As I told Rosey, we will just have to agree to disagree. If this demonstration was successful, great. Far be it from me to argue with success. I would still be cautious about antics like these, they can backfire very badly.

Roachy and allies have at least some creative imagination, intent, and intestinal fortitude…and no, I will not “darken up”, Frank or Mary. It is what it is.

Cheers!

What exactly do you hope to accomplish by your flippant, glib, insulting and meaningless post? At least the other posters here are trying to make some positive contribution. Your trite, unapologetic statements add absolutely nothing to the discourse.

This is the first time you’ve made me laugh in a long, long time.

I’m sorry I missed this display. I really, really wanted to go to the Fair – but it wasn’t two roaches who would have drawn me in. No, it was the presence of Lynyrd Skynyrd, a southern-rock band quite popular during my youth, that elicited my interest.

It’s a funny thing – I don’t agree with (nor do I buy) the premise that you really care about the safety and health of abortion clinic patients. I know better. I don’t really understand how you can write a book calling for the deaths of us nay-stee post-abortives – and then purport to give two flying flips about “Roachies” and their abundant progeny.

I know better.

But the absurdity of it all did make me laugh. Sort of like a really, really awful open sore that one just can’t keep from touching – even though it really, really hurts. Kinda like a two-car pileup that ya just can’t turn away from – even though calamity has occurred.

Yes – you can be funny – I’ll concede that much. But you haven’t made me regret my own abortion – that’ll never happen.

But, hey, all is not lost. I can now listen to Skynyrd’s second album (1974’s “Second Helping”) without exuding that decades-long urge to hock something up from my bowels. And I’ll be gosh-darned if “Roachie” didn’t make me laugh – in spite of myself. I guess gawd can do wondrous things, can’t he? (Oh, wait – there’s one thing he (or she) can’t do. You make one ugly-a$$ed woman – no deity could change that.)

I never said I was against placards. Please don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not against booths either (God knows the long hours I have put in manning them). You must not live in Kansas, or you would know the majority to the conversation surrounding the roaches focuses on our pro-abort gov. and how in bed with the abortionists she really is — even to the point of refusing to clean up the rat-traps that masquarade as abortion clinics here. No one has ever said the roaches reflected poorly on the pro-life movement, so I believe you are way off base there. If you don’t get the roach gig, then there is little I can to do help you. To each his own.

Getting people “talking about it” is not the task, since “talking about it” may include having people collectively say “look at those idiots, I wish they’d shut up.” The task is getting people to agree, and to express their agreement in the voting booth.

As to efforts to make abortion a non-issue, one candidate is pro-life, as I understand it. So is it not better to get him elected, than to offend him, and further force the issue from the spotlight.

Mary makes excellent points about the civil rights marchers v. the PETA protesters. Well said. One group was effective, the other not. Acting like fools, and/or offending families with children, is not going to change many minds, IMHO.

Besides, an argument can be made that the pro-life movement’s greatest successes have come through repetitious, “plodding” efforts to “get the message out” to pols, voters, teens, etc. — which is not exciting, but appears nevertheless to have been effective, 30 years after Roe. On the other hand, one-shot stunts designed only to generate some PR, any PR, lead only to further negative labelling of prolifers. In other words, slow but steady wins the race. For that matter, before you condemn placards, do you really think Roachy made someone stop and think about the abortion they were about to have? Or before you say booths staffed with volunteers showing videos are “plodding” or “same old/same old”, ask yourself: those booths that 99% of people ignore are the ones who help the 1% who need it, or who maybe want to volunteer themselves, or write a check, etc. If you were a voter who wanted info, are you going to have a serious conversation with a giant stuffed roach to get it?!?

OR could set up all the booths they want — not like that has never been done. But if they had done that I can guarentee that the abortion issue would never had been mentioned by either campaign or the media. Now it is an issue people are still taking about, and the Governor is on the defensive over it. Thank God someone had the courage to do something different than the “same old same old.” In a lot of ways, that has been a problem with the pro-life movement, in general. People just plod along doing the same old stodgy things that haven’t worked for 30+ years. I give props to those who can think outside the box.

I’m afraid we will just have to agree to disagree on this issue and I’ll match my sense of humor and imagination to yours any day.
Like it or not, negative stereotypes of pro-life people abound, I have encountered them often. That is why it is so important that we always conduct ourselves with maturity and dignity and not like circus clowns.
During the era of the Civil Rights Movement, would the cause of Black Americans, however just it was, have been well served by Dr. King and civil rights demonstrators dressing themselves in costumes and conducting themselves like buffoons? I hardly think so. Ours won’t be either.
Frank had excellent suggestions as to how to get the message across. Set up a booth, use placards, distribute leaflets with detailed information and quotes by the governor, have a continuous running video of the excellent documentary OR made on appalling abortion clinic conditions, distribute free videos. No, you aren’t going to convince everyone this way, but you run a much less risk of completely alienating people who might otherwise be influenced or at least give some thought to your message.