I’m sort of loathe to give any publicity to this nonsense, but whatever.
A bunch of anti-abortion protesters hit up the premiere of Horton Hears a Who, to, ya know, protest abortion rights, even though it’s a fucking kids movie and many of the folks in attendance were children.
Basically, these protesters have latched onto the key line in the Dr. Seuss book — “A person’s a person, no matter how small” — and have used it repeatedly to voice their message. Interestingly enough, Dr. Seuss’s widow, Audrey Geisel, is a supporter of Planned Parenthood and actively pro-choice, and has repeatedly sued anti-abortion groups for using her husband’s words to further their own causes. There’s no indication that Dr. Seuss intended the book to carry a pro-life message.
Predictably, many of the adults in attendance at the premiere shouted back at the protesters, asking them what the fuck they were doing holding an abortion protest at a kids’ movie. The protesters responded by making an eloquent and articulate case for their presence covering their mouths with red tape with the word “Life” on it and parading around silently.
Honestly, I can see both sides of the abortion argument, and I imagine it’s a decision that’s hard to make until you’re staring it in the face. So I guess that makes me de facto pro-choice, but I’m not about to campaign either way. But I will tell you: I fucking hate anti-abortion protesters. Once upon a time, I volunteered for Planned Parenthood, in the education department. People don’t realize what a huge portion of that organization’s budget goes toward education. I went out to schools, churches and youth groups all around my state and spoke to kids and teens about drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, domestic violence, dating, saying no to sex, etc. I never said a goddamn thing about abortion. I was basically out there busting my ass, doing everything I could to keep these kids from ever even being in a position to consider an abortion. And still, when I showed up at work, those fucking protesters would be out there with disgusting signs calling me a “slut” and a “baby killer” and “Satan’s soldier.” At first, I tried to patiently explain to them what I was doing, but they weren’t interested: I worked for Planned Parenthood, and thus I was evil. It’s one of the most misunderstood organizations around. The overwhelming majority of what takes place at Planned Parenthood is the provision of affordable gynecology, birth control and education for women and families who couldn’t afford it otherwise; and they do a ton of advocating on behalf of such women. So anyway. I’m kind of biased against these people.
I just wanted to say good on you for tolerating hostility like that to try and make a difference for teenagers.
Everyone seems to think we just grub up carpets and have abortions nowadays, so to hear you talk about your attempts to change the situation with conviction and passion is really refreshing!
x.
Just for the sake of information. The first 300 people there were allowed to view the premier. Anybody could have been their if they wanted to. The movie was watched quietly and enjoyed by all. One man in response to the movie stood up and made a statement about a person is a person no matter how small, and that abortion was going to end by the least of us all, ie “JoJo”, and that God was going to use this movie to end abortion. A simple statement. Then the group of about 15 silently without protest put on red tape over the mouth, with the word LIFE written on it. These simple acts brought such a stir that people began to cuss at the silent people in front of all the children.
This movie is absolutely inspired by God and is being used to be a voice for the voiceless around the country. The preview was actually scheduled to be on the 3rd but was randomly moved to the 8th which actually has been the internationally respected day for women for the last hundred years. Only God could put that randomly together to be a sign that the movie indeed is about women protecting babies.
So whatever you heard thats what happened and then the cops forced the life tapers to leave, for what I don’t know. I think they should have forced the people using profanity in front of other peoples children to leave. Maybe I’m being to sensible.
Wow, nice comment “sensible.” Ugh, people drive me crazy. I feel like theres so much to say, so i’m just not even going to bother. All i can say is that i completely agree with the post, and am very irratated at the comment above.
I wanted to say that I personally know, and have even lived with, the people who were at the premiere today and put on the Life tape. I can confirm Sensible’s account of the events, and I believe any other information on this story is derived from an article originating from TMZ.com. To say TMZ specializes in journalistic sensationalism would be the understatement of the year.
These people (specifically) aren’t religious whackjobs, they don’t jeer at Planned Parenthood employees, and their primary form of ‘protest’ is placing red tape with the word “LIFE” written on it over their mouths and silently praying while one or two spokespersons explain what is going on to anyone who asks.
irritated * ha, have no idea why i spelled it that way.
Sounds to me like they disrupted a pleasant little evening. I don’t see the sense in that, it’s a kids flick for fucks sake.
P.S.
Stop being so creepy “sensible.”
