For Governor Bush to stand by while a court starves this woman to death makes him a party to their crime. He had the ability, he lacked the courage.
Sorry, that's just the way I see it.
Posted on 03/24/2005 5:26:02 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
By the time you read this, Teresa Schiavo may be dead of starvation as required by Florida Judge George Greer. Thousands of people have produced millions of words on this subject. I should write nothing, unless I have more to offer than the MSM (mainstream media). I do.
Personal experience colors what I say. On 1 January 1994, my mother was taken to Mission Memorial Hospital in Asheville with serious injuries from an auto accident. She’d suffered both a heart attack and a stroke after the accident. She was in a coma, but still alive.
Seven years before, her life was saved in that same excellent hospital, by emergency surgery to repair an aorta aneurism. She spent a week in intensive care, and told both her sons that she did not want to be “hooked up to tubes again.” In 1994, my brother was in a different hospital after the accident; decisions on my mother’s care rested on me alone.
Four different medical specialists were called in. I took their advice. I talked to all the grandchildren. Ultimately I made not just one decision, but a series of them, leading directly to my mother’s death, four days later.
I have not yet steeled myself to write the complete history of those four days. Someday I should, because advances in medical care mean that many more Americans will face similar decisions about family members. I understand what Terri Schiavo’s family are going through except the extraordinary time those burdens have been on their shoulders and their hearts.
That said, what can I offer on this subject? For the best medical discussion, I recommend Charles Krauthammer’s excellent column this week. On the legal side, events now are a direct consequence of a legal failure seven years ago, and the arrogance of judges who cannot admit error and merely dispense with the case, rather than take the tougher path and decide it.
The attorneys for Terri’s family should have filed for her divorce from Michael Schiavo seven years ago. He was clearly guilty of adultery. She was clearly blameless. I’m unaware of any divorce action brought by a “next friend” for a woman who cannot speak. But I am aware of divorces the other way – husbands and wives who obtained divorces from spouses who were profoundly disabled, or in prison, or who had disappeared. Turnabout is fair play.
Had Michael been removed as the husband, he would not have been named, or continued, as her guardian. Therefore, what is happening now would not have occurred.
Then there are Michael’s reasons for bias. He had three personal reasons at home (a “wife” and two children). He had hundreds of thousands of reasons in the bank (a million-dollar malpractice settlement). But Judge Greer also had reasons for bias.
In Florida, judges are subject to retention elections. In his last election, Judge Greer received substantial contributions from at least five lawyers who have represented Michael over the years. This is a matter of public records in Florida. None of the MSM have bothered to research and report on this.
Speaking of bias, ABC had its own mini-Rathergate this week. ABC touted a “memo circulated among Republican Senators” which sought to make political hay from Terri Schiavo. The memo is a fraud. It contains references any Senator or staffer would have known not to use concerning legislative business. It also lacks the standard cover sheet and initials of sender for all intraSenate memos. This fraud story was broken by www.Powerline.com; they have the details.
Like CBS, ABC rushed to broadcast with a forged document because it didn’t ask competent experts whether it was false. ABC was in a rush (dare we say biased?) to attack the Republicans. The bias has continued in an ABC poll that misstates the facts of the Schiavo case to produce false results. A day after this memo was exposed as a fraud, Lanny Davis cited it as true on Fox News. Given Davis’s history, that was predictable.
Lastly, on the Internet I’ve seen a brain scan of Terri Schiavo She has a larger gap of fluid than in a normal brain. But I’ve also seen the scan of a woman with a similar void – who was given up for brain dead – who recovered, and who corresponded with me and others and released her medical records, to present an alternative to the assumptions of “experts.”
What we have here is a gross failure of common sense and decency in state and federal courts. Terri Schiavo should be in the physical custody of her parents, who love her, not in the hands of her “husband,” who wants her dead. Her soul now and forever is in the hands of God.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
John / Billybob
You have quite a bit too offer, not the least being this statement.
Thank you.
Amen.
Very well said. But your headline made my heart skip a beat.
Greer is not a state judge as other media have misstated. He is a county probate judge—a step up from a town or village justice and has never had legal jurisdiction in the case as he violated state law and failed to qualify for office. He cannot claim to be a de facto judge as he has never held legal title to the judicial office. A public officer must first be a de jure officer or hold title before he can claim to be a de facto officer. In Greer’s case, by failing to qualify, he should not have even appeared on the ballot and was not legally elected.
And why is no one shouting this from the rooftops?
This whole thing should end with "Judge" Greer being disbarred and Michael Schiavo losing the settlement he got for taking care of Terri "until she dies."
Come on Governor Bush, this man isn't even a real Judge and any of his "rulings" are null and void.
As one true hero said: LET'S ROLL!
Wow, what a nice guy! Thanks for the link.
Thank you for your wisdom and may God always continue to Bless you.
Dear Antoninus,
Well, the next hours and days will tell the tale.
But if Gov. Bush does not take Terri into protective custody before she is murdered, then your image represents the reality of the situation.
Quite ironic, considering the season.
sitetest
Well said. Thank you for posting. I hope that he does not deny them the time to spend with her in peace. He clearly does not have her best interest at heart.
And I suppose you know what's best for Terri, right? Check the mirror: I think you've turned into a nanny-state liberal.
I have emailed, written and made phone call to everyone I can think of about the Terri travesty.
It appears that she will be dead very soon now.
I have always been proud to be an American but now I am ashamed.
Upon learning of her death I will lower the flag outside my home, turn the union down then raise it again and fly it again for 24 hours.
After that I will never fly it again.....
Here is an innocent woman, given up on the altar of the secular death-culture, whose high-priest of the moment is an adulterer presumably ready to sign his name to a check in exchange for his 'story'
I can't help but feel that The Almighty is looking down on all of us, bereft. For the last few years
He has been placing Questions before each of us, to test us; such will be our fate on judgement day
God help us
Superb post, John. I'll pass it along to our allies in Cowboyland and the technology-challenged elders. You have much to offer.
Thank you for writing this. I was reduced to tears when I saw the woman yesterday arrested for trying to carry a cup of water to Terri.
I'm going to trust my gut on this one and say that this is wrong.
Should another court order the tube replaced and additional tests and/or therapy done, and should she improve even minimally, then Judge Greer and all others who agreed with his decisions are now looking at becoming social pariahs.
I have to look at this situation just like any profession where those in power protect their peers.
The last thing that Judge Greer wants is for her to awaken. His career would end quicker than you can imagine. It would also cast a large cloud over the entire judiciary. Why on earth would any higher court want to risk destroying their entire "we know best" gig on a bad decision by one man? If she awakens and says "feed me", the judiciary is finished as a credible entity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.