It’s been pretty exciting in pro-choice land this week, at least for me. L and I met on Friday and she officially handed over the position of Volunteer Coordinator to me, although she will still be here for the next two weeks. There is a LOT more than scheduling involved. But I think I can handle it.
Today I started my three-week stint as receptionist while J is away. It went really well. S, who runs the clinic, was there to walk me through the process and everything went smoothly. It is very different being on the other side of the glass, I have to say. I miss the excitement of escorting, as well as the immediate feeling of doing something useful. But in general I like to organize things and I’m more of a thinker than a doer. I love being an escort, but I think the work inside the clinic is where I could see myself building a career.
Things were pretty crazy outside today – I could tell even though I wasn’t out there that it was getting nuts. The number of protesters was up, for one thing, and lately they have taken to spreading further down the street. Also, at one point they were up in the parking garage with a video camera. I called Fortis to let them know. S put a call in to the police too, because the protesters were having a pretty heated argument with a passerby and she was afraid it could turn violent. Thankfully it didn’t.
The other big news is that Peter Ryan’s wife (we’ll call her Mrs. Idiot) just got her big, bloody, fake aborted fetus sign back. It is so god-awful. Of course she was out waving that around – made me think of those Show the Truth people (I really hope they don’t show up again this summer). I think it was that sign, in combination with the number and intensity of the protesters, that was really upsetting the women coming in. Thankfully we had only one who was really upset and crying, and she sat in S’s office with her partner until she felt better. I just wanted to hug her. As if the decision to abort isn’t hard enough.
L has asked me to write a rebuttal to an Op-Ed piece by William Forrestall in the Telegraph Journal (yesterday’s issue). I have put one together but it’s too long, so I have some editing to do. I fear that my efforts will not matter anyway, since, as I mentioned last week, the Gleaner will not publish my pro-choice letters. L told me she knows of at least five others who have written since the Heather Mallick event, and have not been published.
The good news is that we had three new volunteers today and when I talked to them afterwards they all seemed keen to come back. One of them in particular was very feisty – she couldn’t believe what went on but she was very keen to stop it. Gotta love the new blood.
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