Terri's Day and nation's independence protects life culture

Renew America ^ | May 29, 2006 | Kevin Fobbs

[KevinNuPac]

Terri's Day and nation's independence protects life culture

Kevin Fobbs May 29, 2006

America's Culture of Life is truly the legacy of one woman whose death forever changed our nation because of actions that were not in her hands but in those of her husband and his lawyers. Yet for millions of Americans we will forever link our own celebration of our nation's independence to the courage of the Schindler family to go forward past the tragedy, past the personal sorrow, past the searing anguish to help America draw a distinct line in the sand, to issue a clarion call to America.

Our 4th of July is coming... Our Culture of Life Independence Day is on its way. Our month of Independence is a message that March 31st (Terri's Day) will signal, that July 4th will signal... and that the month of July will signal to defend the Culture of Life before we lose it forever.

When we talked with our family members or even our neighbors or our friends we may have spent but a moment reflecting upon why we are even gathered on a Memorial Day afternoon. Do we think about the sacrifice of our soldiers and of their families? Do we think about the long goodbyes which are never long enough... as the military families send their loved ones to war, to battle, to stand firm for our freedoms... for our life... for our nation and its values of faith?

How does Terri Schiavo and her legacy tie into this? Terri's legacy and Terri's Day is a representation of a right to live, and freedom to have the liberty to not have it compromised away, devalued by inconvenience, or litigated away by judges who celebrate a culture of death that would rob life from the womb, steal life from a hospital or hospice bed, and destroy and shatter a family's love for a daughter, a sister and aunt who was given a gift from God, but had it separated from her as easily as an ant would have its life take by an uncaring shoe... extinguished forever.

The families who send their loved ones off to war have to wonder as well, does America value their sacrifice? The families of the military have to wonder just where does its society draw the line on its values? A soldier who is in battle in Iraq or Afghanistan has to wonder if a Florida judge can take away the life of an innocent, what is the measure of his life? Would a judge in America suddenly decide that if he were injured, if he had to sacrifice a limb that the protesters outside his hospital bed would have more rights than he would or his family? Would this soldier have to wonder that if he or his fellow soldier were killed in battle, that upon their return that the protesters who would stand outside of his funeral... have more rights to be protected than the rights his family would have to a military burial with honor?

You see, the Culture of Life is about Terri Schiavo, because Americans now have to examine the life of our culture itself. We have to wonder if we as a nation of Christians and of a nation of faith and of a nation of compassion would allow for a state to murder an innocent woman and strip her family of their loved one then as a nation would we allow America to have other symbols of life, of our nation to be peeled away as well, all in open sight and in plain view of a dispassionate nation?

What does our American Culture mean if we allow millions of illegal aliens to literally browbeat us into submission by demanding that because they have stolen across our borders, demanded and received protection from local law enforcement in numerous cities throughout the U. S., obtained free or reduced educational opportunities by state public colleges that our own children could not qualify to receive the same financial aid assistance for. Are we that defenseless to let illegals strip our state coffers of housing assistance for loans and mortgages when tens of thousands in almost every state in America have legal citizens who are homeless, impoverished, or working poor or middle class Americans who need similar assistance but cannot receive it. And they are legal! They are citizens! They are Americans.

What is so wrong about our nation when we are so ready to compromise our freedoms, our culture's life, the life of an innocent and the taking of any life is the taking of our own children's life and their child's. And with each successive generation the nation and its life, its values, its traditions, and its language will disappear because we as Americans were too preoccupied — too narrow — to see that an illegal alien was taking your child's education, that a crusading death culture judge was preparing a bed, a room, a legal precedent to take your child, grandchild or sister or parent.

That is why I have stayed my course to defend the Culture of Life and to ask my fellow Americans to begin to understand that as Terri Schiavo's life was slowly ebbing from her body and as her mother Mary, father Bob, sister Suzanne, and brother Bobby waited in the Florida early morning air on March 31st, 2005, America was having part of its soul ebb away as well.

