“I’m all for free speech, but a lot of these things kinda went a step beyond.”

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Transcript for Please, God, Let It Rain

There was this time on campus, and it must have been right around elections because people were real heated. And someone went around campus and put all this, um graffiti–this pro life graffiti– all over campus.

I am all for free speech, but a lot of these things that were written on the sidewalk kind of went a step beyond, to this point that I felt really uncomfortable whenever I’d see them. And I saw them all the time because it was nice outside and everyone was walking outside and…

I remember, it’s like engraved into my memory. There was this one that said, “A woman doesn’t want an abortion like she wants a Mercedes or an ice cream bar. She wants it like an animal who has its leg stuck in a trap.” And I just kept waiting for it to rain. I was like please God, let it rain. Please, please please please please.

And people on campus were starting to get upset. And, uh, not just people in my circle because people started grabbing chalk and writing answers back, you know. Nasty things. Um, like, “My body, my choice.” That kind of thing.

I decided I was done waiting for it to rain. Because everyone was obviously really upset about it, and i was sick of it. So, at like, it was like ten o’clock at night. Uh, me and my friend, we went to the cafe. We got some waters, like in the jumbo cup. Right? ‘Cause water’s free at the cafe. And we’ve got like two in each hand, and we went around and we found them and we would like pour a little water on it, and we’d scuff our feet across it. And I totally ruined a pair of shoes doing this because I was like wearing a pair of canvas flats. Um, so we’d pour a little water, and we’d shuffle our way over it, and just make sure it was nice and scuffed up to the point where you couldn’t really read it anymore. Obviously there were still traces of it, kind of like neon streaks on the sidewalk, but you couldn’t really read it. Uh, and then we’d run out of water and we’d have to run into a nearby bathroom and fill the cups back up. And it took us probably two hours shuffling around. And it was starting to get chilly.

I felt really good when it was gone. I felt really good. Like, I woke up the next morning, and I walked to class, and it was like, “I don’t have to read any of your hateful words.”

And then of course it, it like rained the next day. So, that kind of defeated the point. But it felt good.

I thought people were going to say something about it, but it’s almost like no one noticed. Uh, which was perplexing. I wasn’t looking for recognition, obviously, because I was honestly a little afraid that I’d get in trouble. Um, especially with the club that did it. I think I was so late in doing it that at that point everyone had already been talking about it and talking about it. And then the newspaper ended up publishing an article about it a couple days later. Absolutely no mention of it getting scuffed out.

Some people did notice. A couple people, like close friends of mine. But uh, I don’t know that most people even noticed.