Bow Shots - Terry Shiavo & Racial Education Gap

The Conning Tower ^ | Nov. 15, 2003 | Trentino

[Davis]

A: Terri Schiavo

Last I looked, the New York Times under the helmsmanship of Bill Keller, Executive Editor, and Prince Sulzberger, Publisher, has still failed to notice that Terri's guardian, the one person in the world who heard his then 20 year old wife demand that she be starved and dehydrated to death in the event of trauma which might leave her in a persistent vegetative state, is not mourning in solitude. The NYTimes has not reported that Michael Schiavo has formed a quasi-marital union with a woman who has now borne him two children. You can toss this off as "not fit to print," but it surely seems like it's news worth publishing.

Does the Times's persistent omission of Michael Schiavo's not-so-new family status lend credence to a belief that the Times is suppressing it for some ulterior purpose. Answer: yes. What might that ulterior purpose be? By concealing this critical fact, the Times is defending a woman's right to choose abortion, the death of her fetus. This might seem a stretch to you, reader, but to the Times, it's an easy maneuver.

The Times ought to be asking other questions, reporting other facts in the Schiavo case. Why hasn't Michael Schiavo divorced his pvs wife? Why is he so damned insistent on having her die? It's no skin off his ass if she lives. Her parents and others will assume her care and might even try training her to swallow. If that could be managed--it doesn't require a miracle to accomplish--Terri isn't comatose. She's breathing on her own, and her heart, apparently, is fine.

I can answer one of these questions quite easily. Michael Schiavo is refusing to divorce Terri because he doesn't want to cease being her guardian and heir. Once divorced, his right to direct that she be starved and dehydrated to death will end. A new guardian will be appointed. A divorced Michael will not inherit from Terri. Her new guardian may be crass enough to demand an accounting from Michael detailing how the funds, some $750,000 recovered in a malpractice suit, were spent. Think how inconvenient that would be.

It's worthwhile noting, too, that recently questions have arisen as to the cause of Terri's brain trauma. Dr. Michael Baden, formerly New York City Medical Examiner, said on Greta van Sustern's program on Fox that he thought that maybe it was head trauma, a blow to the head, that showed up in a bone scan done 12 years ago, was the cause. A recent column by Nat Hentoff on the Schiavo case is well worth reading..

B. Racial Education Gap

Abigail Thernstrom, is a fellow of the Manhattan Institute. She is co-author with her husband, Stephan, a Harvard Professor of History, of a generally acclaimed book on public education, No Excuses, Closing the Racial Gap in Learning. Recently, she asserted:

"...the national numbers are ... appalling. In fourth grade, 61% of blacks nationwide are "below basic" in math. By the time these students are ready to graduate, only 0.2% have "advanced" skills in that subject.

"Again, Latino scores look only slightly better. Across all subjects, these youngsters are moving into the workplace or on to further education with junior high school skills and knowledge.

This is a heartbreaking picture, and it should have all Americans up in arms. "

Mrs. Thernstrom asks: "Where's the outrage?"

A good question.

Why don't we hear some screams of outrage from the

NAACP, the Black Congressional Caucus, from a host of other black and Latino organizations, from self-elected black leaders like Calypso Louis, and Reverend Al Sharpton?

Has the alliance of the teachers unions with blacks at the core of the Democratic party stymied all efforts to change public schools? Does real change in public education threaten to deprive blacks of the victim status so necessary to their leaders' status?

The answer, I think, is "yes," to both. Pity.

[Wheee The People]

FR is becoming all Terri all the time. It's worse than the OJ/Peterson trials combined.

[Senormechanico]

"FR is becoming all Terri all the time. It's worse than the OJ/Peterson trials combined."


THAT YOU, Michael?
I thought you'd be busy with your new squeeze, and kid.

[netmilsmom]

ping

[TheSpottedOwl]

FR is becoming all Terri all the time. It's worse than the OJ/Peterson trials combined.