I hate protesters, don’t they have a job and better things to do….. get a life!
these kind of people disgust me beyond belief. i mean, it’s so infuriating, i can’t even begin.
http://slackerchic.blogspot.com/
nice beet-
well said.
What a bunch of god morons. You people should be thrown from an airplane and see if your invisible make-believe god saves your worthless life.
Like my name? I figured I would change my name too like the arrogant self righteous anti-abortionists that posted above.
International Women’s Day is about rights and freedoms. It isn’t about the power of men to control women’s bodies. Religion is all about men in power and women subjugated to them. If anything your God was telling you the OPPOSITE by having the movie studios move the opening day of this movie.
What a bunch of nonsense. You Catholics better get back to your hatred of Jews, Muslims, and Homosexuals. You are too busy to add women to your long list of people you hate.
I think the thing people are taking issue with is that the protesters essentially took the FUN out of the movie for the other people and their children.
I don’t care what side you’re on, if they were violent or if they were quiet and peaceful, basically they took an innocent fun dr seuss movie and turned into into a moral/ ethical debate and made it uncomfortable and more serious than it needed to be.
Just let people have FUN once in a while, you know? Like why do people take the simplest things and destroy it by digging so deep for some political or moral issue?
If you’re pro choice, awesome. If you’re pro life, that’s awesome too. Just watch the damn movie and enjoy it for what it is and get off your high moral horses and chill the hell out!! :)
weii,I can’t say I am pro-abortion because I am not
people have other choices and can avoid pregnancy
but I can tell you I was shocked when I searched the yellow pages in NYC
and found out you can have a 23 week gestational age legal abortion there
that is hard for me to understand
as for the movie, I saw the trailer yesterday
not my kind of entertainment anyway
Yay for the small people getting a protective voice. Die Hypocrite Hollywood. Liberals who want to kill the helpless small, aged and handicapped and abortionists that would prevent these small children from even seeing this movie.
could it be a modern day parable, why is it a kangaroo that doesn’t hear the dust speck? Kangaroo Court? the book is really so clear. 1856 Dred Scott,
1973 roevswade both Kangaroo courts, is God using a children’s book to subpoena the conscience of a nation? We build monuments to men like Martin Luther King jr. after they are gone, and we realize what there life meant,
the book is profoundly simple call a big metting, get everyone out
make every who holler make every who shout,
it is so much easier to see the need in starving children in africa, to send social missions then adopt.
have you ever watched the old movie Horton hears A Who
The kangaroo’s name is jane? hmm Well maybe people should read the book themselves
thanks
A young girl on our team had a dream that she went into a big house
on the outside of the house were the words written THE WHO
She went into the attic and found a series of old books, needed in the future to change history- we really didn’t know what our dream meant
the next day we got a email that referred us to Horton hears a Who,
Horton Hears a Who was written by our beloved Dr. Suess in 1954
before abortion was legalized
the next book in the series is Horton hatches a Egg I am sure so many know the story since most of us love Dr. Suess’s books
But the moral of the story is those who have the spirit
in which adoption happens. The one they take on as there own will become like them. This was a sweet, dream that has moved our hearts to see LIFE
radically differently. We just want to capture the Zeitgiest Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
So can these old books change our hearts, the message of them certainly can. I love blogging
opps the meant to say we just want to capture the zeitgeist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke about
The creepy posts above are definitely written by non-readers who are basically trolling the internet looking for any mention of the event so they can respond to it. I’m all for a good debate but only with people who have a brain, I can’t be bothered to discuss anything with people who believe that God has nothing better to do but re-arrange a movie premiere to a specific date and all that other nonsense spewed above.
I’m not anti-religion but I hate when it’s used as a crutch or as something to hide behind.
Anyhoo, all that to say, to the regular readers of this great site, don’t post. It’s just going to get populated by crazies (and the people who think this is great and there’s a similar debate between Jessica Alba and Jennifer Lopez over at meetafakemillionaireslashrapist.com).
Ok, after all that, I notice that one of your advertisers is a pro-life group called “heritage house.” WTF, Beet?
@Cat:
Unfortunately, I don’t control the ads that run on this site. I lease the space out to a larger media firm; they do all that.
Thanks for the response. That’s got to suck, especially when it works out like this.
Ohhhh, man. I’m not even stoned right now, and I can’t understand half of the previous comments.
