I have really seen things on FR, that I never thought I would see...people on the verge of hysteria, people calling everyone who does not agree with them as 'Nazis', 'Hitler-sympathizers', 'ghouls', 'trolls', and of course, the oft required hurl of 'newbie'...often the poster crying 'newbie', is actually newer than the one he is denigrating...obviously that poster is either too lazy to see when the other poster joined FR, or is too stupid to find out...
And then there is all the gossip, inuendo, and outright lies that have been flying around...I have seen on thread after thread, where posters are claiming that its against the Catholic religion for its members to be cremated...now, that is just not true...I know, because since I am not Catholic, I asked the question about this, and was told by many Catholics that cremation is indeed allowed, and was referred to many Catholic sites stating as much....but there are still those 'liars', or simply 'uninformed' poster, yelling out loud, that its against the Catholic church to be cremated...
And then there are those, who insist on calling Michael Shiavos children 'bastards'....they claim that they are doing so in the dictionary sense...baloney...we all know the Michaels Shiavos children were born out of wedlock...and so what?...there have been posters on FR, who had admitted they had children out of wedlock...should we ping them and to their faces call that child a 'bastard'...I dont think so....Whatever Michael Shiavo has or has not done, his children are innocent, they are not involved in this...
But there are posters who take obvious delight in denigrating these children.....to me, it takes a small, small mind do to such a thing...
And then there are the usual folks calling for an armed insurrection, thereby endangering everyone, including all those folk who are peacefully outside Terris hospice, demonstrating for her life...and the usual cries for boycotting everything from Florida, and encouraging all Floridians to flee, as now 'killers' will go through the nursing homes, and rip out everyones feed tube...nothing like needlessly scaring the old folk...
Look, here is how I feel about this case...its not about what Tom Delay wants, its not about what Pres. Bush wants, its not about what Gov. Jeb Bush wants, its not about what Terris parents wants, its not about what Michael Shiavo wants...and its certainly not about what anyone on FR wants...It should only be about what Terri Shiavo wants...
And at least to me, we do not have a clear cut idea of what she would have wanted...its not clear, not clear at all...and its just my opinion on this, but when we are not sure what she would have wanted, then we must assume that she would have wanted to live, and here I agree with Pres. Bush, we should err on the side of life...
But some of the behavior on FR has been appalling...some of the absolute worst name-calling has been on these Terri threads...people are outright lying about things, people are presenting purely gossip, as being fact, people are just seething...I suppose we could put all this down to people being emotionally distraught...this has been a very sad case, and feelings are raw, on both sides of this issue...I just think there are good people on both sides of this issue, just as there are bad people on both sides...
And yet there have been eloquent posts written by many posters, rationally explaining their position for believing as they do...sometimes its based on their gut feelings, sometimes its based on past experiences with their loved ones in a medical crisis, sometimes we get their real feelings on what they would wish for their own life...
We have seen it all here on FR, the very very good, and the very very bad...
Very well said by the three of you.
Amen.
Verily I say unto you andysandmikesmom, "Amen!"
I'll count you among the very good. If more people like you had been advocating on behalf of Terri's parents instead of the Randall Terrys of this world... who knows...
That is the most sane, logical, and mature thing I've read regarding this Schaivo hysteria that has gripped FR.
Well done.
I was on the losing side during the Elian saga here in Florida, and I remember emotions were running high everywhere... at the grocery stores, at the gym, at work, at social gatherings. Republicans were against Republicans, friends against friends.
Then the election 2000 story broke, and all Republicans banded together again. And all my friends forgave me for my emotional outbursts a long time ago.
Thanks toots...excellent post.
Beautifully stated. I have never seen such vitriol in my entire life. And from so-called Christians yet...that's what is really astounding. This is how the left acts.
Two people have freepmailed me today that they want to leave FR. One of them is leaving the GOP.
The sad thing is that the president and Jeb Bush did what they did to appease the radical 25% within the Evangelical community, and those people are STILL angry and want MORE action. It's Politics 101 that you don't appease the radical 25% of your base. It's what got the DNC in trouble.
That conservatives are endorsing violence, using children to get arrested taking water to Terri, and screaming out dissent on what is basically a discussion board is something that has made me very sad.
There has been a coup on FR and a lot of us have just noticed in the last few days.
AMEN!!!
Good post. Of course this all could have been blunted by attentive moderating. Irresponsible posts and threads could and still can be pulled. Lord knows how many threads and posts of mine have been pulled and none of them were like the garbage we've seen over the past few days.
Absolutely disgusting.
I fervently hope these Freepers flee silently into the night, from which they came, or to wherever they went, that they never utterd a peep about Theresa Schiavo since 2003.
Thank you.
Yours is a rational and compasionate voice.
I too, have felt frustrated and about fed up with FR over all of this.
i especially hold in contempt those posters who, as you note, make a big deal over Micheal Schiavo's kids being "bastards".
Those kids can't help what their father does, nor should they be denegrated because of their unfortunate home ssituation.
And SO many of the posters who get viscious about that are SUCH good "Christians", too! Just ask them, they will tell you. They have all the compassion of a kick in the butt.
(Congratulations, hypocrites! You guys are the major reason I won't have anything to do with an organized religion. )
Anyway, FRiend, thanks for your post.
Bump to the top
Nice summary.
And they call themselves "Christians"?
Painfully true andysandmikesmom. Thanks so much for speaking out.
Very well said. Thank you.
Ping
Thank you and God bless you for being a voice of reason amid the screaming. I have hit the "abuse" button more on Terri threads than I ever have before - not because someone was flaming me (I can take that) but because they were cursing or advocating violence.
For my own sanity, I have learned to ignore any post on a Terri thread that has mote than 10% of the text in ALL CAPS. Keeps the old blood pressure down just a bit.
Howlin directed me to your post #60.
I'm glad she did.