***I apologize to those who wish this to be over and done with, but I am compelled to share my experiences with the protesters at the gates of Notre Dame yesterday. This is rather lengthy, but for anybody remotely interested in what it was like on Notre Dame’s campus on Sunday when Obama came to speak, this should illuminate the day’s anti-abortionist activities on campus and at the gates of Notre Dame.***

Every person who showed up to the gates of the University of Notre Dame to “welcome” Obama with clenched fists and some open arms all had the right to be there and they all had the right to practice their First Amendment rights. But, others have the right to describe what was happening at the gates of Notre Dame from this morning through the afternoon candidly—many of the protesters were in fact turning a place of faith and sanctity into a place of hate and insanity.

The gates of Notre Dame shifted from being gates you would enter and drive through with the Golden Dome in view into gates that made you feel like you were about to enter a hell of some kind.

I and two others, who shot footage on cameras for my film Life or Obama?, were with me on campus from 10 am to 5 pm. If it happened on campus and was outside of the Joyce Center, where commencement was held, chances are we filmed it.

The day began at the gates and it was not bad. Randall Terry was not there with his people yet. I could not find those from the Pro-Life Action League based in Chicago which was bringing buses of people to line the streets for a “Face the Truth” initiative (an initiative which basically involves people holding graphic photos to show you the “truth” of abortion).

From 10 to 11 am, we were all over this intersection at the gates that thirty to forty people had gathered around. It was not too crazy yet. I mean, it was as crazy as you think anti-abortion protesters are.

We interviewed a guy in an American Revolutionary costume who talked about the “unalienable right to life” the Declaration of Independence gave all Americans.

And then, all of a sudden, the dynamic shifted as a group of Revolutionary Communists (which included Sunsara Taylor) came up with a banner and a bullhorn shouting, “Abortion on demand and without apology.”

The anti-abortionists did a double take. I’m quite positive they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Real live pro-abortionists were not expected; only the “pro-abortion” Obama was.

Of course, the anti-abortionists took the bait and started to offer rebuttals. The pro-abortion Revolutionary Communists stood strong and simply continued to chant.

The media left the anti-abortionist protesters who were so yesterday by now and every newspaper from the Indianapolis Star to the New York Times seemed to want to capture the pro-abortion group that had just showed up to the gates. (And, with two to three hours of protesting, this group got more media coverage on the local news than the protesters who had been at the intersection for days had gotten.)

At 11:15 am, I and my crew left to film a Sunday Mass organized on the South Quad of campus by a group, ND Response, which formed in reaction to Notre Dame’s invitation to have Obama speak. Here, it became apparent just how crazy the anti-abortionists at the gates were.

Anti-abortionists have a way of sucking the faith out of what they do. They seem to be people who would make you want to turn atheist (and that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all). Those involved in the Sunday Mass though, like the priest giving the sermon and prayer, articulated the situation nicely in a way that proved there was a reason for Catholics to disagree with Obama and it is possible to do so in a civil manner that involves “fair-minded words.”

I and the crew spent some time there before we split and I headed back with a cameraperson to check out what was going on at the gates now that an hour had passed. (Plus, Randall Terry’s website said arrests would be happening at 1 pm.)

As we were walking up to the gates from the South Quad, I could see a mass of people, media and protesters and police, who were all falling in on one another. Acts of civil disobedience had just begun before we got there and the media was eating it up (especially Griff Jenkins from FOX News).

The protesters figured out that if they went limp as they were being arrested and forced the police to carry them to the van they would be able to give the media the best video—video which would make it look like what the police were doing was somewhat heartless.

Griff Jenkins of FOX News gave a play by play of the arrests and arguments that were occurring just past the gates where protesters had engaged in civil disobedience for the past weeks. Jenkins, at one point, said in an on-air audio interview, “I think we [the media] are just as much in the way now.”

As everything calmed down and the police line was moved back so people could not come so far onto campus next time, I headed to the gates to see what it was like.

There was now a group holding up a statue of the Virgin Mary on their shoulders, playing bagpipes and drums, and wearing garb that included a kilt. What organization they were from, I cannot remember, but across the street was one guy who was angry at bishops and priests and not only was he against Obama but he wanted people to know that people should be their own bishop. He had traveled hundreds of miles to be here for a few hours.

As he debated a kilt-wearing anti-abortionist, he talked about how a Catholic bit him.

America’s Independent Party members were now here (you know, the party that was used as a vehicle for racial segregation advocate George C. Wallace’s campaign in 1968 and a party that thinks the Republicans aren’t far to the right enough—check them out).

Alan Keyes, who actually was the presidential nominee for America’s Independent Party in 2008, showed up at the gates. He was arrested for trespassing on Notre Dame’s campus a second time on Friday and was not to be released until he was arraigned on Monday. (So, why he was out of jail I do not know.)

Now, Randall Terry, of “Operation Rescue” fame was here and he was ready for “victory.”

I had to go back to the South Quad and direct my cameraman who was filming the ND Response Rally, which included speakers against the Obama invitation. This was the only demonstration approved by Father Jenkins this weekend. After I checked in, I returned to the gates.

The God Hates Fags people were now here. I had thought the area could not become more of a circus, but it was now officially a mud pit, which is what Randall Terry wanted (and what does that say about the anti-abortionists themselves?)

