Protesters in the Rain

As I was driving through town today, I saw a group standing in the rain, protesting abortion. I find it fascinating how people who seem not to have lives of their own can become so obsessed with other's lives. To spend one's day standing on a corner in the rain casts doubt on the depth or richness of their lives.

I know that many people have strong feelings about many issues and are often moved to stand up and make their feelings know. There is, however, a qualitative difference between protesting things that do not have the potential to harm you and things that do.

For example, when people stand up and ask that the laws that allow mentally unstable or possible criminal people to purchase assaults weapons, often in quantity, be amended, there are real concerns that they or others they know might be victims of these gunmen. This would be an example of people protesting something that poses a danger to them and their community.

Abortion is a personal matter. One person's abortion poses no harm to her neighbor or community. The drugs people take in the privacy of their own home is another personal matter, as well as whatever religious practices make them feel good. And, while religious conformity isn't a current issue in this country, it is in many places, and there are those who would make it so in the US.

If banks foreclose on someone's property without due process or companies pilfer employees' retirement accounts, these are issues that do harm people and should be loudly protested.

Actually, I was being facetious when I claimed to find the protesters fascinating. It is clear why these people stand in the rain with these signs. Their world view is so narrow and on such shaky ground, that they must bolster and protect it at all costs. It is sad to realize that some people see themselves as perpetually under siege. It is also sad that they see the rest of us as the enemy.