Disabled Lawyer Offers Compelling Memoir Of Survival. Terri Dailies June 5

The Tampa Tribune ^ | June 5, 2005 | ANGIE DROBNIC HOLAN

[8mmMauser]

"Too Late To Die Young: Nearly True Tales From a Life," by Harriet McBryde Johnson.

About two years ago, Harriet Johnson appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. If you saw her portrait, you probably haven't forgotten it.

A thin woman in a wheelchair leans forward, a purple shawl draping one shoulder. Johnson describes it this way in her new memoir: "The portrait has been described as beautifully disturbing, and most nondisabled people seem to see it that way. I'd prefer to call it disturbingly beautiful, but I'll take it the other way around if I must."

Johnson has an unnamed muscle-wasting disease, but don't dare say she "suffers" from it. She insists on being her own complicated person, a Southern lady, for instance, as well as a socialist, an atheist, a lawyer and a born storyteller with a wicked sense of humor.

She eschews pity and sentimentality. She supports the work of Not Dead Yet, a group of anti-euthanasia activists who demonstrated outside Terri Schiavo's Pinellas Park hospice earlier this year, dramatically sliding out of their wheelchairs and lying on the ground.

And though Johnson hates the hackneyed trope of triumph in the face of disability, she nevertheless has a string of interesting adventures. She runs for elected office. She travels to Cuba to discuss disability rights. She protests the Jerry Lewis telethon annually in her hometown of Charleston, S.C., and she bribes her friends to join her with promises of free food.

Her gripe with the telethon is its grim prognostications. When she was 30, her mother became ill, and Johnson had to accept for the first time that, contrary to all expectations, she might indeed outlive her parents. "While anyone may die young, it's not something you can count on," she writes. "You have to be prepared to survive." It's that angry, proud but utterly normal brand of survival that is at the heart of Johnson's memoir.

The most fascinating chapter is her encounter with the philosopher and animal rights activist Peter Singer. (It was this encounter that rated The New York Times Magazine cover.) Singer believes that in some cases it is morally acceptable for parents to kill severely disabled infants. Johnson disagrees, so much so that she fears even debating him would dignify his ideas as socially acceptable. Nevertheless, she meets him, travels to Princeton University to debate him and ends up with a great story about it.

The best memoirs don't necessarily tell every event in a person's life, but they do capture the voice and the emotional feel of the author. Yes, it's impossible for a nondisabled person to fully know what Johnson's life is like. But her writing is so vibrant, so interesting and so funny that you can't help but feel as if you're in her world, sitting beside her and hearing her story for yourself.

[Lauren BaRecall]

Thanks for the ping.

[russesjunjee]

Very good point.

[russesjunjee]

I read the exit protocol. It was sickening.

[EternalVigilance]

Further food for thought about the Bushes, from Natan Sharansky's site, onejerusalem.org:

How Not To Deal With Terrorists

Posted by The Editors on June 6, 2005 at 7:55 AM

There are several very disturbing signs of a shift in the Bush approach toward terrorists and their supporters. The moral clarity that guided Bush in his first term seems to be giving way to a misguided policy of accommodation that has failed time and again.

A Reuters news report with the headline Reluctant U.S. Shows Signs of Shift on Hamas. Following Europe's lead, the State Department is accepting Hamas as a legitimate player in the Palestinian political world even though they continue to employ terrorism. Demands that Hamas disarm and renounce terrorism have been taken off the table. (I guess they don't want to press Abbas for results on this front.)

This is the failed tactic used by Tony Blair and the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Blair allowed the IRA to participate in the civil political process and they used their new stature to further conduct their terrorist activities.

There is also mounting evidence that the President's brother Governor Jeb Bush sent a laudatory letter to the Florida Chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). A copy of a letter on the Governor's stationary makes for scary reading. Bush declares, "I commend your contributions to the protection of civil rights and freedom of religion." Is the Governor not aware that CAIR is a defendant in 9/11 related lawsuits because of their support of the bad guys? Did he forget that CAIR failed to accept an invitation by a United States Senate Committee looking into possible CAIR terrorist activities?

If the United States Government continues down the road of dealing rather than eliminating terrorists we are going to lose the war.

CAIR, the American political arm of Hamas (which has sworn the destruction of America and of Israel), is using this Jeb Bush letter for propaganda purposes.

How do you like that, Clancy?

[russesjunjee]

I'm going to send Jeb and his brother a black T-shirt that says Republican on the front and has a vertical yellow streak running down the back.

I am sick and tired of breaking my back to elect Republicans only to see them scuttle like cock roaches the second the lights come on.

Jeb's cowardice cost Terri her life. I hope he can live with that.

