Livin’ La Vida Boca
It should come as no surprise that a certain lovely card-carrying liberal should take to the streets of Boca Raton today with banner in hand to support Planned Parenthood and raise awareness for the proposed federal funding cut.
Men and women of all ages came out to hang at the four corners of St. Andrews and Glades, and I had the best time in the world with all of them.
We got lots of honks and waves, a few honks and middle-finger showings, a handful of parents driving with their mortified-looking teenage daughters, and babes in backseats probably asking, “What’s a breast, daddy?”
Our signs were varied. Each had “I Stand With Planned Parenthood” on one side (that was also printed on our shirts). The other side of our posters asked people to “Save our breast exams, birth control and cancer screenings.”
I see debates on Facebook and blog pages everywhere, from moronic right-wingers who just assume PP provides those “a” words and nothing else. A dear friend did the research and found that there were only 191 federally funded procedures last year. Hah. So there, you whackjobs who don’t want preventive care and population control.
I hit it off with mostly everyone I talked to. And when I said I want PP to be there for their daughters and granddaughters, like it was for me, they were totally on board with that. They, too, agreed that PP was there for them when they needed it as well. And that’s what we told the guy who’s running for one of the local government seats who donned a shirt and talked to us and took a photo of me with my sign. 🙂 (Although he kinda made us mad when he said he’s a feminist; what, because you’re at a rally? Weirdo. My fellow rally-ers had to explain what feminism is … and it ain’t holding a sign.)
The most awesome moment of my day was when a good-looking guy stopped his car to ask me what we were standing for. We had a good three-minute conversation. People behind him were honking in anger (ever been in Boca? MADNESS on the roads), but I just took it as a supportive honk. I was just happy to educate someone … one more person making an informed vote means the whole thing was worthwhile, in my humble little opinion.
I miss this stuff. I did attend rallies from time to time in D.C. and even Pittsburgh. But in D.C., every cause just got lost among the noise of all the other causes. I got to a point, like all the other denizens, that all rallies meant were transportation snarls that could mean the difference between a half-hour commute and a seven-hour commute.
Down here, nobody gives much thought to politics. Most people are registered to vote elsewhere or just don’t care. I liked being on the political bandwagon again today. This is what I have been sorely lacking for the past two years. I feel downright exhilarated.
The gal who organized this found out that I have a marketing background, and I have a funny feeling I’ll be volunteering for her pretty regularly. Shit, I’d love to work there. I did apply to work in the D.C. office (which the daughter of one of my fellow sign-wavers does) but it didn’t pan out. I think I was a little too passionate (read: I came off like a batshit zealot) in my cover letter. 🙂
In any case, we’re all convening next weekend for Pride Fest. I look very much forward to seeing our “Pro-Choice Pooch” again, who was wearing a pro-choice T-shirt of his own.
We had to leave promptly at noon today because another rally was set to start to protest the ongoing U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Guess where I could be found for the next hour. 🙂
And I’ve never felt happier to know that I did something that actually made a difference today. I’d like to feel this way much more often. …