Posted on 03/14/2006 11:28:51 AM PST by KevinNuPac
Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify
Kevin Fobbs
March 13, 2006
Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives?
And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can bring to our lives and to the celebration of the Culture of Life.
On March 18th, we as a nation will begin to grieve again, to reach into our hearts and feel with our collective national spirit what the Schindler family felt last year at this time as each moment since Terri was disconnected from the feeding lifeline, the moments crept by like hours and hours like days.
All of us have felt in some way that pain — even if it were only in the privacy of our loved one's home, hospital room, hospice or perhaps talking with an attorney and doctor attempting to make sense out of some fleeting comments made in a conversation perhaps voiced ten, twelve or even two decades earlier — not necessarily an expression of her true feeling about an end-of-life decision but merely an incidental musing in a long-forgotten side conversation.
For at least one million Americans, and quite possibly a whole lot more, this is an opportunity to voice an opinion through a pledge supporting a resolution in each state called "Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life." Each and every person who cares that your family, your spouse, your mother, your father, your sister or brother understands with clarity what you wish the end of life for you to be, with dignity and certainty should sign the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com and take the additional step to sign a Living Will — or as they call it at www.terrisfight.org, the Will to Live.
Some have asked why Americans should care about an annual Terri's Day. It is quite simple, we tend to keep turning the page on the Culture of Life because we feel it does not affect us. We tend to believe that seemingly universal belief that those who are handicapped, those who are not quite living a "perfect" life or by contemporary notion "ideal" then those lives are possibly disposable, marginal, not relevant, and part of the Culture of Death which embraces a "disposable society."
But life and our values for the Culture of Life are not disposable. Think about the young people today who would rather hurt themselves or even take their own lives rather than feel "imperfect" or the elderly person whose family is told by an insensitive health care professional while the stricken person struggles to cling to life, "she would be better off in another place," — just let her die, disconnect her from life, because her quality of life is not up to "contemporary standards. "
Why does celebrating the Culture of Life in Michigan become so essential for all of us in America? It is important for several reasons. Dr. Jack Kervorkian, also known as "Doctor Death" helped launch first in Michigan and then the nation the notion of the death culture. Secondly, and equally as important, at the May 12 event — just two days before Mother's Day — there will also be a "Mary's Moms" celebration of those women and mothers who have met challenges in standing up for some aspect of the Culture of Life.
This past weekend I sat at my cousin's funeral — or going home celebration, which more accurately describes it — thinking about the dearly departed and how she packed so much caring for others into her life even as she struggled with illness and advancing age. She was a wonderful woman who had lived through many, many challenges in her life, but in her 73 years she had met these challenges with dignity and had conveyed to her family when would be the right time to allow her to pass away.
Her daughter, who is a minister, spoke to the packed church about the times when, with all of her pain and then a stroke, the doctors had informed them that perhaps it was better to let her go. Yet that was three years ago that that occurred, and if the family had listened to the doctors and refused to see how she fought back and not only recovered but went back to volunteering at the church to feed and clothe the homeless. The medical professionals didn't care about an elderly lady who was on dialysis, but the family did and they knew better. Patricia lived three more years — years her extensive extended family considered "a gift from God."
So isn't part of the lesson of Terri's legacy and Terri's Day for families and loved ones to have a meaningful conversation with their family and to have the written document on hand as well that conveys the wishes clearly and concisely? You betcha.
As I sat in the church I thought of all of the families across the nation and the world who were sitting at their loved one's bedsides — or even standing outside of a hospital emergency room — overwhelmed with emotion, torn by what may be days of conflicting anguished decisions. I thought again of how out of death we may have the certainty of life. Terri's death reminded the nation that yes a state can and will starve you to death, and your family may be rendered helpless as you watch your loved one's precious life forces drain slowly away.
By signing the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com or going to www.terrisfight.org, you can learn about how to encourage your state legislature to establish March 31st as an official Terri's Day. Hold a Culture of Life Home Party or meet-and-greet to sign pledges, share ideas and support The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation as well as Culture of Life activities and events in your community or around the nation. Between now and March 31st you can make a dramatic difference for yourself, your family and for the nation. Stand up for the Culture of Life because one person, one life, one family can and does make a difference in America. Make the difference and be the difference today. America...The countdown for the Culture of Life has begun.
