I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which anyone will tell you is a pretty liberal place.  I consider myself a moderate, and probably overall a left-leaning moderate, but living there made me feel like a fringe conservative lunatic at times.  I’ve never listened to Rush, but I’ve also never listened to Sen. Stuart Smalley, because ijiots at both ends are ruining America.  I digress…

For two years, I lived next to the college Planned Parenthood clinic.  It was in the middle of a residential block, and if you weren’t looking for it, you probably would never have seen it.  It pretty much just blended in with the other buildings and houses.  It was a pretty small clinic and had  odd hours, so it was usually pretty busy when it was open, and there was occasionally a small line of people waiting outside for it to open.

This particular building only existed for one reason: prescribing birth control.  On a campus with thousands of young people, they fulfilled a vital function.

Imagine my surprise one morning when I walked past and there were protesters outside facing the building with signs.  I kind of stared and shook my head, especially since Planned Parenthood hadn’t even opened yet.  Yes, that’s right, they were protesting an empty building with no audience at all.   Guess they didn’t check the hours before they planned the protest.

On my way back from class several hours later, they were still there.  Only now, the building was open and there were people going in and out.  I decided to walk by the protesters and see what their signs actually said.  One lady was holding a sign that said, “I regret my abortion,” and another man was holding a sign that said, “Abortion is sin.”  This actually made me stop and stare at them for a moment while I gathered my thoughts on what to say to them.

Regardless of your stance on abortion, these signs made no sense.  They were protesting a clinic who’s sole purpose was to avoid pregnancy in the first place. These protesters should have been giving out high fives and cheering.

If they were protesting morality or promiscuity, that would have made more sense for them to be standing there (note: I am not commenting on whether or not this is something worth protesting, but at least the forum would have been correct.)

The two people with signs were still staring at me, waiting to pounce on me with whatever prepared speeches they had.  I looked at the lady with the sign and said, “You do realize that they don’t do abortion here?  Birth control only, right?”

The look in her eyes could only be described as confusion.  She was trying to think of something to say back to that.  The guy with the sign next to her stammered the start to a sentence or two, and then they both looked away and stared at the building again.  This actually made me kind of sad, because I kind of wanted to know what they actually thought they were doing there.

My point to this whole story?

Whatever stance you take or belief you hold, there will be an asshat who will disagree with you just because they like being an asshat.  They will think they know what’s what, but they really don’t know their hole in the ground from a fact, and they’re very good at yelling and making signs.

Don’t be an asshat. That’s not to say you can’t disagree, but PLEASE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT BEFORE YOU TALK.  If you can’t do that, just go run for office and make stuff up.