Responses to the question, "Why are you out here today?"
January 30, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a Revolution correspondent:
A young woman we talked to had grown up homeless on the streets. She said she was here because she feels strongly that abortion rights must be protected. "I understand what it is to be unwanted. I was born to a family who didn’t want me and they threw me out of the house at 14. No child should have to go through that. I see what it has done to people and I know what it has done to me." It caused a lot of problems for her later on in life. She had been a drug addict, but had put herself through college for media studies to combat homelessness. "We need more people to represent these ideas. People are not going to notice you if you’re small. You need numbers. Without people representing your cause, there’s no cause.”
A man who had just been released after being arrested for confronting a man spouting some homophobic shit said he said he was out here "Because the religious fanatics are out here doing their religious fanatical stuff and it just pisses me off."
A man in his 30’s said "Well, I feel there’s a complacency that I have been part of for a long time about abortion rights, and I’m not sure it does anything, but I guess I sort of feel that the other side is galvanized and make more restrictions and roll back the progress on abortion rights issues. And I guess we’re all kind of happy with the liberal status quo but that sort of mood is not captured across the country and it seems like the other side is getting its troops out.”"
Older man: "I'm here to celebrate lives and liberty for women because they're losing a lot of their liberties and a lot of women are dying. I’m ex-military and one-third of women soldiers are being raped–and some men also. And one-third of women, mothers, daughters, children in their lifetime in this country will be brutalized or beat or killed. I see an erosion of women’s rights so that’s why I’m here."
Young woman: "I'm out here because it’s no one’s right to tell somebody what to do. If you want to have an abortion, go have one. But if you do, that’s your right. No we decided this 40 years ago and I’m still hearing about it."
Middle aged Black Woman: "Because I believe in woman’s free choice. I’m here with my mom. We’re going forward. We're not going backward."
Older woman: "Because I’m a woman who hasn’t been brainwashed to think something would happen to me if I had an abortion. I’m out here because there’s too many apathetic people."
Young guy: "Well, I was just walking down the street and someone handed me a sign and I like this and agree with this."
A 50-year old Black social worker: "I was reminded of this event by a friend and it is something I have not done in 30 years. Not apathetic, but the price of freedom is vigilance and I need to speak out about things." She went on to say, "When the woman on the bullhorn [Stephanie of WCW] was speaking to the youth in the crowd of antis about how she knew many of them were engaging in sex [and how there is no one they could talk to and what would they do if they became pregnant] I was struck by the fact–how the adults started a loud chant to drown her out, but how the youth became quiet and diverted their eyes." She told me that she noticed this because she knows children very well and is a social worker with abused children.
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