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Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist for the Detroit News. He is also the daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show online at www.wdtkam.com daily 2-3 p.m., and call in toll-free nationwide to make your opinion count at 800-923-WDTK(9385) © Copyright 2006 by Kevin Fobbs http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fobbs/060313
Copied from Lesforlife post 3,599...
PRECIOUS YENLANG VO UPDATE!!!
hi leslie,
we had a meeting with the hospital on thurs 5/25/06.
after long discussion, dr. lyson who is internal
medicine physician who substituting for her colleague.
she stated that my mother infection that she needed
for time in the hospital to be treated. it was her
word that the hospital administration postponed my
mother date for withdraws. as soon as it was the
extension date was 7/17/2006, i could not say a word
but thanking the internist for her words and tears
were streaming down my face as i stepped out from the
meeting and went to my mom room to visit her.
she is more responsive more now as before. she opened
her eyes as i called her name as she was receiving the
dialysis.
it was not only thank to the internist, but all the
people who voice their opinions taking their time and
effort to call the north austin medical center, texas
that made this big difference. their protest is
successful causing the hospital to bulge and allow my
mother for further treatment.
i want thank you and all the volunteers and everyone
who has been praying for us. please continue pray for
us because we still needed and mother is not out of
the loop yet. we need all the prayers and continue
voicing your opinions by calling the hospital.
thank you so much. god bless.
loann trinh
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Those game shows quickly became the Quiz Show Scandals, the producers and sponsors tampered with the results, rigging the winners----kind of like the Terri Schiavo case and the January, 2000 trial in Pinellas County probate court with Judge George Greer presiding.
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Crist insisted Friday he has been consistent, because "taxes are on the general public," not sugar growers, and that any tax he supported was subject to a popular vote.
The time is fast approaching for Crist and Republican opponent Tom Gallagher to begin a substantive debate on taxes - and education, growth, safety, insurance and health care - before the election becomes a battle of 30-second attack ads
TV sound bites oversimplify Crist-vs.-Gallagher issues
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bttt
Tom Gallagher's formidable running mate
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...............
But, border security is not the only hot-button issue — especially for conservatives. Abortion is a perennial issue, but the death of Terri Schiavo has demonstrated that C. Everett Koop and Francis Schaeffer were absolutely right about the "slippery slope." That, in turn, has removed many abortion "moderates" from the fence. The party with the clearest stance against abortion is the Constitution Party.
2006: the year of the Constitution Party?
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Thanks wagglebee and Coleus.
Infanticide and Abortion: Fruits of the Same Tree (Discarded baby girl found in California)
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Thanks to TheSarce and cyn. Ping to thread by Abathar:
Dying 'Dr. Death' Has Second Thoughts About Assisting Suicides
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Meanwhile, greetings from a dial-up connection in the northwoods. Well, it's better than no connection, but only by a whisker :-)
If Gonzalez and the president have a huge rift (and they've known each other since Texas), maybe Gonzalez will expose what REALLY happened to Terri. Maybe AG Gonzalez has a conscience and it's starting to bother him???
It's about time.
excerpt: "Crist doesn't have a wife. Much less a child like well-mannered Charlie Gallagher, who at 7-years-old grew increasingly less patient through the luncheon with not being able to play with his scooter in the driveway. Nonetheless, he heeded his mom's command to behave."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/27/washington/27inquire.html?ei=5090&en=e1727b9ded38852d&ex=1306382400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
an old post of mine..."Why'd they stop the rescue to fly Terri out of Florida to a safe location? It was in the works but was cancelled the day they were going to move. That's a trillion dollar question. Mark Reynolds, US Coast Guard: "mission cancelled""
By the way, the Coast Guard is under Homeland Security. They also let Terri die.
http://www.uscg.mil/d17/allnews/news03/17403.htm
(Mark Reynolds is tied to Gonzalez who is in charge of the civil rights under the justice dept.) See my other posts above.
http://www.uscg.mil/d17/newsind.htm
I cannot divulge my source re: the rescue.
Sounds like you are really out there in the tulewaggles, in the land of mosquitos, grey wolves, and black flies!
Like here....
Wishing all a pleasant and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend...
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Terri's Legacy continues.
June Maxam of North Country Gazette writes on Terri and on Martin Anderson...
The old story of one lies, the other swears to it. The nucleus of the stench appears to be in Pinellas County.
COMMENTARY - The Schiavo Case: Anatomy Of A Cover-Up
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Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.
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