Picketers Please

It’s not very often we can make it through a day without driving in town and seeing somebody picketing something. Sometimes it’s the pacifistic anti-war/anti-Americans , sometimes it’s the over-zealous anti-abortionists, sometimes it’s over-caffeinated churchgoers trying to keep us from the depths of hell, and sometimes, when we’re exceptionally lucky, it’s all three, united in some awkwardly obnoxious triumvirate all standing side by side in outspoken harmony. It appears to me that they are trying to use their democratic right to freedom of speech and for that I don’t blame them. If the law says it’s ok then they might just as well use it. What I don’t understand though, is how come they actually think that what they are doing is actually helping their cause. I can assure them… it’s not. I will explain why.
When a person drives by and sees someone standing out by the side of the road, he instantly feels self-confidence rushing to his head. He automatically feels like a better person than those people. This is why so many people, who normally don’t yell out their window decide they feel perfectly comfortable with screaming obscene things from their car towards the picketers. This seems like a natural thing. Some people scream at them, while others just picture themselves pulling over and politely confronting them. After this person has dealt appropriately with his overwhelming sense of superiority, he then comes to the realization that he hasn’t even read the signs that the picketers are holding,… so he takes about 2 seconds to read the signs.
At this point, the driver either agrees or disagrees with what is being displayed. If the driver disagrees with the display, he automatically gets very angry (notice he NEVER thinks once about changing his mind about the subject, which I believe is what the picketers are aiming for). If he happens to agree with the picketer on the anti-war/abortion/fire, he still gets a little angry. He thinks to himself, “Man, these people are just making ME look stupid because I believe the same thing as THEY do!”
I guess what I’m trying to say is that picketing doesn’t do any good. No one changes their mind after driving by, no one thinks to themselves, “Woah, that is sooo true. I’ve never thought about the war/abortion/fire issues before”. Everyone DOES know about these issues, and already has their mind made up about them. I know picketers intentions are good, but they seem to be very uninformed as to how opinions should be delivered. If you want to change someone’s mind about a major issue like the war, abortion, or church, you’re actually going to have to talk to them about it.