Gathered (L to R): Brigid Faranda, Tom McMahon, Joseph and Timothy Faranda, Judy Anderson,

"The set-up: About 600 pro-lifers (Operation Witness) were along Pennsylvania Avenue from 14th St. to 7th St., behind 31/2 ft. metal barricade fencing. The Marchers came around the corner and onto 14th Street (Liberty Plaza) that contained the all African-American 'Genocide Awareness Project'. They had the only graphic photos in the counter-demonstration, comparing abortion to KKK lynching, the holocaust, etc, and making the point that abortion was genocide against blacks: 'The black population is 12% and we have 36% of abortions', etc. The photos were huge and could be seen easily as they were up on the Plaza." Tom Faranda

"It was a David and Goliath experience... Strident anti-Bush, anti-religious sentiments permeated the event... deafening chants were high-pitched and angry and their combined countenance was chilling ... front and center were the over-the-top vulgar, obscene and blasphemous, the misdirected and the misinformed of various cultures. One reference notably absent in the March: the victim child in the womb ... only the `wanted child' championed, safe from mindless annihilation. They chanted, "This is what freedom looks like". Denial was on parade... I particularly remember one marcher, a petite, older woman in her sixties with a grayish-page boy hair cut, carrying a sign that read, `This is what an abortionist looks like.'... I feel we were extremely effective... I wonder how many remembered we were there; I wonder how many churches offered a prayer." Judy Anderson

"Every street had a small megaphone and Brigid agreed to use it 'for awhile.' She stayed on it with a couple of tiny breaks the whole time. She was great. 'It's the new millennium and woman deserve better than abortion.' 'Slavery was once legal. Was that Just? Was that fair? I don't think so!' She was pelted with all sorts of invective, a few condoms, constant middle fingers, and on several occasions had screaming men in her face. Also she was interviewed for ten minutes by a television station. And of course not all of the Marchers were obnoxious - I did speak pleasantly to a few of them ... Thinking about it later, once the March reached us, it really was like being in combat in the sense that we couldn't tell what was going on beyond more than ten yards to either side of us... I think the Marchers were about 75% women, with perhaps a third of them being college-aged. What a tragedy!"

*the funniest sign I saw carried by a man summed up the whole day. You couldn't make this up! Tom Faranda