Governor Jeb Bush of Florida and Governor Mike Huckabee are protecting their most vulnerable citizens. Jeb Bush has appealed Terri's Law to the United States Supreme Court and Mike Huckabee recently made the following statement regarding the Medicaid Program ..."You don't pull feeding tubes from people. You don't pull the wheelchair out from under the child with muscular dystrophy."
Please email Governor Bush and thank him for all he is doing and press him to keep fighting for Terri no matter what happens at the U.S. Supreme Court:
jeb.bush@myflorida.com.
Please visit Governor Huckabee's Staff Page and email him a big thank you:
http://www.arkansas.gov/governor/staff
You can join freeper "ohioanfromflorida"'s Ping List or join "floriduh voter"'s Terri's Freepers.
I want to thank Each and Every One of You for all the volunteer hours you have put in!
Keep the Faith and Best Wishes for 2005 from Terri Country,
Floriduh Voter
Code: ZE05012620
Date: 2005-01-26
What the Mentally Handicapped Can Teach Us
According to Jean Vanier, Founder of L'Arche Communities
BARCELONA, Spain, JAN. 26, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Jean Vanier believes he has learned a lot from the poor and the mentally handicapped.
"The poor, the mentally handicapped reveal to me my own poverty and when I discover my poverty, I have greater need of God," the founder of L'Arche Communities told a retreat last weekend in the Seminary of Vic, in Barcelona.
Vanier founded L'Arche in 1964, which now comprises more than 100 homes, with workshops, in 30 countries. The homes offer the mentally handicapped a chance to work and live in community.
"When I started them," Vanier recalled, "I wanted to show the poor how important they were by living with them."
"Then I discovered that that was a way of the Gospel, because the poor make us live in truth," he said. "We are all poor and condemned to death; we are all fragile, we all want to show that we are better than others. Thus, we are always fleeing from what is most important about us and we really don't know who we are.
"Mentally handicapped people show me what my handicap is. Their violence reveals my violence. We begin to discover the truth about our inner self and then we also begin to discover the truth about God."
"The handicapped person who accepts his handicap shows me the difficulty I have in accepting my own weaknesses, in a similar way as people who are dying, who accept their death, reveal to those who are looking after them their own fear of dying," Vanier said.
"This is why L'Arche is a way to God -- a way of the poor, because to accept Jesus we must be poor," he continued. "He himself, who is the beauty of the Word of God, is a great poor one, but a great poor one who accepts the strength of God. There is no Christianity if we do not discover our poverty."
Vanier shared an observation about the recent Asian disaster.
"The collection of such a great amount of money for the tsunami victims shows us many things about solidarity, about the capacity of compassion of the human heart, but also about guilt," he contended.
"As we live so well and have so many things, we cannot watch on television people who have lost everything," the L'Arche Communities founder said. "There is in the human being a desire to help, which is also shown toward handicapped people, but at the same time the latter confront us with our desire to be rid of such different people.
"It is undeniable that the person who is different bothers us, and many handle this by putting such people in institutions or killing them before they are born."
To break the prejudices in regard to handicapped people, Vanier suggested that we "really meet them" and discover what they reveal to us about ourselves and about the presence of God in them.
Vanier recommends not spending too much time wondering about them or engaging in theological disputes, but to spend more time accepting and helping them.
"What is important is not to wonder why there is suffering, but to decide to alleviate it," he said. "What is important is not to wonder about death, but to support people who are dying."
Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida legislature may not know it, but they acted in the spirit of Sir Philip Sidney when they tried to save the life of Terri Schiavo.
When Sidney, a young warrior and poet in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, was mortally wounded in battle, legend has it that he passed up a drink of water in deference to a common soldier who lay nearby in the throes of death.
After his own lingering death, Sidney's body was brought back to England, where he was given a state funeral and held up by his countrymen as a model of virtue to be emulated by all.
Today, Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, is trying to take an action that would reverse Sidney's. Rather than provide water to a stranger about to die, he wants to deny water to his own wife who persists in living. Since 1998, contrary to the wishes of Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, Schiavo has been seeking to remove the nutrition-and-hydration tube that sustains Terri, who became mentally incapacitated 15 years ago when her heart temporarily stopped beating.