What will it take to spark an interest, a concern, and a passion for protecting one's own life? Some may say that it would take a clear and present danger — like tanks rolling down your neighborhood street or another 9/11 that strikes at the heart of America. Do we have the convenience to wait? Do we wait until a state legislature in Maine or California or Delaware or Ohio or Illinois decides that your mother's decision to live is determined by a hospital "bean counter" who decides that your mother's life is not based upon a "Will To Live" but an ability to pay her bill? What about a baby, not born, but already set for murder in the womb — not because the mother is pro-life or pro-death but because "the law" says the unborn baby's life is expendable because the baby's genes are determined to be part of a class or a group or a race or of an ethnicity which pre-programs the child, un-born, to death?

America is being murdered in small pieces. It is seeing its values, its life, its culture disemboweled with the finesse of a skilled surgeon. And it is America's poll takers and its legislators and its uncaring, disinterested, and uninvolved who are handling the scalpel. Take the scalpel away. Contact www.Terrisfight.org to join the Foundation's battle to educate America about the right to live. Go to Terri's Day on www.kevinfobbs.com to learn about new updates on Terri's Day and the event to celebrate the Culture of life.

So on Independence Day and Independence month of July will we have any Americans who will sign up and join the Culture of Life movement in their community? Even if it is to sign a pledge, hand out a flyer, become aware of legislators and judicial candidates who have agreed to stand firm for the Culture of Life — a crusade that is based not only upon the life of Terri Schiavo's legacy but equally crucial based also upon the legacy of the right to live, to defend our culture and the life of its values.

Terri's Day is not the end of a national movement but the beginning of a national contract with itself to stand for a future that our nation can guarantee for its children and for a culture that will insure life. The right to live will be Terri's legacy — our legacy... one nation under God. Join us in your homes, on your family picnics, out camping and celebrating July 14th and 15th ... Our American Culture of Life belongs to each and every one of us... We must protect it. Let's celebrate together.

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 host of The Kevin Fobbs Show: go to: ,www.kevinfobbs.com. To contact him go to: kevin@kevinfobbs.com.

© Copyright 2006 by Kevin Fobbs http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fobbs/060529

[T'wit]

>> You sir, are no Lawrence Welk.

Thank you, thank you. Smoochsmoochsmooch. Slobber. THANK YOU!!

[Jorge]

What is wrong with you? Why do you come to a thread just to be disruptive? Stop baiting and being a nuisance. There are lots of threads that you can be pro-death. This isn't one of them.

You need to grow up and accept the fact that plenty of pro-life people can disagree with you on these issues.

My mother was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, is probably one of the best Christians I have ever known in my life, but absolutely doesn't agree with pulling out all the stops to keep her alive as long as possible.

Who do you think you are to condemn people like her?

I also have a terminal, incurable disease which I have no idea when it will take me and have had to think long and hard about these issues.

How dare you pretend to be so morally superior on these issues that other Republicans not even BE ALLOWED to voice their opinions?

Who do you think you are?

[Jorge]

What a simpleton.

[floriduh voter]

I hope people who follow Terri articles, bloggers, and Free Republic realize that we don't do this for our health or for recreation.

This country is in grave danger and I don't mean just from Al Quaeda. Florida is making leaps and bounds in the wrong direction. Other states if they're smart will not follow its bad example. The corruption here is rampant.

[floriduh voter]

Lots of PBS members don't even realize that Lawrence is deceased. He died awhile ago.

[T'wit]

>> Who do you think you are?

Sober. How about you?

[floriduh voter]

Terri was NOT TERMINAL. She was trafficked into a facility for patients with six months or less to live. Terri Schiavo was trafficked and kept in a room, not permitted to go outside lest someone see that she wasn't PVS at all.

Sorry about your mom but the circumstances are completely different. A feeding tube is not extraordinary measures and Terri breathed on her own.

There is nothing merciful about starving and dehydrating a human being three separate times when she was a devout Catholic who would NEVER have directed anyone to take her life. NEVER.

The high crimes and misdemeanors committed in Florida by Florida to enable Terri's death are too vast to bring to Free Republic.

Pro-lifers do not murder disabled people.

[Admin Moderator]

Knock it off, you're trolling.

[T'wit]

He lives in our hearts. A-one anna two anna three....

