One of my coworkers and I had been talking about the “moon landing was fake” guy and how much he made us angry.  She messaged me yesterday with “You’re going to hate who’s out front on the sidewalk now,”

I got up from my desk, went up to the third floor – then out onto the balcony into the light rain.

Down below on the sidewalk, each with a sandwich board sign with graphic images, were 6 equidistantly spaced anti-abortion activists. 

They had rain ponchos on and one had a case of bottled water under his sign.  They were approaching people – primarily students  – as they tried to walk past. 

She was right. I hated them.

I glared down at them impotently for a few minutes, then went back to my office.

I messaged my co-worker back and we had a short conversation about how irritating they were and how they shouldn’t be bothering students. I told her that I was glad that at least it was raining – they didn’t deserve a nice day.

Later, I had to walk past them twice on my way to and from lunch. The young woman nearest my path kept lunging at female students to badger them into a conversation about abortion. 

I wasn’t her target demographic, clearly, and was ignored.  I tried my best to do the same.

I wondered if they constituted a nuisance – since that would get them kicked off of campus, even though it is a public space.  But, no.   I saw the chief of police on one of my trips that way and he had to have gone past them to get to where he was going.  If the chief let them stay, then they weren’t breaking any laws.

The only bright spot was a message written in chalk on the path towards the activists that simply said,

Ignorance ahead.

I imagine it was a smart young woman that wrote that; trying to combat fear and misinformation by ill-informed but persuasive zealots.   And I hope it helped warn other young women before they got sucked in.

They were gone the next day and good riddance.