Day One: Friends and foes turn out

WASHINGTON – The earnest young man from Terry, Miss. with the wispy beard and the Instamatic camera waited about 2½ hours in line to walk through the airport-type security arch and see the woman who would, in his opinion, usurp his right to freedom of religion and allow peimissive abortions. David Harris, a freshman from Shelton College, a fundamentalist Christian school in New Jersey, had boarded one of two buses for the trip. When Arizona Appellate Judge Sandra Day O’Connor began her opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning about 75 of Harris’ cohorts were marclililg in front of the. building, passing out “No to O” buttons and waving massproduced “Reject O’Connor” placards. About half were anti-abortion advocates; the rest complained O’Connor was anti-religion because s~e has opposed tax-exempt status for religi.>us schools. It was an all-white crowd, many of them young students with short hair and freshscrubbed faces. But it was a surprisingly meager gathering . considering how vehemently abortion foes had rallied against O’Connor. By the time senators had begwi questioning her, most of the protesters were inside the hearing room leaning quietly against the back wall, waiting in line or milling about the Senate building. By the afternoon session, most placards were stacked neatly on the steps, only a handful of the true believers. remaining outside in the hwnid Washington weather. “I’m not surprised that (the anti abortion crowd) is that