Anyway, Beet, I wanted to applaud you for your volunteer work with Planned Parenthood. You’re certainly justified in your anger towards certain groups of people *ahem*
Have you ever seen the documentary Jesus Camp? There’s a terribly frightening scene where the kids at the camp (like, children as young as FIVE YEARS OLD) are recruited to the Pro-Life movement and taught how to protest with the red tape over their mouths. Very sad…
thank you beet for providing another perspective and insight!!
I would just like to say that Beet you are totally kick ass for ACTUALLY reading what gets posted on your shit and interacting with bloggers. I have been a regualr at this site for like 6 months and it totally rocks. And you seem to be back on and recovered, whatever you were dealing with. And may I say, the other day I was reading and I thought to myself, ‘did she get someone else to wright for her ‘cuz this is some funny-ass-shit’ and nope sure enough its all you. Glad to have you back bitch. And PLEASE when you are’nt feeling so hot, find someone..ANYONE but Spiteful Lars. He rambles and it irritates me. Love ya!
Its a damn kids movie. Let children enjoy Dr S without twisting it into mouthpiece for anti – abortion protest. I’m sure there are more appropriate times/places for this. If protestors are so concerned about children, perhaps consider how confusing (who knows about abortion when they are 5?) & upsetting (with all the swearing & shit) this possible may have been for the children who just wanted to go enjoy a movie.
The abortion debate is such an ugly one. I understand both sides but I can’t help but believe it is better to err on the side of life. That is not saying that I don’t believe in a woman’s right to choose, I just think that every possible effort should be made before conception not to conceive if an “unplanned” pregnancy would cause such a crisis for you. If you don’t want to get pregnant you really don’t have to. There are so many effective contraceptives out there, and even though none are 100%, you can get pretty close. Plus if you are not willing to take that risk, you don’t have to have sex.
I mean really if you are willing to have adult “fun” you should be responsible enough to take on the adult consequences that come along with it. Abortion should be an ABSOLUTE last choice. I just hate the fact the most of time it isn’t used that way.
That’s why I strongly support the efforts of Planned Parenthood and I applaud your work with them Beet. There are so many young people around the country and so many women throughout the world with no one to turn to.
The True Believers are terrorists. If you don’t trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?
i like spiteful lars :(
“This movie is absolutely inspired by God and is being used to be a voice for the voiceless around the country.” Huh? Sheesh, I thought it was just a film for kids – why try to read a bunch of meaning into it?
George Bush and the neocons put God in prison and tortured him to death. Sorry bible thumpers but thats what you get when you vote in a religious drug and alcohol addict.
We believe this movie to be prophetic. To speak to peoples hearts and to give voice to the voiceless. Just as Horton was the only one who could hear the whos, only those “that have ears to hear” hear the cries of the unborn asking for Life. Just as the kangaroo said if we can’t see them if we can’t hear them and if we can’t feel them they don’t exist, so it goes with people who stand for “choice” when they determined in 1973 that a fetus is not a person. I do understand the high emotions involved with this issue but a huge lie and subsequent mass murder has been in effect since that time. Horton risked his life and social status to bring the truth to light and that is what we are praying to do. We are a family who has been blessed by adopting a beautiful interracial child, to think of her her not making it into this world makes us shudder and to think of the millions of those who never made it out of their mother’s wombs is horrifing.We pray for a revelation of truth and the blinders of deception to be removed from our country and for God’s mercy on our nation. Although I disagree with the statements made that there were mostly children there, our children need to know the truth. They are being fed lies through our school system they are being forcefed sexual immorality of all kinds daily. But it is so sad to me that if people gather to say to let the children live and a life is a life no matter how small, people go insane with anger! We did not target the children we were there to get the prophetic message in this movie out into the forefront. We are asking everyone to see this movie and think of the message that it carries throughout the entire movie and to stand for the restoration of life in our country. To protect the unborn. When sin is exposed it is uncomfortable for those unwilling to change. So yes we will stand and cry out, we will pound the heavens with our prayers and yes get the truth out in the theaters and anywhere else we are led. We are peaceful and we go with the love of God in our hearts. For anyone who has had an abortion, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus just ask Him into your heart and ask for His forgiveness He died for us when we were still in our sin. He loves you with an everlasting Love.
“A PERSON’s a PERSON no matter how small”. Not a zygote is a person, not an embryo is a person, not a fetus is a person. A PERSON is A PERSON. Learn the difference in the definitions. The Whos in Whoville are PERSONS.
That’s all I have to write to those who would distort the story to their own political agenda.