[ClancyJ]

I don't like it but politicians do that every day. It is called politics and I would not be very good at it.

As for as the Hamas? This is a new regime and Arafat is gone. Peace must be tried first with a new regime.

Of course some would expect Bush to march in and remove all of them - but, in reality, we Americans expect to see peaceful methods before others.

This is a new day and a new page for the Palestinians. We'll see what they do with it before we act on what we think they will do with it.

[russesjunjee]

Conservatives who still believe that the Republican party is going to save the day are living in a very dangerous fantasy world.

The Republican party is just as corrupt and misguided as the Democratic party. Both parties have totally list touch with the American people, and quite frankly, they think they shouldn't have to answer to us anymore.

Both parties have set themselves up as elite demigods to rule over a people that they deem to be ignorant and incapable of self governance.

The voters have already been betrayed by both parties on multiple fronts, but the die hard party loyalists won't figure it out until the imminent destruction of this country is staring them in the face.

Politicians say whatever is necessary to get elected and then they ignore the people and do as they please.

If any of you out there still trust the Federal Government to do the right thing for you and your family then I have some swamp land for sale and I would like you to take a look at it.

[EternalVigilance]

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Abu Mazen was joined at the hip with Arafat for 50 years, and was the chief financier of the '72 Olympic massacre of the Israeli team.

Whatever happened to not dealing with terrorists?

That resolve must have gone the same place as Terri Schiavo's inalienable right to life...

[Lesforlife]

Yo, Jeb:

How does it feel to play second fiddle to "judge" Greer?

[Future Useless Eater]

Best wishes and prayers to Pamela Patton, in court
today for brain damaged Scott Thomas (her son).

I would recommend re-reading the comments by eyeflyfish2
at the tail end of THIS thread...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1404053/posts?page=259#259

[tutstar]

Ditto on the prayers!

I hope that one of our local reporters is in the court or at least gets us a report on the results right away.

[tutstar]

Any good scoop on the nepotism or just a guess?

[floriduh voter]

In Floriduh if it isn't a bar license, it must be nepotism. That is my opinion and I haven't any hard facts and haven't googled Kennerly. I am Jeb free today. I'm sick of discussing him no matter how many Jeb defenders try to mention him today.

Terri was murdered and that's the bottom line.

Let's push FOR FEDERALIZATION OF A BAN AGAINST STARVING AND DEHYDRATING AMERICANS:

Toll Free Number to "your" US Congresscritters:

1-877-762-8762

[floriduh voter]

This Terri Blog called Sharp Concepts lists the celebrities who stood up for Terri. Patricia Heaton from the Raymond show fasted while Terri was being starved and dehydrated for 13 days. Many fasted and many just couldn't eat (like myself).

GOOD BLOG: http://www.annesharp.com/terrisfight.html

[floriduh voter]

"committed to protecting the Civil Rights of all Americans" as per Jeb's letter to CAIR. (too bad he doesn't practice what he preaches). My last word on Jeb for the day. I have Jeb fatigue.

[Sun]

"Let's push FOR FEDERALIZATION OF A BAN AGAINST STARVING AND DEHYDRATING AMERICANS:

Toll Free Number to "your" US Congresscritters:

1-877-762-8762"

GREAT idea, FV

[Narnian]

"Rep. Gary Beard’s bill assumes that any patient would want to be kept alive with feeding or hydration tubes, unless the patient has specifically said otherwise in a living will or similar document.

“We know what happened to Terri Schiavo. We don’t want a repeat of that in Louisiana,” Beard, R-Baton Rouge, told House members."


God bless this guy.

[floriduh voter]

Yes, he's doing his job for Louisianans. There's no dotted line for public servants that they have to abandon their principles but sometimes it seems so.

My web site is back on line after a six month absence when I was trying to help Terri like millions of other people around the world.

My contribution to cyberspace is reader friendly and I'm back.

http://www.conservative-spirit.org/pages/1/index.htm

[EternalVigilance]

Thanks for all you do, FV.

[Earthdweller]

"I don't like it but politicians do that every day. It is called politics and I would not be very good at it."

That's the biggest gripe I have with Jeb. He didn't do politics good.

I don't think his advisor's thought out clearly how all this would play out.

It was the clash of the century between the laws that are on the books and what is right from wrong.

I hold Jeb personally responsible for making the Republican party, my President and my Senators look like a bunch of impotent idiots to the world because with all their power and might they couldn't save one innocent girl.

There was no way we could have saved Terri and save face as a true Democracy upholding the law to the rest of the world at a time when we are promoting Democracy vs. Theocracy so heavily.

The sad thing is..only a fool who had his heart in the right place could have messed up that badly.