Posted on 03/31/2005 4:49:44 AM PST by Saundra Duffy
TOO BAD JEB BUSH DOESN'T KNOW REAGAN'S SECRET by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr.
March 29, 2005
I know something right now that Jeb Bush doesn't know. I know he made the biggest political blunder of his life when he decided not to intervene and save Terri Schiavo from starving. How can it be that I, a pastor of an inner-city church, thousands of miles from Florida, have knowledge about this that Jeb doesn't have? Simple - I know an old Baptist deacon, and Jeb doesn't.
My old friend is named "Mack." He fought in World War II. When I was 13, he took me to a Baptist church for the first time. I was the boy next door. I became a Baptist preacher as a result of going to church with Mack and his family back in the fifties. His wife died a few years ago and Mack moved back to Vernon, Texas. I call him once a week just to chat. He turned 88 last Friday.
Mack is my weather vane. Whatever he says is what the American people think - in their hearts. He's way more accurate than any CBS poll, because the wording of polls often confuses people. You never get a confused answer from Mack. "Nope, Jeb Bush was wrong. He'll never be President if he doesn't find some way to save that girl." And that is exactly what will happen, because Mack is never wrong - ever - when it comes to knowing what the average American thinks deep down inside.
That's how I know something Jeb Bush doesn't know. See, Jeb has great strategists, genius politicos, the finest advisors money can buy. But he doesn't have Mack - or anybody like him.
That was President Reagan's secret, you know. When Reagan was a young man, he spent a few hours every week in a barber shop in Dixon, Illinois. With an actor's imagination, Reagan was later able to transport himself back to that Dixon barber shop. And in his mind he would ask the old men, Baptist deacons, Sunday School superintendents, gas station owners, druggists - the old men of that small town in the heartland - what they thought he should do. "Fellas, what do you think I ought to do about Terri Schiavo?" Reagan would have asked the old men in the barber shop of his actor's vision. They never let him down - not on Grenada, not on Libya, not on Reykjavik, never! No one ever quite figured out how he always seemed to know what the people in the heart of America wanted him to do. That was Reagan's secret.
But, you see, Jeb Bush was raised a little too high-toned to hang around some old men at a barber shop. He probably had his dad's hair stylist give him a trim now and then. Trust me, a hair stylist is not the same as an old-time barber, and George H. W. Bush, his dad, is not the same as the old men in Reagan's boyhood barber shop. Been in Washington too long. Remember, his dad was the son of a Senator.
I wish Jeb Bush knew a couple of old Southern Baptist deacons - men in their mid-eighties - World War II guys. Just a couple of old Baptist deacons, retired druggists, or gas station owners. There must be a lot of old guys like that up in Jacksonville. He could call Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist there. He could say, "Dr. Vines, I need a couple of real old retired deacons, the older the better. Need 'em just to talk things over once in a while."
It must be old men, remember. Women have a way of being swayed by the sentiment of a twisted poll or slanted news story.
What would those old men tell him? Why, I already know, because I talked to my friend Mack, in Vernon, Texas today. The old men would tell him, "Jeb, get in there and save that girl. Do whatever it takes." That's what a World War II guy would tell Jeb Bush. And if he listened to an old man like that, he'd be a front-runner for President in 2008. The old man would not be fooled by polls. He'd tell Jeb Bush what the Americans really think in their hearts. They'd say, "Yep, that's the way Grandpa would do it. I'm glad there's still somebody around like him." And the red states would turn to crimson - for Jeb.
If he listens to guys like Karl Rove and the "poll watchers" you can kiss him goodbye. He will never again play a major role in politics. Too bad Jeb doesn't know Reagan's secret. That's why he won't send in the National Guard - as Reagan (and Mack) would. And that's why, unlike Reagan, he will never be President.
CLICK HERE TO TELL JEB BUSH THAT REAGAN WOULD SEND IN THE NATIONAL GUARD. JEB BUSH'S E-MAIL IS JEB.BUSH@MYFLORIDA.COM
(END OF ARTICLE)
You can read Dr. Hymers' sermons each week on the Internet at www.rlhymersjr.com. Click on "Sermon Manuscripts."
Since the local cops were not backing down before state officers, he would have had to use the National Guard and force them to withdraw. Had he been bold, the judiciary would have tried to have the Governor arrested. The state police and National Guard would have had to choose sides between the Governor as their commander-in-chief and the decrees of the judges. The last time soldiers had to choose sides in an internal dispute was in the winter and spring of 1861. One scenario would have had Bush in handcuffs in a police car being taken to detention, another gun battles between pro-Bush and pro-judiciary factions in the state police and National Guard. The state of Florida could have descended into a civil war. That would have led to Federal intervention with the Regular Army and the Marines, placing the President in a political dilemma. He, too, might have faced a confrontation with the Supreme Court. Of course, none of this might have happened. The courts might have backed down, or the police might have ignored warrants for Governor Bush's arrest. However, were the courts to back down, it would have been a blow to judicial supremacy. Even if George Greer were to have blinked, judges higher in the food chain would have urged him to issue the warrants.
