There is a lesson to be learned for conservatives in this Schiavo debacle, no matter how it ends. It is that the state does not care about us - even if it is run by conservatives. Just because we live in a democratically based country, do not make the mistake of thinking that the government is "us". They are not us.
These people are bureaucrats and politicians who will do anything to keep power and who will hide behind thousands of pages of laws and regulations. They scratch and claw to attain power over our lives but then pass the buck off to others in an endless labyrinth of bureacracy in order to avoid making morally difficult decisions that may hurt their chances of staying in power.
They care more about the law than right or wrong. Well, sometimes the law stinks. Morality is more important than the letter of the law. But morality is an inconvenience to the state, it doesn't want to be bothered. There is something wrong with a country's laws when those laws can take precedence over the the relationship between parents and child, that some ex-husband with questionable motives can legally kill someone like this.
Laws are supposed to serve the people. But laws are increasingly being used to serve the status quo of the established elites, who are primarily concerned with not having their boat rocked. The power elites just want the public to shut up and be content with the bread and circuses of ESPN, soap operas, reality TV, celebrities, and whatever other bullsh*t comes their way.
We are becoming less a nation of laws and more a nation of men, passions, and whimsical government. The Constitution is a dead document. We only obey it selectively and when its convenient. We don't obey it in the way we go to war, the way we allow abortion to be legal, the way the courts legislate from the bench, the way we tax and spend.
But thank God that there are still enough people who care enough to force the government to do one thing right, to actually save a life.
I hear what you're saying.
I do believe it is barbaric to starve a person to death.
We put people in jail for doing it to animals.
EXELLENT POST!
YOU NAILED IT ON THE HEAD.