By now, every right wing or white power group in America probably had some of its members at the gates of Notre Dame protesting Obama. White power supporters had been here for the past few days cloaking their racism in anti-abortion rhetoric. (One KKK member said on Saturday to a Hispanic woman and an African American in their car, “I’m trying to save your race. I didn’t vote for him but Obama is the best thing that ever happened because he’s killing millions of your babies. You should be grateful. I’m trying to save your race.”)

There were those who showed up to combat the revolting groups that had come to shame Notre Dame. I interviewed a graduate student who worked in the Notre Dame Medicine building on the corner of the intersection that graphic photos of dismembered fetuses had been on for over a month. He talked about how he had to eat lunch with his happening outside his window.

I spoke with an older woman from Britain who talked about how she doesn’t like abortion but really thought we should be more worried about the wars which were killing people. And, she told me, that as she looks at the groups of people this really racism. The people on the side of the streets protesting aren’t just there to stop abortions.

People holding Obama ’08 signs showed up. They held up Obama books like The Audacity of Hope for the anti-abortionists to see.

A woman with an Obama bag shouted, “Y’all been lynching niggers for a long time.” She went on to rub the fact that Barack Obama had made it to the White House in the God Hates Fags people’s faces.

The uproar of the gates was now so loud that you could hear it from hundreds of feet away. And just when I thought I had seen everything I could see, I turn to cross the intersection and head back on to campus for some final shots and see three or four African-American teenagers carrying cardboard signs.

They waved the cardboard signs and shouted as they came up behind a group of anti-abortionists. Right in front of me, they thrust into the air signs talking about Obama ’09 and “Fuck you if you don’t support Obama!”

The kids had no ideology, just one simple message. Born out of black power? I don’t know. I think it was just teenagers being kids.

They got an anti-abortionist to try and convert them. The kids simply said, “If you don’t like Obama, it’s over. That’s it. You don’t get to talk. That’s it.”

A policeman came over to handle the situation. If there’s one thing the anti-abortionists cannot handle other than abortion, it is the “F” word. And, reasonably so. Fucking, especially black people fucking, leads to a huge amount of abortions. (So, they told me while I was standing on the corner.)

The racket came to a point as I turned and said to my cameraman, “Get me some footage of Randall Terry, here.” Obama was speaking inside at this point. Terry had failed, and word was that he was now taking out his frustration on the media while at the same time trying to make things seem like he succeeded.

I looked closer and, as a photo op began, Terry and another leader dressed in church garb began to smoke cigars. That’s when a God Hates Fags guy came over and started yelling his head off about how Terry was a hypocrite because he’s against abortion but was smoking and secondhand smoke kills babies.

I wanted more than anything to see Terry turn around and punch this guy, but Terry headed across the street and Terry gave one last final rally cry to his followers, “Go to the other gate—the Douglas gate. Obama’s motorcade will be coming through and I want him to have to go through a sea of humanity.”

So, off I went with my cameraperson to this exit to capture the motorcade on film before I said of this production, “That’s a wrap!”

The protesters never made it to the other gate. Security (state police, county sheriffs, South Bend police, Notre Dame Security, etc.) were confiscating signs and one protester was even arrested for asking a cop a question about why he or she couldn’t have signs at the intersection Obama would be coming through.

By 5 pm, the gates were back to the way they were before this invitation was announced. The protesters had gotten on their buses to head back to Chicago or gone back to their State Theatre headquarters in downtown South Bend to put this act in perspective and convince themselves what they did was worth it after all.

Interestingly, by 1 pm, Terry and others had given up on being arrested for their cause. Keyes said he didn’t want people engaging in civil disobedience anymore because it would mean people might be taken away from their families for awhile.

In the end, Terry claimed “mission accomplished” because people’s attention was drawn to this “treachery.” But, on camera, he said his goal was to stop Obama from speaking. So, he shifted his position and I don’t think the media bothered to call him on it at all (the media let Terry become a favorite character to follow throughout this controversy).

What unfolded at the gates of Notre Dame only affirmed what Obama said in his speech at Notre Dame’s Commencement, as he urged those involved in the abortion debate to tone down their rhetoric and use “fair-minded words:”

Now, understand– understand, Class of 2009, I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. Because no matter how much we may want to fudge it _ indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory _ the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.

His message for extremists, unfortunately, will go nowhere unless a middle position begins to whittle away at the divide by working to end poverty, improve health care, and reduce situations that lead to abortion.

Obama alluded to the fact that, “maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions.”

Whatever people walk away with now that this controversy has pretty much come to an end, I hope those who took interest walk away knowing that women on both sides make a decision after moral and spiritual considerations. They don’t just constantly have sex so they can excitedly walk into the Planned Parenthood down the street and have an abortion again and again and again.

There’s church law and there’s U.S. law. If you’re church says you should be opposed to abortion, you chose to be a part of the church so follow that code. But, if you are simply American, public policy cannot dictate that abortions are unlawful. On the contrary, public policy must exist for women to support women who decide to do whatever they feel they must do for themselves and their bodies.

Update 1

For more, visit this posting on Open Salon. I am receiving many great comments there because it is an Editor's Pick.