Rodeo
November 25, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
Editors' Note: November 17, 2012 was a national day of action to Take it to the Streets! Stop the War on Women! called by the movement to End Pornography & Patriarchy: The Enslavement & Degradation of Women. Though a heavy rainstorm caused the cancellation of the protest in one rural area, it didn’t stop K.T. who sent in this report:
It was sort of cozy in the arena. At least it offered protection from the storm raging outside that vetoed the N17 plan to make a ruckus at the county courthouse. It was a first-name environment, too. We all knew each other from branding days or the county fair. Kids were stomping up and down the bleachers and through the stables in their boots, showing off their belt buckles and bragging about their advantages in this or that event. Everybody was dressed in plaid shirts and wrangler jeans, even the babies. It was just another rodeo.
I was hugging my bag tightly, thinking about all the palm cards I had in there. "ABORTION ON DEMAND & WITHOUT APOLOGY!" that would surely get me thrown out of the arena and into the rain. "IF YOU CAN'T IMAGINE SEX WITHOUT PORN, YOU'RE FUCKED!" that might offend people because of the cursing, but folks might actually take it. The rodeo crew needed these cards just as desperately as the more progressive crowd at the courthouse, so I figured I better hand some out and see what happened. It would be a shame if the cards all stayed in my bag.
I started with the anti-porn one, and got a surprisingly GREAT response with the usual laugh followed by a more serious interaction. Every single person was upset after reading the back of the card that states "Abortion is not murder." About eight people just gave me the cards back, but everybody else kept them. Only one person seriously engaged with me, but at a rodeo with about 60 staunchly conservative folks that was an accomplishment.
He actually helped pass out some of the abortion cards. He wanted to know why I supported abortion and I began by asking him why he didn't. He told me he was raised "pro-life." So was I. I went through all sorts of biological and ethical arguments, remembering what changed my understanding; nothing worked. He refused to change his mind. "If we cannot control our own bodies, we are nothing more than slaves," I finally cried out in frustration. I was getting ready to just leave, but that really hit him, you could see it in his face. "I never thought about it like that before..." Unfortunately, our conversation was cut short when the next kid was stuck on the bull and he proudly declared "that's my boy!" But he took a small stack of the abortion cards to pass out.
These palm cards need to be distributed everywhere, especially where they are NOT welcomed—at churches, porn stores, AND rodeos because that is where they are needed most.
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.