An afternoon on the Maryland beach boardwalk

This was posted on Facebook on October 15th by an intactivist named Shelley who is located in Maryland. At least once per week she takes her "intactivist info wagon" to the beach boardwalk nearby and talks to people, answers questions and generally does her mission. Her summary of this day is particularly telling.

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Sunday's standout person was a gentleman in his later 40's. He and his friend who is Mexican came up to the wagon wanting to know the 16+ functions [of the foreskin]. I went over everything with them and it came out that the Mexican guy was circumcised and the American was not. I was taken back for a moment and asked the guys, "you know this is a bit backwards?" The American guy told me that when he was 9 years old his parents took him to get circumcised. He said they removed his clothes and asked him to lay down. As the nurses brought over the tools he said, all of a sudden he said he instinctively knew what was going on was wrong. He told the nurses and doctor he did not want this and started to get up, and that's when they held him down. More nurses came in and now there was 6 people on top of him holding him down including the male doctor. This guy told me he struggled and fought these adults until he broke free. He recalled the tools he saw, the look on the doctors face as he was struggling and the smell of the room. He said after that day, his parents did not try circumcising him again. He told me that he admired what I was doing by speaking up, and thanked me several times. Both of them stayed awhile after and went over current statistics, studies and ethics. I showed them pictures of RIC and before he walked away, he looked at me and his friend and said, "babies cannot break free like I did, that's why they do it to them." I will never forget that guy or his story. The rest of the day paled in comparison.

Some Christian demonstrators were rolling a cross down the boards and one was reading the bible, I stopped to talk to him and he seemed unhappy to speak with me. I asked him to pray for the children forced to endure genital cutting, and I gave him a Christian based brochure. A German physician stopped me and said he was happy to see me out and filled me in with the current dilemma in his country. He stayed for quite sometime, and went over my information and asked me how our government works exactly and why our country still practices circumcision. I said it comes down to money and tradition, but our rates are at an all time low. He stayed for a long time conversing with me, and was in 100% compliance. He said he often saw first hand the damage of botched circumcision on children. A mother of five boys stopped me and asked for info and stated she circed all her boys and did not understand the issue. I gave her some quick ethical pointers and explained the functions and she surprisingly opened up. She said she is going to read it over. I complimented her for being so open.

Then the crap hit the fan when a Muslim business owner asked me to come over. The Muslim family listened respectfully and took info, then his Jewish business neighbor came over. A hot-headed father/son teamed up on me and went over how circumcision is part of their religion, it's in their bible and how I am interfering with their practicing. The son did take the Jewish brochure but was not real open. He was actually less informed than his father going over the latest German news with me, then to top it-- off the sarcastic son invited me to a Bris Milah in West ocean City. The team was getting louder and louder and more disrespectful and then brought in the other business neighbor who was from Bulgaria. They asked him if his country practices circumcision and he said no. I sneaked away at that moment and let those two go at it. A block away I could still hear those men.

I walked away yesterday with a sheer amazement of how cutting a child's genitals seems to be of the highest order. But no matter what, all of these stories and experience's are valuable to me. To live with such purpose is undeniably one of life's greatest blessings and I feel very lucky to be given this change to make a difference ♥