no offense.

Thanks

[ohheckyeah]

16. Thank you. That was very nice of you.

I'll go read it now.

[Rusty5329]

18. you're welcome...

and thank you too.

[havocmom]

9. Thank you for bearing witness. Thank you for the support you provided.

Thank you for working to communicate the situation.

As an aside, I had to copy and past text from the web site. That white on blue looks fabulous, but is very hard on some old eyes.

Eons ago, my daughter got us involved with protecting clients and clinics. We were part of the human wall that blocked the antis from escorts and patients. It was before the laws to protect clinic grounds. Every week, the same hate filled faces up in ours, just bordering on assult. Same screaming, same personal attacks. Stoic drives 'em nuts. Oh, and hymns, they sang a lot of hymns.

One week something was off. No hymns. One old lady in our group started singing Amazing Grace and most of us joined in, shoulder to shoulder 'manning the line' as my brother the sailor would say, and singing. That we knew the song left them dumbfounded for a bit, but the ring leaders went into full fledged rage at our nerve. Some of them had to be pulled away by their friends.

There was a big rally at the state capitol. Two actually, ours and theirs. Lots of buses from our city, lots of people my age, lots of college aged people. A few elderly people too. One coed walked to the water closet in the back of the bus. On her return, she stopped to thank an elderly couple for coming, though it was obvious they were well past the years of being concerned with personal family planning.

'We are just so glad to have you with us' the young lady said.

The elderly woman patted her hand and replied: "We've been doing this for over 50 years. We are glad YOU are finally with us". He husband kept his head down and chuckled just ever so slightly.

Yes, indeed. We are happy you are with us. It is damned important, isn't it? There is no freedom without choice in the personal matter of family planning.

We are happy you are with us. Someday, I will share another very telling tale from that day we went to Phoenix to let the state legislature know our feelings.

[Joanne98]

13. They're terrorists!

[ohheckyeah]

19. Very interesting article.

Thank you for volunteering and providing that support for these women who are probably freaked out enough without being attacked by antis.

Did I read that right....God raped Mary so the products of rape must be protected? Seriously? That's a new one I haven't heard before.

[Rusty5329]

21. I was shocked too...

I mean... seriously... it's hard to know what to say to that.

[ohheckyeah]

22. I'm afraid I know what I would say.

Are you crazy? comes to mind. :-)