SlowpokeBlog

Yep, that's me at yesterday's March for Women's Lives. (Unfortunately, all I had to write with was a crappy pen.)

In short, it was awesome. March organizers, who meticulously collected signatures of attendees and issued "Count Me In" stickers to everyone in the crowd, put the number at 1.15 million. That means one out of every 300 people in the entire United States was there. In contrast, the showing of counter-protesters was puny. A few hundred appeared along one stretch of the march, forming a sort of gauntlet of nutballs; in today's newspapers, they predictably receive more coverage than they should. Put it this way: even if you assume there were a thousand of them -- a generous estimation -- there were a thousand TIMES more pro-choice people marching. So in a 1000-word newspaper article that accurately reflects the numbers, the counter protesters should get one word. Actually, more like a partial word -- say, a word missing its last letter.

Here are the heroes of the march, IMHO:

1. Medical Students for Choice - This group, dressed in their white coats, proudly held signs saying "I am a Future Abortion Provider." In an age when abortion doctors are being murdered, this was a real act of bravery.

2. The person who came from Juneau, Alaska. I don't know who you are, but I saw your signature on a sign. You came from Juneau. That's all I need to know.

3. Catholics for Choice - Especially the guy who climbed up on a pole (or something) during the march, waving his Catholics for Choice sign in an area that contained nutballs.

The whole event was extremely well-organized, and much to my relief, the bongo factor was low. This was not a radical crowd; it was comprised of ordinary Americans of all ages. I was amazed by the number of people who travelled from faraway states to be there. I'll post some more pics soon.