Pro-Not Getting Your Ass Killed

Overheard, while walking from Dupont Circle, where pro- and anti-choice activists are congregating before tomorrow's big marches, near a "Best Shuttle" minibus:

You're gonna go here if you're picking up the pro-choice people, and you're gonna go here if you're picking up the pro-life people. Put up this pink sign [in the window] if you're picking up pro-choice people and use the blue sign if you're picking up pro-lifers. If you forget and mix these up you won't get paid because they will probably kill your ass.

POSTSCRIPT: My friend Steve-O emailed me a few days ago asking if I would be attending. Lest I give anyone the impression that I was activizing today, the answer's no. I was out walking my dog and intended to sit in Dupont Circle, enjoy the sun, and read Rushdie's Midnight's Children, but my afternoon delight was overrun by a caravan of U-Haul-sized trucks (with oversized pictures of aborted foetuses imprinted on the sides, circling Dupont slowly, blaring Scripture) and angry women (screaming/singing into megaphones, peddling "RAPED"-emblazoned shirts, distributing crappy chocolate granola). Not quite the pastoral Saturday I envisaged.

Much as I support the cause, I am unmoved by protests. I'd say that I'm not inclined toward activistism, but by virtue of the dedication some people put into protesting, I'm convinced this is a sort of career track on which I'm not set. So, no, I'm not in the business.