[8mmMauser]

I liked the lofely little lemon sisters.....

[justche]

So make your choice to be pro-death for you and your family - but don't try to shout down the people who are pro-life. You can use whatever scripture or "feeling" you want to justify your decision, but at the end of the day, you're still choosing death over life. No one is saying dying with grace shouldn't be an option. The key here is causing someone else to die.

We all have lives, we all have family members that have been near death or have died. When death does come for each and every one of us- I think we all hope it's peaceful and quick.

I have a brother who was in a coma and we were told he was PVS first, then we were told he would never walk or talk or eat. He does all those things now, and is a vital active part of our family. He's not whole, but I'm glad he wasn't married to someone who decided to off him instead of letting us take care of him.

No one wants to be less than whole, and I'm not aware of anyone who wants to be a machine. But no one should be starved to death.

And as I mentioned earlier, there's plenty of discussion pro and con on this site - but this thread in particular is pretty solidly on the pro-life side.

FOr the record, I'm really sorry for the battle your mom is facing. I lost my dad a little over a year ago to a heart attack after years and years of heart issues. I lost a huge chunk of my own heart when he died, and I know how hard it is to watch someone deteriorate.

[floriduh voter]

Michael Schiavo had to travel all the way to TAMPA to find a doctor who would certify that Terri had less than six months to live (MEDICAID FRAUD) when she was trafficked from Palm Gardens nursing home to Hospice Woodside approx. five/six years ago. This is a copy of the referral to Hospice Woodside. Neither ACHA, DOH or Florida's Attorney General or the federal govt ever investigated how a non-terminal patient was trafficked into a terminal facility that didn't have a license for chronic care. When Charlie Crist brags on tv that he cleaned up medicaid fraud, it's a LIE. Terri was defrauded, denied and murdered in Florida. When will the liars be held accountable?

http://www.hyscience.com/photos/gambonerevised.png

[floriduh voter]

Sometimes there are healings and other times, there are not. The latter leads to natural death and in that sense, we are all terminal.

To take someone's life because they take nutrition through a tube instead of with a fork is a crime against humanity. Terri used to eat jello but that probably stopped when Michael stopped all therapy in 1993. Terri didn't stand a snowball's chance being that she was stuck with stupid in Florida.

There are new drugs this year that are working wonders on people who have brain damage. Too bad Terri was struck down before her 42nd birthday for the culture of death which in Florida, includes every branch of govt.

[T'wit]

Snorf!

Ah locked two UFF DA lemon sisterse und one UFF DA lime sisterse und an organch und two grapefroots und

[Jorge]

Knock it off, you're trolling.

In other words even though I've been a FR member for over 6 years, because I disagree with the majority on this issue I am now a troll.

I don't think it's fair, and I'm sorry you all cannot tolerant any dissent on this issue, but I will let sleeping dogs lie.

Have a nice day.

[floriduh voter]

I'm a little bit country, and you're a little bit rock and roll.

[justche]

We are actively watching the new science as it unfolds - It would be dishonest to say we don't hope for some kind of miracle somewhere along this journey for my brother.

I don't think people realize how active people can be that receive their nutrition through feeding tubes.

[T'wit]

>> Michael stopped all therapy in 1993

Bobby S. said in an interview that therapy was stopped in late 1991 (i.e., even before the "malpractice" suit). I hadn't heard that so it got my attention. I have since seen that 1991 date confirmed elsewhere, so that's the one I use.

[8mmMauser]

Arggghhh.

Poor Marie was so innocent, sweet, pure and then suddenly looked really shopworn, overnight. Wonder what happened.

[Jorge]

FOr the record, I'm really sorry for the battle your mom is facing. I lost my dad a little over a year ago to a heart attack after years and years of heart issues. I lost a huge chunk of my own heart when he died, and I know how hard it is to watch someone deteriorate.

Thank you and sorry to hear about your Dad.

It's heart breaking to have to deal with these issues on a personal level and I am quite sure nobody wants to see a loved one suffer unecessarily.

Unfortunately, even though I am going through such a situation now, the moderator once again wants to ban me from these threads because he/she/it doesn't agree with my opinion.

I find that rather sad.