Prop 8 Sign Waving

This morning, I had the opportunity to stake out a busy street corner and share my strong convictions with others by waving "Vote Yes on Prop 8" signs at the work-bound drivers passing me by. I was supposed to be joined by others, but was left on my own for the first 40 minutes. In the beginning, I felt rather awkward being the only person on the block, waving signs all by my lonesome, but after the first two or three minutes I was fine. In fact, I was thoroughly enjoying myself what with all the honking, waving, thumbs up, smiles, and other positive response I received. Oh, I got a few negative responses as well, but nothing compared to the whooping and hollering I got from those thanking me for getting out there and making an effort to safeguard traditional marriage. Eventually, I was rescued from loneliness by two other ladies from my ward. We chatted and waved our signs and I learned some interesting stuff about an infamous, local Prop 8 sign thief.

This evening, I was back at my post with a few more friends to fill out our numbers, among them two teenage boys with whom I had an excellent time joking around and goofing off. They decided to tally all our negative responses and by the end of the hour and a half block, we had only 26 negative reactions directed at our corner including thumbs down, mouthed "no's," shaking heads, screams and yells, birdies (not the nice ones you feed crackers and teach to speak), and one man who held up traffic to educate us about the folly of our ways. It was interesting, though, how the bad stuff seemed to just roll right off our backs and when we got a friendly honk or wave or "God bless you," we felt elated. The signs we wave impart a whole slew of information, including the following:

Prop 8 = Religious Freedom
Prop 8 = Parental Rights
Prop 8 = Free Speech
Prop 8 = Less Government
Vote Yes on Prop 8

They are designed to encourage people to think and desire to educate themselves. I decided to use our stationary time to quiz the boys on why each of these statements was true. They did surprisingly well for a couple of high school boys and I was impressed with their understanding of Prop 8 and the implications should it be defeated. I was especially impressed with their willingness to spend a Wednesday night on a city block, hanging out with the Primary president and waving Prop 8 signs. I told them as much and received a very wise response from one, "Well, the outcome of this issue will effect us, so really there's no better place we could be."

Tomorrow morning I head right back out again as I will tomorrow evening. This is my life every weekday until the Nov. 4th elections. I haven't been great at walking door to door. It was too difficult with my two boys. I'm not good at getting to my phone lists, though I still have one and intend to get going on it. But sign waving is apparently "my thing" because my fire is blazing once again! Thank you to all my friends who have opened their homes to my boys! Soren and Anders are having a blast getting out to friends' houses every single day, twice a day! It's every kid's dream, I tell ya.