Yet the time is well past due that judicial power be challenged. When it gets down to the basics, for all their public Christian piety and conservative rhetoric, the Bush brothers are country club Republicans in the mold of their father and grandfather. They are too committed to the existing social order to challenge it.
Alan Keyes is not electable on his own. The paradox is that George Bush and Jeb Bush cannot be elected unless they can appeal to those voters who would be inclined toward Keyes. Governor Bush's failure to challenge judicial supremacy essentially finishes his future career. Republicans who compare evangelicals and traditional Catholics to the Taliban may not like this political reality, but if religious voters desert the GOP or abandon politics entirely, their party will be doomed to long term minority status. The South will revert back to the Democrats, and the Republican Party will be dominant only in the Plains and Mountain States.
The Christian haters among Republicans may say that the Christian Right is acting against their own interests, and they would actually be partially right. However, offering them the stick rather than the carrot is not a good management technique. The country clubbers want to use the stick.
Now who's speaking emotionally? My premise might be Jeffersonian, but to call up the specter of Stalin is silly.
They're not ordering anything. They are reigning in an illegal activity on the part of the Judiciary. The appellate court would only rule if they were petitioned on that singular, isolated point of law, and they perhaps might not even then-- this case has perfectly illustrated the incestuous reluctance of the Judiciary to overrule itself without herculean reasons to do so. And a genuine taboo against limiting the power of judges at any level.
By what premise can a Judge overrule the law (in this case, the law granting DCF the power to act)? Isn't this a case of a regal judiciary, able to decide which laws IT wants enforced or not?
Regardless of the fate of Terri Schindler, the constitutional issues that have been raised in this case call for restoration of the balance of power between the branches. A 'constitutional crisis,' though a scary phrase, might be neccessary to end the increasing autonomy and untouchability of judges ruling beyond their powers.
In any case, following DCF intervention in the case, the matter would be settled as to who acted legally or illegally. Terri Schindler would only be kept alive pending the outcome of those issues.
This is why I voted for President Bush twice & why I have been and still am, supportive of the Republicans - because I trusted they would do the right thing in a case like this. This is what I have feared would always happen & now it's happening right in front of me!
I don't care of the motivations of either the Schindlers or the Schiavos - none of that means anything to me. The more I learn of Terri & see with my own eyes, how long she is hanging in there - I KNOW THERE IS A PERSON IN THERE. A person with an incredible will to survive.
Who are we to say what kind of existence Terri lives in her mind? Most of the mentally retarded people I know (& I know lots) are the happiest people I know. They have far less stress than the rest of us. They say when one is blind, the other senses take over to make up for the lost one. Who's to say, what kind of live Terri may be living in her mind? She may be aware enough to come up with a storyline of existence - could even be like a fairy tale - as long as her basic needs are attended to, she could live a long, healthy life. Very similar to an infant.
And who's to say that like an infant, over time & with positive exposures & therapy, Terri might not even be able to communicate in better ways than she does now?
Who's to say that in the next few years, medical science might be able to help people like Terri?
She might have just gotten to a point where she was resigned to her condition, but still willing to make the best of it. Jesus could have ended his journey early & with a lot less pain & suffering, but he didn't. He chose to walk his journey every step to the end in dignity & grace. I think this is what God wants from each of us. Life is such a precious gift from God, we should be grateful, & show our appreciation by living it out to the end. God gave me life, I want him to choose when to take it away.
I don't want some courts, or some politicians, or some controlling husband who I may have have loved/hated half of the time, or some polls saying whether I should be able to continue to live - or whether the whole world can watch while my urine output is reported and the color of my skin is debated. This makes me sick!!!
Does she not have any rights?
And what are the courts going to do? Send in the U.N.? LOL!
Andrew Jackson stood up the Supreme Court and told them if they are going to make a law, then they can enforce it. Congress made a law that the Courts have refused to enforce, i.e., an order for a DeNovo hearing. Bush can and should "enforce it". He could start by ensuring that the litigant is not starved to death by the courts.
The revolution IS coming.
It's got to start some place.
While that can be argued, my point is that the article is about more than the narrow troops or no troops issue on which you focus. It is about politicians knowing the right thing to do and doing it. Perhaps you might want to follow your own advice and read the article: Mack is my weather vane. Whatever he says is what the American people think - in their hearts.
Once they know the facts, the American people know in their hearts right from wrong. When people begin to realize what was done to Terri Schiavo, they will hold politicians accountable
I was disappointed in Jeb too, but I don't recall hearing him "boasting that he would rescue her."
Here's what happened, according to several sources:
1. The governor's office quietly notified Morton Plant Hospital (the hospital where Terri was taken to have her feeding tube re-connected in 2003) to get ready to receive a patient. DCF agents were already on their way to the hospice to removed Terri.
