My first protest

[Buda]

Well, it didn't really start out as a protest, more like a few bored college students who got tired of people shoving their opinions down our throats.

But anyway, on our campus, in plain view in front of a major university building (that had an oft used dining area), a group of anti-abortion people set up a bunch of very graphic posters and displays of fetuses that had been aborted, as well as comparing it to racial killings and genocides such as the holocaust. needless to say this did not sit well with us.

This is a list of a few example pictures I found on the web, not all are the ones I saw, but all are along a similar vein
WARNING: these pictures are grafic and NOT for the fent of heart.
1st example
2nd example
3rd example
Comparing abortion to lynchings and genocide
Comparing Planned Parenthood to Al Qaeda/Taliban and Japan(pearl harbor era)
Comparing temselves to Jesus
One of several trucks driving around our campus
There are to many others to list

Anyway, now you see why I did not wish to see this on my way to get some Chik-Fil-A.

So during lunch I said to a friend (jokingly) that if they were allowed to have their signs, we should be able to walk around with our own signs, and that I wanted to walk through with a"Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" sign... Little did I know this would be taken seriously....
So we went to the local bookstore, bought some posterboard and a sharpie, and made up our own signs....
(unfortunatly these are low resolution)
Sign 1
Sign 2
Sign 3
And me, holding up sign 4
There was one more sign being held that we didnt get a picture of, It was bright orange, but otherwise completely blank....
The basic premise was that we can hold up ridiculous signs as well, so we did.... if they happend to block the view of the signs of the other protesters that was compleatly accidental *shifty eyes*

anyway
About 30 minutes into our "protest", someone came up from behind me and introduced himself and shook my hand.... unbeknownst to us, the for-abortion people had planned a demonstration against the GAP(as I now know its called) project (www.abortionno.com to learn more about thier side). So it turned into a crazy pro-choice weird sign fiasco.
There was a Keep Abortion legal sign next to a "Pastafarians For Choice" sign next to a planned parent hood sign, next to a "THIS IS SPARTA" sign etc. etc.

I was constantly asked what Sparta had to do with abortion, and I truthfuly replied, "nothing, nothing at all, but man, 300 was a great movie" which garnered me some odd looks, but hey, that's what we went for.

anyway, please dont turn this thread into a PRO-life vs PRO-choice flamewar from hell, this is about me and a bunch of freinds doing something really stupid, and having fun while doing it.

Edited: for a few typos i noticed, there are probably more

[Ming]

Dude, that's the greatest idea ever! I know what you mean about all those creepy abortion signs...they used to walk around with them at my school too, and it was annoying. Not that I agree or disagree, but throwing a public tantrum (which is basically what protesting is) because no one cares what you have to say otherwise is not the way to get them to care. But that's just my opinion on the matter.

But I digress...your Sparta sign was awesome. But I gotta say...my favorite was the "I'm going to Hell" sign. Pure comedic genius! Next time I see protestors, I think I'm going to rally a group of people and do the same thing.

[FawkesFyre]

Ok, those pictures they had were nasty. Who in the world let them in on a college campus?! A school campus is certainly not a place where any sort of faction should be allowed to protest. They should have been asked to leave.
What you and your friends did was priceless!

As far as the abortion part, my opinion will not be posted nor discussed but here's a thought...perhaps one of these days, we can develop the technology that would allow a fetus to be aborted but to still live and develop into a full-fledged child that could be adopted.
If you think about it, it would make for a halfway point. Women who do not wish to bear a child can get an abortion, but the fetus can be saved to live a "normal" life. A partial-birth adoption?

Its a serious idea for the future being how the topic of abortion today seems to have become so politically motivated. I wish we could look at issues like this from a more technological perspective. Enhanced technology has been the fuel for for the betterment of society and touched everyone's lives in a good way somehow. Sure, technology has backfired on us at times but look at how far we've come since our parent's age.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I wish we could look at issues from a more logical perspective and how to either fix them, or to find a good medium. We waste so much time and effort screaming from the rooftops...and protesting...on how one side is better than the other.

[Legend]

I edited for the rest of those typos because I think this is hysterical, and I wouldn't want a few typos to interfere with the clarity! ^^

That's awesome, though. If I thought I could get a group of people together to do that, I'd start holding up signs like that everywhere just for the hell of it. I've only seen protestors once or twice in my life (I highly doubt they'd be allowed on my campus, military attitude isn't usually protestor-friendly) but you don't need to be protesting protestors to have a bit of fun messing with people. ^^

[Sciler]

lol that is fantastic. I didnt look at thier stuff, only yours, but kudos to you guys for doing it.

[Silver Adept]

Freedom of speech, be it silly, absurd, or serious. Good job, Buda and co. I'll bet it certainly drew eyes to see people holding silly signs around people trying to be serious.

[Buda]

Well, if you want to participate, we have made a facebook group, and are going to have a national event every april 17th, called National hold up a sign day in commemoration of this event.

Im also thinking about starting up a national orginization of of KWDS (Kids with dumb signs)

Edit: you hit the nail on the head silver, the point was that its hard to be serious next to a clown and we were trying to keep innocent passerbys from seeing those gross pictures

[Jaena]

One of the girls in my training class said that she got into an all out fight with an anti-abortion person. Not because of the views, but because she didn't think they needed to be protesting so close to an elementary school. They had those signs of the graphic sort, and she really only reacted when her son asked what they were.

It's one thing to do it by a clinic, another to do it near small children.


Those other signs though, those are funny. I've always wanted to walk up to one of the people with a "Jesus Saves" sign and write "by switching to Geico" on it. Cuz I'm odd like that.



(and I just tried to use my desktop mouse to point at something on my laptop... I need more sleep)

[ScrumYummy]

wow, awesome XD! I loved the signs. Especially the blank orange sign. XD!!!

*edit* and those anti-abortion pictures look fake. >.>

I did something similar once...there was a guy (one guy) protesting the "Fahrenheit 911" movie outside of the theatre, so we went and made a sign with an arrow on it that said "<--This guy is stupid!" and stood next to him. XD!

[Jaena]

I just finally took a look at the graphic pictures. One thing I'm almost curious to know: how many of those pictures were from miscarriages? Because with the security at places like Planned Parenthood (hell, you can't even take someone else into the room with you when you get a pregnancy test done, let alone an abortion I'm sure), I doubt anyone could've gotten a camera in (I only know the security because I had a pregnancy test done there). So either those were done outside of a clinic, or weren't abortions.

And WHO would they have gotten those pictures FROM? I can't think of any situation where someone would get an abortion and then have pictures taken of it, and THEN turn around and give those pictures willingly to an anti-abortion group.


I dunno. Just the mention of them looking fake got me curious what they actually looked like, and then got me thinking, what if they are fake? Or worse, what if they weren't willingly given up?

(I just had an awful awful thought.... what if someone got a picture of whoever the currently most hated pro-choice popular figure head is right now and put there picture on a sign that says "They wish this one WAS aborted" and stand just a bit off from the anti-abortion protesters?)