On September 17, 2003, a Florida court authorized Schiavo to remove his wife's tube. On October 15, 2003, the tube was removed and Terri began a slow death by dehydration. Six days after that, Governor Bush signed a law enacted by the Florida legislature allowing him to issue a one-time stay of the court order that authorized the removal of Terri's nutrition-and-hydration tube.
Bush ordered the tube restored, and Terri is alive today.
This week, however, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to accept Bush's appeal of a Florida Supreme Court decision that overturned what became known as Terri's Law. Other litigation in the case will continue, but so far the courts have consistently sided in favor of starving and dehydrating Terri Schiavo.
The courts, however, are wrong. And the Florida legislature should not stop fighting them.
The disputants in Terri Schiavo's case disagree on her condition and prognosis. As noted in the petition Governor Bush made to the Supreme Court, some say that "Terri Schiavo is not actually in a persistent vegetative state because she is able to interact with her visitors and caregivers."
But the key point is not disputed: Terri is unlikely to die soon unless deprived of food and water.
Indeed, the purpose of depriving her of food and water is to kill her.
This is not a case about withholding desperate and disproportionate medical treatment from a patient who is destined to die of a terminal illness. Ironically, if Terri were certain to die of disease tomorrow, the purpose of denying her water today would go away.
At its core, this case is about whether one person can make a judgment that another person's "quality" of life justifies taking that person's life.
What is at stake for society here was explained in a brief presented to the Supreme Court by the Catholic Medical Association (Terri Schiavo is a Catholic), which cited a letter published last March by Pope John Paul II in which the Pope said it is wrong to withhold food and water even from someone believed to be in a persistent vegetative state.
"However, it is not enough to reaffirm the general principle according to which the value of a man's life cannot be made subordinate to any judgment of its quality expressed by other men," the Pope said. "It is necessary to promote the taking of positive actions as a stand against pressures to withdraw hydration and nutrition as a way to put an end to the lives of these patients."
The principle the Pope defends is not new. It is the same principle President Bush defended when he addressed the March for Life via phone on Monday. "We know that in a culture that does not protect the most dependent," Bush said, "the handicapped, the elderly, the unloved or simply inconvenient become increasingly vulnerable."
And it is the same principle that Sir Philip Sidney acted on when he sent his drink of water to a dying soldier. All human life is sacred because God made it so, and no man can change that.
Florida's legislature should not surrender this principle to the courts.
Inspired by Terri Schiavo, it should enact a new law.
This time, it should simply say: You may not kill a person through starvation or dehydration.
Copyright 2005, Creators Syndicate.
Terence Jeffrey Archive: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/terencejeffrey/archive.shtml
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/terencejeffrey/tj20050126.shtml
FBI: 1-202-324-3000 demand a criminal investigation of the State of Florida
US Dept. of Justice: 1-202-353-1555 or 1-202-514-2000.
IT WILL BE TOO LATE TO INVESTIGATE IF THIS MURDER BY JUDGE IS ALLOWED TO HAPPEN. Assisted suicide and euthanasia is illegal in the State of Florida. THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING!!!!! IF THEY TRY TO GIVE YOU THE BRUSHOFF, IT WORKS TO SAY YOU ARE A TAXPAYER AND TERRI'S AN AMERICAN WITH RETAINED RIGHTS. You are concerned that Terri's civil rights are being grossly violated.
Tonight, January 27th
at 9:15 PM ET,
Michael Brown will be on the David Allen Show discussing the Terri Schiavo case.
Listen live www.1320thepatriot.com
POINTS OF LIGHT AWARD from Governor Bush
This week's Points of Light recipient is PASTOR LARRY BOLDIN OF FORT WALTON BEACH Congratulations Pastor Boldin!
ANY FREEPERS OVER NEAR OR IN FORT WALTON BEACH? They could call him.
Bumping for Terri.
Terri we love you.
Posted: 1/6/2005 9:34:05 AM
Author: Wesley Fager
GREAT TITLE - CAN'T RECALL
Judge George W. Greer is challenging incumbent Chief Judge David A. Demers for top judge on Florida's Sixth Circuit. In 1992 St. Petersburg Times staff writer Jon East wrote an article about George Greer's first run for a circuit judgeship and titled it Electing judges is a farce. He noted that Greer's only credentials were his well-publicized name as a two-term county commissioner and his "healthy campaign bank account." George Greer had been a zoning lawyer before becoming a county commissioner and had raised his substantial war chest for that run from "developers, contractors, law firms and investment companies."
