DANGEROUS WATERS

My girlfriend and I were out grocery shopping yesterday afternoon, and we had her 8 year old son with us. It was a day where nothing had been going smoothly, and so perhaps tolerance levels were not as high as they might be normally. Be that as it may, here it is dinner time, we had finished shopping, and had stopped by Wendy's for a couple burgers because Corrie did not really feel up to cooking. Everything is going well... until we pull back out onto the Avenue and turn towards home. Suddenly, there before our eyes is a 4 foot by 8 foot depiction of a physician's hand in rubber glove holding a small, completely formed, but eviscerated fetus. This billboard was being held for all to see by a woman probably in her 50's. She is obviously aware of her protected status under the constitution to display this horrid image to all passersby on this very busy public road.

I am proud to be an American, and am glad to call the USA my home. I support this country and all of its rights and privileges, and honor those brave men and women who have fought and died that we might have these freedoms, including the freedom of speech. I thank God for our First Amendment Rights, because while it gives that woman the right to offend people with the graphic images she held aloft for men, women, and children to view, within view of 2 restaurants at dinnertime, it also gives me the right to express my feelings about how angry I am that she deprived us of the right not to be assaulted in this fashion.

I suppose you would call me a middle of the road asshole. I support the woman's right to choose. I believe that there are instances where abortion is an option, and that ultimately that decision rests on the individual woman. I do not have to agree or disagree. I believe it is a choice, but that it should never be the first and only choice. It should never be used as birth control. Too many couples, loving people, regardless of race, economic status, or sexual orientation want to have children, and are not able. Many of these candidates are fully capable of providing safe, nurturing, loving homes to these so called unwanted children, and should have the opportunity.

I know my views may be unpopular to some, and realize that abortion is one of the most volatile issues today. When does a fetus become viable? When does it become sentient? When does it have rights of its own? When does it go from being a human fetus to being a human being? These are questions I am not qualified to answer. I am simply glad I was one of those that lived. I am glad I lived long enough to be able to articulate the complex and diverse feelings about something that has bothered me for 2 days now. I cannot justify posting the actual image that so offended my girlfriend and I, not in good conscience. If you have to see it, look up "truth trucks" on Google.