Posted on 04/01/2005 2:28:21 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Thank God this part of the story is over.
None of us - especially those of us who live in the Tampa Bay area - have come out of these two weeks untouched.
Part of it, of course, is because we couldn't avoid it. Although the story of Terri Schiavo has attracted interest around the world, it has been happening here.
This hasn't been an event played out in some Third World country where there is no rule of law. It wasn't in some bizarre culture where life is treated as incidental.
It has been right here - questioning our own values and our own way of life.
It has been close enough that each newspaper, TV and radio station has been able to have its own people on hand outside the hospice as part of the pack.
The story has overwhelmed us and kept us in a media onslaught unseen since the O.J. saga.
Hitting Home
This was different. This time we all could relate to some aspect of the story.
For some, it has brought forth a simmering fury that seemed to explode Thursday in a chorus of shouts and accusations. Meanwhile, others have wept at this chapter in the life and death of Schiavo.
Fingers have been pointed at all branches of government, at religious groups, lawyers, media. You name them.
One of the things that has been so fascinating to me is listening to people who have changed their minds. I don't know whether that is because of the complexity or the simplicity of the issue.
I have heard from more than a few who have gone from one side to the other in the debate over just who should have had the ultimate decision in determining the fate of the 41-year- old woman, someone most of us had never heard of until recently.
In many ways, it has brought out the best and worst in all of us. It has opened a divide that might have been there all along, and now we are forced to deal with it.
For me, the worst has been that arrogance of certainty that so many have been eager to force on the rest of us.
I think that is a broader problem we face - that growing inability we seem to have as a people to see shades of gray.
This isn't a problem limited to the Schiavo story.
Stopping To Listen
Our inability to stop and listen, to engage in conversation while believing someone else might have something to say, permeates our lives.
If you've managed to listen or watch the debate, especially in the past two weeks, any attempt at discussion disappeared, replaced with shouting and that same arrogance of certainty that refused to concede there might be other voices worth hearing.
After awhile, it wasn't so much who was going to be able to claim the moral high ground but who could get in the last verbal punch while the camera was still on.
Now that the TV trucks, the gawkers and the protesters have packed up and begun to go home, the shouting will continue.
Television's talking heads eventually will get back to the Michael Jackson circus, and most of us will head off to see who will become the American Idol or maybe win the NCAA basketball tournament.
At least we have been forced to pause and consider our lives and who makes some of the decisions that affect us all the way to the grave.
Just maybe, down the line, it may temper some of that arrogance of certainty that has permeated all sides of this agonizing story.
The man just doesn't like controversy (or free speech it would seem)....it's just too messy for him.
"Can't we all just get along? That's possible in a dictatorship where thought is imposed.
What a nuisance a judicial murder is.
People who are breaking the rules are the ones who say the issues aren't "black and white,but gray".
***Thank God this part of the story is over.***
What a ghoul!
I wonder what the author of this piece does for a living.
He writes columns.
"I think that is a broader problem we face - that growing inability we seem to have as a people to see shades of gray."
So now MURDERING someone by literally starving and dehydrating her to death is not murder at all...it's a gray area.
Unf'inbelievable!
The sad part is that a good portion of the country aligns themselves with human debris like this. This country is doomed.
I think that was the most starling feature of the two main protagonists: MS and Greer. They asserted dominance almost like bullies, and that makes others rise to the occasion and object.
Really? Well, he fooled me.
It's this kind of non-compassionate idiocy we will be fighting in our judicial war!
Well I hope you're all feeling properly humbled. Who knows what's right, what's wrong about starving a woman to death: the important thing is closure and feeling compassionate. /limp-wristed fuzzy logic
Possibly he was referring to the ghoulish death-watch in the media. I can understand that..
No, the problem is the growing fetishization of "shades of gray."
Terri had a strong will to live. Otherwise, how did she last two weeks?
As a nation, we died a little with Terri. Where will we end up if there is no healthy debate?
Well, he writes for fools.
Government isn't the end all and be all.
It is "we the people" and God's will, will be done.
add Hospice. They are/were complicit in the killing.
What a complete waste of column space. This intellectual lightweight and moral coward's entire column was summed up in his first sentence. The rest was a whole bunch of nothing.
Exactly!
It makes his brain hurt.
Why, that's so INTOLERANT of you to say so!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.