I do not believe Judge Greer is the best choice for chief judge. The election of the chief judge for the 6th Circuit is the most important selection of a chief judge in all the Florida circuits because of the plethora of bad national press that circuit has received of late. So before stating what's wrong with Judge Greer, I should first state what's wrong with the 6th Circuit.
The skinny on Florida's royal court. In 2002 the Columbia Law School released a study finding that the 6th Circuit leads the nation with an 89% error rate of death sentences. This means that Pinellas County Florida is more likely than any other county in the land to send an innocent man to death. Former 6th Circuit Chief Justice Susan Schaeffer was part of that court before she retired. She personally sentenced so many people to their death (8) that she is known as "Ms. Death." She even wrote a handbook on how to sentence people to death which is required reading for all circuit judges in the state.
In 2003 The Reader's Digest named Judge Charles W. Cope as one of the worst judges in the land after he tried to break into the motel room of a woman. Yet Chief Judge Schaeffer stood by him during his tribulations publicly declaring, "He has one of the best work ethics of all our circuit judges."
The 6th Circuit's current Chief Justice David A. Demers was another Cope enabler. In 2002 former Chief Judge David Patterson committed suicide. Two years ago attorney Leonard Englander convinced 6th Circuit Judge Walt Logan to issue a gag order to silence a man from sounding off about consumer issues with a major furniture company. USA Today did that story. Next year Englander got Judge Logan to sign a gag order to keep a man from sounding off about his client Ambassador Mel Sembler--parts of that story made it to the Washington Post. Later Logan, Englander, the CEO of the furniture company and the son of Mel Sembler served together on a social committee.
There's the misrepresentation by Circuit Judge John Renke III; the endorsement of the controversial Narconon™ program by some justices; and the partnership of the 6th Circuit and Operation PAR, PAR's ties to Betty Sembler, and Betty Sembler's and the 6th Circuit's ties to Straight and The Seed--two defunct juvenile drug rehab programs that closed under charges of child abuse.
Judge George Greer. With all the national attention on the 6th Circuit, the chief justice must be beyond reproach. And Judge Greer is not. By 1992 Pinellas County had 70,000 blacks but there had never been one black county commissioner. That year Sevell Brown of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference asked the U.S. Justice Department to challenge the county's system of at-large elections. One man who could help then was chief county commissioner George Greer who was also chairman of the county's Charter Commission.
In that capacity he could have worked to do away with the at-large system or even to increase the number of commissioners in order to make it easier for blacks to gain a seat. But he did absolutely nothing to help blacks gain a seat. In 2000 Chief Judge Susan Schaeffer lamented that her 6th Circuit had only two black judges. There is still a racial imbalance on the circuit. Thirty-nine percent of those on death row in Florida are black and George Greer is not the man to rectify these problems.
When he was a county commissioner George Greer met with the mayor and two commissioners from Largo, Florida to try to convince them to allow his clients to build more condominiums than codes allow on the golf course they owned. This was at a time when he was a county commissioner who acted on issues affecting Largo.
In 1990 Greer was publicly criticized for being one of four commissioners who took a boondoggle trip to the Cayman Islands ostensibly to look at the water desalinization plants there. The trip cost taxpayers over $4,000. And who can forget The Great Cooper's Point Land Scam when Michael Kenton, a Clearwater County employee, jointly purchased with the Sembler Company a swamp in Pinellas County for $ 1 million. Kenton became a consultant for Sembler and the team almost got away with selling the property overnight to Clearwater, with the help of Kenton's lobbying, for $2.65 million.
But the local press got whiff of the story. Sembler hired attorney Tim Johnson who was the campaign aid for and a good friend of county commissioner George Greer and a $1,000 donor to Greer's camapign. A majority of commissioners including Greer voted to help Clearwater buy the swamp for $ 1.95 million.
Wes Fager
Ed, www.theStraights.com
eMail: wes@wesfager.com
FLORIDUH VOTER SAYS: Mel Sembler is major GOP and that is why the Pinellas GOP Headquarters "hangs up" on republicans who just call to say that they support Governor Bush and Terri Schiavo's right to live and not be starved to death. SEMBLER WAS JUDGE GREER'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR COUNTY COMMISSION. Semblers donates a large space to the GOP every major election cycle. I've been in Sembler's donated space - impressive. When I say republican judges are the ones trying to kill Terri, it is absolutely true. Check out the 89% ERROR RATE.
