Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Rewards for Street Picketing

For years, my wife, Nancy, and I have picketed abortion clinics. We have had some interesting experiences, which I would like to share with you.

The responses from the traffic on the streets to our picketing with Pro-Life signs has been about equally divided between positive approval of our activities by thumbs-up signs and other less mentionable finger signals of disapproval. One abortionist tried to hit us with his car as he was coming out of his office parking lot. Another angry man pulled a knife on Nancy several years ago. Some have thrown paint balls at us—-fortunately for us, the paint balls did not burst. Several people have stopped to yell at us and argue with us about our beliefs concerning life issues. Their arguments are always of a rather crude and un-thought-out nature, mostly because they have not taken the time to organize their thoughts well. They almost always bring up the issue of “It’s a woman’s body; she can do as she sees fit with it.” This argument, of course, is easy to refute; but, alas, our vocal opponents never seem to be convinced. One man stopped, approached one of our fellow picketers, grabbed his sign and tore it up. Then he raced off in his car. We, of course, called the Lakewood police; and they apprehended him before he had gone four blocks. He was brought into court, fined $100, and required to pay for the destroyed sign. In these confrontational situations, we always call the police; and they have always protected us.

On the other side of the leger, we have also had people park their cars, and come over to us to express their appreciation of what we are doing. Some of them have offered to take us out to lunch, and others have brought us hot chocolate on cold days. One restaurateur invited us to eat at his pizza shop free, which we did on many occasions.

Most recently, a teenaged boy, who was obviously homeless, crossed Union Avenue with his elderly homeless companion deliberately to tell us that he and his friend approved of our street message. Then the boy reached into his pocket and gave us
89¢. It was like receiving the widow’s mite!

We picket every Monday morning from 11 AM to 12 noon. We have counted the cars and multiplied by the average number of people per car. We have calculated that in one hour, we expose our signs to 3000 people. We hope that we are doing some good on the street; at the least, we are helping to keep the Pro-Life message alive and well in our community. Come out and help us some time!

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