2. Meanwhile, someone at Morton Plant Hospital, an ally of Death Inc., got wind of the plan and called either Felos or Greer.
3. Greer immediately put out an injunction against DCF's entering and removing Terri from the hospice, beating the DCF agents to the punch.
So while Jeb was holding that press conference, I believe he was fully expecting that Terri was already in the process of being rescued. (I didn't hear him make any claims that he was rescuing her, however.)
What Jeb is guilty of in this (and all pro-Terri parties are guilty of this too) is being caught flat-footed in the planning.
What happened was that we came up against a well-funded, thoroughly planned operation by Death Inc.
Schiavo, Felos, and Greer learned their lessons in 2003 and were dead-set, so to speak, against ever letting another rescue of Terri happen again.
Felos, Greer, Morton Plant Hospital, the "Hospice," the Pinellas Park sheriff (the latter three are in cahoots with the first two) have been working non-stop since 2003 --the last time Terri was rescued-- to make sure no one could get to Terri to rescue her again without bloodshed. They had it all planned to a 't' -- even putting snipers on the roof of that "Hospice."
All this time that we, the pro-Terri people, should have seen the inevitable approaching --the Florida Supreme Court's declaration of Terri's Law as unconstitutional, and the resumed effort by Schiavo, Felos, Greer et al to kill her-- all that time WE were distracted, dealing with other things, etc.
As one of Terri's lawyers, Barbara Weller said: We didn't take this so seriously because we thought someone would come riding in on a white horse to rescue Terri again.
Fatal mistake.
I saw the nurse on FOX the other morning who claimed she had found injection sites on Terri and a used syringe concealed in a waste-basket. Supposedly, the syringe held insulin.
This was after MS had been in Terris room for about 20 minutes with the door closed.
Teh nurse says she reported the syringe to her supervisor
(She was also fired over this, she says)
Now the nurse claims she went to the cops and filed a report.
If that is true, where is the record of it?
Surly somebody has hard-copies?
If MS did this, that is Attempted Murder.
Who took the nurse's statement?
Why has no one filed charges?
This whole case reeks.
Hey, they can't blame me!
I told them they should have voted for General Wesley Clark !
I detest our courts, our judges, and their stooges who participate in THIS MURDER!
TERRI HAS DIED!
SHE IS MURDERED!! JUST ANNOUNCED ON NEWS!
Ditto. Great Post, and very true in my opinion. Reagan would have had a cow about this and Never would have flinched. Its the flinching that gets you when you are a leader. It opens up doubts. This issue is a no brainer. No decent person would allow this to happen on his watch. Jeb and George Bush are fundementally decent men, and they DID act. But they flinched on something that will now characterize our nation. It, along with issues like partial birth abortion, will define our nation and what we stand for. There is a blindness that is spreading throughout our land. An insensitivity to what is right and good, and what is wrong and heinous. I believe in right and wrong. In spiritual battles which go on outside of our view. In a Spiritually good side, and in a dark side. A dark side which feeds and thrives on the sacrafice of innocents. A dark side that packages heinous acts with wrappings of self serving false enlightment. A dark side that whispers in the ears of its unknowing followers. Tickeling thier years with flattery and proclimations of self, and toleration taken to the extreme, and intellectual pride.
My soul crys out for this poor family , I just heard Terri has passed. My sould sinks. Lord Forgive us.
All you say is true, so very sad a legacy.
In the 200+ years of this nation there has not been a single documented execution of an innocent person... until now. We now have witnessed a death warrant carried out against a woman who's only crime was not being able to beg for her own life. Until now that was not a capital crime. Unitl now.
It is a sad day for America. I fear for our posterity.
May God have mercy on our nation.
I will ping you to a euthanasia thread I received on email yesterday. I found it had been an earlier post on FR.
It's troubling, and it agrees with you about fearing for your posterity.
Ditto. God chasten us, and bring us to repentance.
Dan
God bless you. You loved Terri. That's all that matters. We loved Terri. May God have mercy on the souls that participated in this murder of an innocent disabled woman.
The abortionists say, "EVERY CHILD A WANTED CHILD!" So if you're NOT a wanted child, it's okay to kill you. Well, Terri was a WANTED CHILD. Her Mom and Dad BOTH wanted her. But they killed her anyway. God bless the Schindler's.
Thanks for posting the graphics. I will NEVER FORGET. NEVER. Terri is in my heart and on my mind. I will never forget what she went through and her family. Every single person who participated in this murder - including Jeb Bush - will pay a heavy price. A heavy price.
She was TOTALLY innocent. As close to a PERFECT person as humanly possible. She was nothing but sweet and lovely. And those monsters killed her, an innocent young disabled woman. I still can't believe it. But at least we're sure she's with our Lord right now and she is soooooo happy. Those who participated in this atrocity - including Jeb Bush - should be shaking in their boots.
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