A question that makes me go hmmmmmm.
Posted By: Karen Lee Kranz Date: Wednesday, 12 November 2003, at 10:59 a.m.
Remember a few days ago Pat posted this very hurtful article - written in such an insensitive manner:
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/11/10/Tampabay/Schiavo_tapes__snippe.shtml
And then I replied that I thought we should all send the writer, Mr. Nohlgren, a letter.
Well, here is a great letter from my friend Mike. He makes so many great points that I wanted to post it to give you some ideas. Yesterday I had also posted some comments from Pamela that provide another slant on why Terri might be so slow to respond. Please see:
http://tbihome.org/cgi-bin/terri.pl?read=813
as that describes very briefly some of the points that Pamela makes which could be integrated into the letter that Mike wrote.
I hope you find this helpful. I'm going to write my own letter as soon as I am finished with some medical procedures scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Love and Hugs, Karen
Mr. Stephen Nohlgren St. Petersburg Times nohlgren@sptimes.com
Dear Mr. Nohlgren,
I am writing in reply to your article of November 10, 2003 entitled "Schiavo tapes: snippets, then not much."
Simply put, I am appalled at your ignorance.
The fundamental question is, how many times should Terri respond to stimuli or prompts "by choice" in order to validate her state of consciousness and cognizance? The answer is: Only Once, if she so chooses to do so.
Either she is there, or she is not. Pure and simple. How could you have missed such a basic principle?
Everyone loves to talk about "choice" these days. Have you ever tried to get the attention of a small child while he is busy playing or tired? Sometimes he will ignore you, and that's not because he does not hear you or see you, he does. He simply chooses to ignore you. Some of us adults will do the same.
I submit to you that this observation is even more pronounced with people like Terri, given that she has severe brain injury, been deprived of therapy for years, lives in a hospice environment that is not conducive to stimulating the senses, as well as her own physical limitations.
In addition, Terri is probably very frustrated and suffers some degree of psychological problem that compounds the difficulty of "response on demand". It could also be that Terri is just simply tired most of the time and does not wish to be bothered.
In light of this, I consider Judge Greer's assessment of Terri's "lack of sufficient response" equally ignorant as well.
Mr. Nohlgren, if you are convinced that Terri gave a genuine response only just once through those video tapes, then in good conscience you are obliged to affirm her cognizant ability and advise readers of your finding.
There are many peripheral issues but I would just leave it for now.
Thank you for your time and I hope you will write another article very soon to address this particular concern.
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