Pro-choice protest: Roe, Roe, Roe your vote

by JIMMY J. PACK JR.

I'm not in a bar; I'm sitting on an Amtrak train heading back to Philadelphia from Washington, D.C., and despite the fact there's a café car that sells little bottles of Jim Beam and cans of Coke, the line is too long. I have a spring-season flu, and the train is packed with women, and some men, on their way home from a huge march on Washington, which means people are standing in the aisles. Normally you'd have to be slightly loose in the head to buy an unreserved train ticket on a weekend like this, but I bought the tickets in advance for myself and my friend Dan. Thank God we got on the train first.

The trip for me was supposed to be a weekend getaway, but I managed to get myself to the rally, dripping nose, tense hamstrings and all. It was the typical mash of ultra-liberals who can yell and scream for their own sake but can't manage to do things like throw a food wrapper away.

There was a stage framing the United States Capitol in the background and famous face after unfamous face took the stage to tell the government it is too conservative and mindless. Whoopi Goldberg stood at a podium with a hanger in her hand claiming, "Never again!"

The rally was organized by many women's organizations to promote freedom of choice. Most demonstrators were women — black, white, Asian, Latino, lesbian, heterosexual, Democrat, Republican — all there to tell George W. and his group of right-wing policy makers that women were tired of being captives to George Bush's religion.

It was hard not to be introspective around people like Gloria Steinem (who, at 70, is just as articulate as she was as a young editor of Ms. Magazine) and actress Ashley Judd, a former women's studies major.

My own stand on abortion is, admittedly, hypocritical. I don't believe in abortion, but I do believe a woman should have a choice to make a decision based on her and her baby's best interest. The federal government has the same dilemma. The fight isn't about whether or not abortion is wrong, but whether or not a woman has the right to chose to have an operation that may or may not be taking a life.

Right-wingers and Bible-eaters tell us it is wrong; even if it is only four cells on its way to dividing into eight, it's still a child. These people claim to respect life, yet how many of them support a war in Iraq that has killed countless children, believe in the death penalty or eat animals? Isn't all life important? Doesn't every living thing have a God-given right to live? Didn't Jesus tell Christians to turn the other cheek or use passive resistance to create change? These questions prove people like Pa. Senator Rick Santorum and Mr. Bush are faithless-based decision-makers. Their position is a smoke screen to fool those who actually have true faith. Abortion is wrong, but bombing is OK. How can anyone not see the hypocrisy?

Then there are the ultra-liberals who want the government to keep its laws off their bodies. Is abortion an option for people who need it, or is it contraception for those who can't just keep it in their pants?

But it's the right to choose that's important here, and I recognize that both as an American and a person of faith. I can't imagine letting my (hypothetical) 15-year-old daughter who has made a mistake suffer with what would forever be considered "a consequence."

Admittedly I'm on the side of the women at the march. They have a good point: the best government is one that keeps its laws out of our lives as much as possible. Which is ironic, because isn't that what the Republican Party claims it stands for?

When the marchers finally depart, the line for the 5:20 train stretches down one entire side of the train station. Three women, wearing purple t-shirts with pink stickers jammed here and there, signs still held in their hands, try pushing in front of us in line.

I turn to them and say, "You're worried about a government taking away your rights, but you cut in front of people who have been waiting in line? You can't act decently, but you're worried about what other people are doing? What's wrong with you?"

I guess no matter how lofty or philosophical our principles, when it comes to everyday living and struggling to survive, we're probably all a little too selfish. This life is not so simple. It's almost enough to make you turn to drink.