Terri's fight for her life isn't exactly in the same category as OJ and Laci Peterson. Nicole and Laci are dead, but Terri is still alive.

Unless you personally don't mind being starved and dehydrated when you become someone's burden, then following up with this story is a priority. Make no mistake, what happens to Terri will effect all of us!

[Davis]

You don't like the Terri story? Scroll down and read this "...the national numbers are ... appalling. In fourth grade, 61% of blacks nationwide are "below basic" in math. By the time these students are ready to graduate, only 0.2% have "advanced" skills in that subject.

That bit of news interesting to you?

[Cicero]

The Terri Schiavo story is extremely important for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it has caused at least a few people to wonder whether if the much-prized liberal "right to die" is really such a good thing.

Then there's Terri herself, as a living person. Some of us would rather not stand by while her husband, his lawyer, and a gang of corrupt judges murder her.

[DumpsterDiver]

In fourth grade, 61% of blacks nationwide are "below basic" in math. By the time these students are ready to graduate, only 0.2% have "advanced" skills in that subject. ... Latino scores look only slightly better.

Across all subjects, these youngsters are moving into the workplace or on to further education with junior high school skills and knowledge."

That bit of news was interesting to me. What college would admit kids with junior high school skills?

[Wheee The People]

a few people to wonder whether if the much-prized liberal "right to die" is really such a good thing.

As a conservative I also claim a "right to die". My life and death belong to me. Not the state, court or the church. I recognize a legitimate right of the state to preserve "life" but it does not override my right to die with dignity when my God and I decide it's time. Terri, according to the court has made that call. I support the right of individuals, including Terri, to death with dignity.

[Davis]

Terri, according to the court has made that call.

How do you or the courts know Terri has made that call? So you trust her husband, the only person who has something to gain by her death, to make that decision? Sorry, Charlie.

[Cicero]

Well, there are conservatives and conservatives.

I don't think you can prevent someone from killing himself, if he is determined to do so. But I'm seriously bothered by people who want to bend the law and wreck the medical profession so they can have company when they kill themselves. Nonconformists used to be noncomformists, but now they all insist on dragging society down with them.

As for Terri Schiavo, there is NO EVIDENCE other than her husband's testimony that she ever expressed interest in being killed. She was a 20-year old woman with no expectation that she would shortly go into a hospital and lie in a coma.

Moreover there IS some evidence that her husband quarreled with her the night she fell ill. And doctors have testified that she seems to have crushed vertebrae in her neck, which could have been caused by someone choking her.

This evidence is not conclusive, because her husband and the courts have prevented it from being followed up. And the head of the board of trustees who run the nursing home, according to newspaper articles published last year, is her husband's lawyer, who is seeking her death.

I'd call that a conflict of interest. And I'm sorry, but the courts are biased. Many liberal judges have a strong commitment to abortion and assisted suicide, and that distorts their handling of cases like this.

[hrhdave]

Yes, there's a conflict of interest, no doubt. And there is evidence to suggest that Terri's trauma was a blow to her head, not the sudden potassium imbalance stories have promoted. Who hit her in the head? Who wants her dead?

[Cicero]

After I posted that comment, somebody posted an article by Nat Hentoff in the Village Voice. He raises the issue that the husband may have tried to kill her in a very explicit way, God bless him!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1023095/posts

[pollywog]

FR is becoming all Terri all the time. It's worse than the OJ/Peterson trials combined.

I dare say, every single thread will be cherished, when it is said that FreeRepublic concervative citizens HELPED SAVE TERRI!! I say keep posting .....we are moving in the right direction!!

[nicmarlo]

And you seem to be on all of them.

[nicmarlo]

ping

[sweetliberty]

"And you seem to be on all of them."

LOL!

[nicmarlo]

[auboy]

Thank you for the link!

[GeekDejure]

What college would admit kids with junior high school skills?

Only the colleges in disgustingly liberalized, once-free America !!!

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