January
1997
How
to be an Activist: Keeping Your Spirits Up
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Not all responses to your shocking, upsetting,
or consciousness-raising information or presence are finely tuned
and incisive. Here are a few ripostes aimed at activists gathered
from across the country.
"If you wore a leather belt, your pants would stay up better."
"If we don't milk the cows, they'll explode!"
At a Washington DC Ringling Brothers' circus protest: "You all are sick.
Don't you go putting ideas into these kids' heads!"
At an anti-vivisection protest, an older gentleman in a car racing
by shouted, "...you bunch of Catholics..."
At a rodeo protest: "You wouldn't be here if it weren't for cowboys." And: "These
animals work three minutes a year."
At a protest of a youth hunt (where fathers accompany their kids into
the woods, and the kid gets to kill a pheasant), a hunter/father yelled
at one of the female activists: "Some day when you have kids you'll understand."
"I wish you cared about children" (said to the chair of our local Animal Rights
group who is a trained midwife who used to do child health work in India and,
until she retired aged 77, worked as a child protection officer)!
Once when we were doing a fur protest, we were marching through
the ritzy part of town, and a man who was either dining or working
at "Le Bec Fin," the
most expensive restaurant in Philadelphia (a single meal is easily over
$100 without wine) shouted: "Why don't you people do something for the
homeless?!"
If any other activists have any other bizarre stories or interesting
one-liners, Satya would like to hear about them.
At the Police Station
It is always good to remember that we're all human. The following was
overheard from police officers at the station after a recent Fur Free
Friday [after Thanksgiving] civil disobedience demonstration landed about
35 activists (briefly) in jail.
"Well, I'm the cop, so I'm not supposed to tell you how I feel about fur and
what you did here today, but well, you know [wink, wink]. I'll try to get you
processed and out of there as soon as possible."
"We never had a more intellectual or interesting discussion before with our prisoners."
"It was a pleasure having you here...and thanks for the challenging thought."
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© STEALTH TECHNOLOGIES INC. |
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