Shadows stretched long, their skew shifting and shortening as the sun slid low across the southern sky.
An overhead heater in the small lobby warmed my body, needed despite the layers of turtleneck, sweater, and parka meant for the out of doors. Beyond the door glass and the privacy fence thirty feet distant, on along the public way, a few fervent sign holders declared their usual. Opposition to a singular choice brought them there, to burrow their collective noses into the private business of others and implant their singular opinion.
Later in the morning, men arrived in pea coats and Rocket J Squirrel aviator hats, the chinstraps left unfastened. One placard claimed men regretted lost fatherhood, another God knew whomever before birth, presumably the reader. Women walked in knee length down coats and knitted hats. Thirteen walked the ice to either side of the drive, an endless parade intent on imposition of distress. A prayer circle formed on the bare pavement of the parking entrance, a blockage I ended with a polite request to clear the passage.
Did they watch what the rest of us watched on 14 December, at a place a hundred twenty miles away? Did they feel the same pull to picket the manufacturing places named Sig Sauer or Sturm Ruger? I’ve a hunch, given the politics expressed in the past, those places are sacrosanct shrines to the gods of patriarchy. Only foetuses matter.
Around noon, a priest gave a benediction at the inauguration of Maggie Hassan as governor. He mentioned his wish she protect the unborn. I didn’t hear a peep out of him about the children entrusted to the care of the church he represented.
Oh, so well done. Yes, interesting which lives are chosen tob e protected.
Funny thing about carrying to term… there are actually responsibilities to well-being thereafter.
Quietly but powerfully stated. It’s all unravelling now.
I hope, but in my experience those who wish to make it illegal simply change their tactics. You can bet someone is dreaming up some new way of attacking reproductive rights from the periphery.
That last paragraph really wraps it up doesn’t it? Everyone has an agenda…
Ask them about school lunch programmes, or public education, or universal health care. The answer can best be summarised as quite Darwinian, except most of them don’t believe in evolution.
First, ‘Skewed’ is a word that always catches my attention. As a artist/designer, we use it to distort the view, angles and perspective -to give a visual object a ‘false truth’. But the writer ‘you’ welds it as a screw drive to pry open that tin can of indifference and hypocrisy, A quietly sly way to graphically respond to the absurdities. As often is the case, you’ve drawn our attention to where we need to focus on, think about and hopefully bring it ‘all’ back into perspective. Whatever the media, when it is created to generate dialogue, it is always good ‘shtufffs’. Insightful, Nelle! -as always your intent is admired.
Thank you. A lot of thinks drift through my mind whilst on duty at PP, and this managed to worm its way in last week. To them, abortion ends with illegality. The horrors that brings, they don’t care about someone like Gerri Santoro.
That last paragraph was really unsettling. Disturbing contrasts
Thank you… it is quite unsettling and it needs to change.
The children entrusted to the care of his church, ABSOLUTELY. How can you respect anyone like THAT, saying it is God’s will you keep a child, live on welfare (if you are abandoned by the father, & are unwell to work), and sacrifice your life to raising a life when you have not a grip on life & are troubled mentally or otherwise, or traumatised or whatever your reason.
Just excellent, Nelle.
Thank you. They love to interfere and squelch reproductive rights, but they ignore the slaughter taking place on our streets. Madness.