Yes a fetus IS a person, a person made in the image of God with a soul and a spirit. These Babies suck their thumbs, respond to the voice of their parents and music. When a doctor did an inutero operation a BABY held the doctors finger while in the womb. The deception that some people are under is just astonishing! Think about what you are saying.
The first form of slavery in america was abolished in the first american civil war… will it take a second american civil war to abolish the slavery of abortion?
Nobody really thinks that the GOVERNMENT schools have an agenda – do they?
I’ve found in my travels that most people who are in favor of abortion are already alive.
Definition of fetus: an organism in the stage of development that follows the embryonic stage.
Person is not in that definition.
Slavery of abortion? Wow. Peter, No Matter How Small and all the rest of you, are you willing to raise each and every child born to parents that can’t care for them, or don’t want to care for them?
I’m also curious on those here who are anti-choice, if quality of life is at all important. Oh, and what is your stand on birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
Religion is silly. If I wanted to follow a work of fiction, it would totally be “Go, Dog, Go!”
OK….irked&prochoice…if I’m “anti-choice”, does that make you anti-life? I won’t label you as such, regardless of whether or not you label me as such……but think about it. Were abolitionists anti-states-rights? Or anti-cotton-farmer?
As for those of you slamming this protest and the form that it took….do you slam ALL forms of protest? Do you slam anti-war demonstrations? Anti-Bush demonstrations? Or just the ones YOU disagree with? How carelessly you toy around with facism……
For those of you caught up in the TEXTBOOK definition of a “person”…remember that the dictionary was written by PEOPLE and changes ALL THE TIME. I suspect most of you dislike the Bible for the same reason? Oh but now that it’s a convenient argument for you, you hide behind Webster and Oxford afraid to think for yourselves. Remember, our Constitution used to define “man” as only WHITE MEN. Would you care to be consistent with your literalist interpretations?
As for Beet……..you think that just because you didn’t PERFORM an abortion, you are absolved from working for Planned Parenthood when you have a choice to work else where?? Some people just drove the trains in Nazi Germany. Some people were just guards at Auschwitz. They didn’t actually KILL anyone…… You believe in pro-choice…..make a choice about where you work. If you wouldn’t kill the child yourself, don’t work for those who would. Or else, go back to your guard post at Auschwitz and don’t pretend about who you are and who you support.
Adam: Ahh, finally someone with intelligence to argue the pro-life side.
Refreshing, I must tell you. I am not personally pro-life myself, but at least I can respect where you are coming from in your response, as opposed to simply using religious statements with no logic.
Concerning your last topic, directed towards Beet, I don’t believe that was a very fair statement. She said that she is biased against those particular protesters because of previous incidents. Not that it was justified, right, or anything like that, just that, she doesn’t like them based on what has happened to her, so take it for what it is. Beet was not insecure about where she worked, but wanted to explain to those throwing harsh and cruel untrue criticisms at her what she herself was really doing — helping to prevent even having to get to the point of abortion, something that they themselves would more likely than not, actually RESPECT. And if you had paid attention to what she wrote you would see that she states that she “can see both sides of the abortion argument” and points out that most of what Planned Parenthood does isn’t even abortions. Most of what goes on there is education and gynecology for those who otherwise would not be able to get it.
Now, correct me if I am wrong, Beet, but if I am not mistaken, I think I’m on the same page as you on this… Being pro-choice doesn’t mean you WANT abortions to happen. Just because you believe a woman should have the opportunity to decide what is the best choice for herself doesn’t mean you think abortions are wonderful. There are certain situations where an abortion would be the wiser choice, but we’re not sitting there on the sidelines cheering about someone getting one.
Beet was working to try and help young people from even getting to the point where they would be faced with pregnancy and abortion. And that is where most of the attention SHOULD be focused, so for this I applaud her. If people were more careful, abortions would happen less. Now, granted, there are circumstances where it’s not fair to say “Well, you should have been more careful, then you wouldn’t be in this situation.” Sometimes it happens despite taking measures to prevent pregnancy. Not very often, but it does. Not to mention the instance of rape and incest.
I find it hard to believe that everyone who is against abortion would stay true to their convictions if they themselves were staring an unplanned, unwelcome pregnancy in the face. Some may, but not all. Especially if the circumstances included the last two situations I mentioned. :[
But to reiterate, thank you Adam for thinking and not just shoving a bible in everyone’s face saying “It’s wrong because it’s wrong.” It’s nice to see some real attention being paid to logic and reason.
Evil Beet you are a stupid fuck head.