protesting (or not) in philly

the other day, i got off the subway at city hall. for those who don't know, under city hall is a huge pedestrian concourse, that links both subways (we only have two), the trolley lines, suburban station and ... a bunch of other train related things. i always get lost under there when i try to be clever, so i just went up, knowing that once i was above ground, i could figure out where the heck i was.

i came up right at city hall, and the first thing i saw was a woman being interviewed by one of the local news stations. the iPod was pretty loud, and i didn't think much of it, then i turned around and realized i was in the middle of an anti-war demonstration.

i flicked off the iPod, but it was the quietest demonstration i'd ever heard. people just stood there with banner against the war, marking 2000 dead, that sort of thing. it was very un-Philly, really. no one tried to talk to me, or hand me a leaflet, or anything. and i'm against the war! i would have rallied with my peeps. or at least taken a flyer without getting agitated.

evidently, the anti-war people could tell that i was about to be a bad liberal. that night, i got three phone calls. the first was from NARAL, who asked if i support a woman's right to chose. if i didn't support a woman's right to chose, would i be on your freaking list? about an hour later, the democrats called. i'm about to vote for nader if the freaking democrats don't stop calling. i don't know who the last one was, because i said 'is this another political phone call? i don't give money over the phone, and i'm hanging up.'

the freaking phone calls aren't making me contribute! they're just pissing me off. is it a sign of age that i get things from NARAL now and i think 'oh, chill. if they strike down roe, there will be an injunction in about 30 seconds. just calm down and we'll get through this.' not that i don't think its an important issue, i'm just tired of all the drama.

like, miers withdrew her nomination yesterday, and i got some emails from liberal groups saying that bush shouldn't have bowed to the radical right. well, yeah, but we didn't want her either! its not like now is the time to say she was a great nominee. she was a crappy nominee, and the next one will be worse and our president just sucks. i don't have the energy to be angry about it all the time. i contribute to causes i believe in (just not over the phone), and i vote, and i count down the days until bush is out of office.

and that turned into an unintended rant.