A beautiful day...

As I was walking to work this morning, I came upon a glorious sight: The two Jehovah's Witnesses who often troll my foot-commute route were talking to one of those annoying "sidewalk telemarketers" who try to take "just a minute of my time" at least once a day to save the children or save health care, or something. (I know how to save the children: Don't let them listen to Britney Spears.)

This little tableau raised just one question: Who cornered who?

My morning brightened further as I recalled the moment I first set eyes on this pair of JWs (both women) several months ago. I was was walking south; they were walking north. From the distance of half a long city block, I looked at them and said to myself, "I bet they're Jehovah's Witnesses." Then our paths met, they whipped out their propaganda publications, tried to engage me in conversation, and I mentally pumped my fist in the air while (silently) yelling, "Yes! Called that one!"

Now, don't think that I have anything against the religion practiced by Jehovah's Witnesses; I don't. However, I will admit that their organization royally pissed me off a few years ago when I used to ride a commuter bus into Seattle from a neighboring county. On THREE occasions, I was standing at a bus stop, minding my own business, when the following events occured. A gold Jeep Cherokee pulls over. A pretty, fresh-faced young woman exits the vehicle. Young woman walks over to stand next to me as if she, too, is waiting for the bus. Young woman begins to make small talk about the weather and whatnot. Young woman whips out her JW propaganda periodicals and tries to sell me on her religion.

Now, I am all for freedom of religion. But I am equally for freedom from religion. All I ask of religious folks is two things. 1) That they don't go on a fundamentalist murder spree. 2) That they don't push their religion or their religious beliefs onto people who don't first ask to hear about them. As the pretty young JWs shuttled around in the gold Jeep Cherokee can attest, anyone who tries to perform a sidewalk religious conversion on me will get their head verbally bitten off. That's just me, provoked into protecting my freedom to temporarily occupy a few square feet of a public sidewalk in peace.

Amen. And praise Goddess, God, Allah, Buddha, or whomever or whatever you choose to believe in or NOT believe in. As far as I'm concerned, it's all good.