Which of those makes you think of ABORTION?! I'm not thinking any of them do.
This Canada Day, I was with my mother and father in law, my sister and brother in law, my three children, aged 7, 4 and 1, and my nieces, aged 2 and 3 1/2 years old. We parked at Safeway, got a few groceries and headed down Whyte Avenue to watch a family friendly parade, the Silly Summer Parade. We were walking down Whyte, and suddenly, the crowd parts and we are walking in between a silent protest of abortion. BUT that's not even the worst part. The worst part was what they were holding: Five foot high posters of ten week aborted fetuses!!!
**INSERT DISGUST HERE**
As I walked past, I said "Yeah, just what I wanted my children to see on the street!"
Now...I'm a full supporter of the right to protest. I'm a full supporter of the right to believe what you wish. I'm a full supporter of your sexuality, your religion, your color, your right to publish, post...whatever. I get it. I understand that we live in a free country. Fair.
But, what I DO NOT support is your timing. You picked a FAMILY FRIENDLY event. A place where abortion is probably the least important subject at this point. I thought about it for a while, brooded on it, was pissed off...then I realized I wanted to go back. Ask questions of these people:
"What do you think you are doing? You are making it so that a poor parent out there MUST NOW explain to their child what this is about. Probably before either of them is ready!!"
"Couldn't you pick ANY OTHER DAY?! I mean, seriously. You have THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR DAYS to choose from."
"A different location ever come to mind?"
Or as my black humor brought up "What are you trying to do? Make the kids who ARE here realize how LUCKY they are?!"
Unfortunately, by the time I'd had time to digest how I was feeling in a manner that would come across as semi-lucid, they were gone.
Please. You people give your cause a super bad name. There are far too many people who are so fanatical about their causes that they turn people off. I can name three causes off the top of my head such as PETA, Greenpeace and the anti-abortion cause. All of them take that one step too far, that one step that doesn't make any sense to their cause. I mean, I guess to them, it makes sense, and it DOES get them attention, but it doesn't give me any reason to follow these causes.
Greenpeacers, if you show up at the oilsands to protest, it's your right... But don't drive there. Walk. Ride a horse...well, maybe not the horse. You might piss off PETA. And I'm doubting that when you FLEW to Canada to protest, you probably didn't use your own wings. Just sayin'. Even if you biked there, your bike still uses petroleum products. Chain oil, rubber tires...<
PETA, quit putting red paint on things. If we came to your offices and used black paint on everything, you'd probably get pissed off. I get that you don't want to eat animals or have them as pets. Fair enough. Don't. But quit defacing everything. It's really annoying. Honestly, I love my cat. I'm thinking that she's probably happier with me getting food, water and love daily than languishing in a cage at the SPCA. Not to mention that the REASON human beings are even able to protest is that we EAT MEAT! Sheesh.
Anti-abortionists, my problem with you is the biggest. I will not say whether or not I'm for or against it. I have three children. Draw your own conclusions. But here's my BIGGEST issue. Fine for wanting to preserve life. I'm all for it. But why in the WORLD do you kill someone to prove your point? No...really! I'm asking this. It's a ridiculous dichotomy. To preserve a life, you take a life? And yeah. I know. There are crazy fanatics in every cause, but let's look at it this way...if you post GIANT posters around cities with pictures of aborted fetuses on them, which is HIGHLY inflammatory, you ARE going to incite some crazy individual to do crazy things. You don't want to claim these nuts, but let's face it, this is a highly inflammatory subject on any side of it, and a person who might already suffer from an untreated mental disorder sees something like this, it could drive them to do something nuts, like kill a doctor.
For my part on the abortion topic, I have a daughter. I plan to teach her all sides of the story of sexuality, how to handle it, what's the important parts of it. Meaning, birth control. Does this mean I'm going to encourage her to go out and do it? Oh, hell no. I'll discourage that. I'm going to be a big part of my daughter's life, teaching her how to handle her thoughts and emotions in a constructive way that won't include putting herself out for a guy because she thinks that is how she is going to get love, or whatever other reasons girls do that for. I want her to be a secure individual, strong in her opinions and educated so that she can make these choices later in her life. And to teach her that there are ALWAYS consequences to her actions. Same for my boys...but with my daughter, it's important she understand that she's a person, she can be a strong woman who doesn't NEED to be beholden to a partner for any reason.
There are SO many other questions that go along with all of this, and you are free to pose them to me. I will answer them. I'm an open book. You can even ask me directly how I feel about any of these subjects and how I justify my opinions. But understand one thing...I will do the same to you. If you ask of me, I will ask of you. I want to understand the thought process of an individual who can defend what I saw on Friday afternoon on the streets during a family friendly event.
I'm really angry because it forces to me to think that there was a *chance* I would have had to explain to my SEVEN year old son what that was, if he hadn't been so oblivious to the situation. Thank GOD. It's the one moment that I thanked my lucky stars that he was oblivious to something. I'm angry FOR the parent who DID have to explain that to their child before their child needed to know.
My point after all that raging... Fanatics, think before you protest. Believe what you want, but think. Think about the audience that will observe your protest. Think about your own children. Come to think of it, I wonder if any of those anti abortionists had children, and if they did, would they want THEIR children seeing that? And if they were okay with it, why weren't the children there?
Hmm...