Govan has a web site with a thank you to freepers and others who delivered 60,000 votes to him. Not enough to combat all the election violations by Greer but 60,000 votes ain't hay. Unfortunately, we are STILL STUCK WITH GREER!
If Jan Govan ever runs again for Judge, please help us get him elected. He could start correcting the Sixth Circuit because he is FAIR, HONEST and INTELLIGENT.
Visit www.jangovan.com
...The case there is that of Terri Schiavo, who as I write, is still the center of a legal battle between the man she married, who wants her feeding tube pulled so she will die, and her parents, who want the husband to drop the case and/or divorce Terri so they can care for her for the rest of her life. He refuses.
The husband, Michael Schiavo, has had a live-in girlfriend for years by whom he has two children. In that light, he's hardly the grieving, heartbroken husband.
And indulge me please, this alert to ALL news organizations, including the networks: Stop describing Terri as being in an irreversible coma or a vegetative state. She is not. She is brain damaged and cannot speak or swallow, but she sleeps and wakes and is responsive to people and her surroundings.
Disabled people beware: The result of this horrific case will definitely affect your fate. It will set a precedent that will certainly end the lives of many helpless people who are deemed by lawyers, courts and others to have lives not worthy of living.
Who decides? Guess.
On the other side of the country, California is faced with dying dilemmas of its own, which ultimately center around the issues of living and dying and, as before, – who, when and how.
Southern California last week experienced a major train wreck – the worst in 50 years. Two commuter trains were involved. Eleven people were killed in the incident in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles, and nearly 200 people were injured. As I write, they're still digging through wreckage for other victims.
The man responsible is 25-year-old Juan Manuel Alvarez – he's in custody for medical evaluation and will be arraigned in February. It's expected he'll be charged with 11 counts of murder with special circumstances. He could face the death penalty.
In the event you're wondering, as am I – in all the news coverage, there is no mention of Alvarez' immigration status or whether he had a drivers license.
The news says Alvarez was trying to commit suicide, parked his Jeep Cherokee on the tracks, but at the last minute changed his mind. He got out in time, left the vehicle and derailed two trains. The state's Public Utilities Commission says California leads the country in train suicides – 120 in the last four years.
Too bad Alvarez wasn't in San Francisco ... he could have used the Golden Gate Bridge, and jumped.
I know! Los Angeles needs a new bridge – it would make it easier for those suicidally inclined and at least only one person would die – the one who wanted to.
Speaking of the Golden Gate Bridge and suicide, the City by the Bay is all in a snit over a film made by Eric Steel. He got permission to film the bridge, but it wasn't the structure he actually wanted pictures of – he filmed attempted and accomplished suicides from it.
From the uproar about it, you'd think he was pushing people off.
It's ignited a renewed battle for suicide barriers on the bridge, something that's been opposed before because it would ruin the esthetics. There are cameras, police patrols and phones, which, we're told, stopped 50 jumpers last year.
Near the bridge is San Quentin Prison where death-row prisoners are housed as well as lifers. Many are old, infirmed and some, reportedly, in comas. Talk is surfacing about the "problem" and, of course, the cost.
Not word, yet, on a final solution.
While all this goes on, two Democrat Assembly members, Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine introduced a bill in Sacramento, which, if passed, would legalize doctor-assisted suicide in California.
In real language, it means doctors would help people kill themselves or just kill people directly.
We are losing the distinction between allowing people to die and killing them, and we're doing it under the guise of "choice."
The pope has just issued another statement affirming the value of life at any stage and he steadfastly opposes euthanasia.
Whooooo! The wind blowing down that slippery slope is strong! Have we hit bottom yet?
Supreme Court justice urges Christians to live fearlessly By PENNY BROWN ROBERTS
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday that people of faith should not fear being viewed by "educated circles" as "fools for Christ."
FV SAYS: JUSTICE SCALIA MUST BE JUST A PLAIN FOOL THEN BECAUSE HE VOTED TO STARVE/DEHYDRATE TERRI TO DEATH.
He fearlessly IGNORED THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and Jeb Bush, Terri's protector.