Morning mob on 10th Street bridge
A fairly small and quiet contingent of a dozen or so anti-abortion/right-to-life activists were on the Georgia Tech side of the 10th Street bridge this morning. They had graphic signs and red shirts (I didn’t catch the denominational affiliation or specific church).
They disbanded at about 9:30 or so as my wife and I were returning from daycare on our way to work.
Thankfully our 5-year-old didn’t see them on the way over the bridge.
As much as I disagree with their views AND support their right to express them, I’m fairly certain my wife would have jumped out of a moving car to beat one of them had her little girl seen the aborted fetus on their signs.
I’m just sayin’.
If you’ve got a picture or your own recollection, share a comment.
Used to be they’d come out on Fridays when the Surgi-Center was still in the little pink building. I’m not sure where they moved to (uh, maybe near the Tech side of the bridge?) or if they just removed their signage (but it looks vacant now), but there was many a Friday morning I’d drive in, see the hateful peeps protesting and think about what would happen if I’d become momentarily distracted by a cup of coffee or iPod and accidentally veer off road…
More constructively, I’ve thought of taking my Friday mornings off to counter them.
I’m glad your LP didn’t see anything. I can’t imagine the conversation that would follow. :(
Unfortunately, they’ve been there all week.
This morning my daughter finally took a good look at what was going on after telling me "that one girl has been there before".
Her: "What are they doing?"
Me: "They’re protesting."
Here: "What does that mean?"
Me: "It means they’re upset and angry about something and they’re trying to change other people’s minds."
Her: "Ew! That baby (referring to the aborted fetus, graphically-displayed at about 20x actual size) is gross!"
Me: "I know."
Talk about forcing my hand as a parent.
It was all I could do not to tell her what I really thought.
I suppose if I were a better parent I would have described the First Amendment in limited detail and talked about public speech.
But we were late for school and work and she’s 5.
Judge away!
And if you missed them on the overpass, you can enjoy several ginormous copies of "that" poster at eye level, on the street around Woodruff Park at lunch today. There are a whole tribe of protesters (with their kids) in red shirts and broadcasting on loudspeakers. However, the first amendment doesn’t guarentee decent acoustics nor cooperative road noise so except for "God" occasionally, I have no idea what they were saying. And most people downtown gave them the same attention as a dude asking for money. Maybe less.