Posted on 03/29/2005 2:11:48 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo
What happened? Hello? Hello? Anybody home?
By Governor-elect Jeb Bush
"Talking with a variety of Floridians with disabilities and their families has helped understand a lot more about the lives, challenges and dreams of those with disabilities. However, I know that my education continues with everyone new I meet.
People with disabilities are no different than anyone else. They want to work, have families, and live independently. As Governor, I would work hard to create an environment that gives people with disabilities every opportunity to be independent and play an active role in their communities and in our State.
My first experiences with disability issues were visiting with adults and children with developmental disabilities, their families, advocates, and providers.
I have been impressed by the differences between persons with these disabilities who remain in their homes, receiving community-based support services and similar persons living primarily in institutional or large residential facilities. What I observe is not just a difference in expression, it's a difference in the way they act, how they respond, how they interact with the people around them, how they look, how they talk, and probably in how they will face life with its opportunities and challenges.
I am convinced that, whenever possible, Floridians with disabilities should be able to remain in their communities with their families, friends or roommates and receive the support services they require.
That way, their lives are enriched and they continue to enrich the lives of their families, friends and communities. Of course, in cases of severe and profound disabilities, there may be no option other than a dedicated residential facility. That choice should be preserved.
In order for individuals to be able to live at home or on their own, there must be an excellent, responsive network of support services available to assist them and their families. Funding needs to be shifted to provide the full range of these services. In turn, more individuals can be served and with a broader range of services, such as transportation or respite care that have often been unavailable in the past.
As Governor, I will work to allow individuals with disabilities and/or their families to have more say about what services and necessary treatments are provided, based on each person's professionally identified needs.
This is a time of setting new directions in care for people with disabilities here in Florida. I have reviewed the Governor's Task Force proposal for the future of DD services and I am waiting for an independent study on the future of developmental disability services that was contracted by the Legislature and will be released shortly. Both of these will help a Bush Administration to make detailed decisions to assist individuals with disabilities. My team will also monitor Washington legislation and work with our Congressional delegation to ensure that federal initiatives are responsive to Florida's needs.
On a separate note, I also have come to realize the importance of educating the public about people with disabilities and disability issues. Too often, people react in fear or distaste when coming face-to-face with persons with disabilities. These people simply lack the necessary knowledge to understand persons with disabilities.
If elected, I will work with state agencies and disability organizations to help erase that insensitivity. If people understand more about how to interact with persons with disabilities, their fear will be diminished. That will open up more opportunities for education, employment, and participation in community life.
In addition, I will support educational programs about disabilities in our schools. Young children are especially receptive and accepting, and their understanding will help bring about changes in everyone's misconceptions about disabilities. I would also support efforts to mainstream children with disabilities whenever possible.
Finally, my Administration will support full compliance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This is vital, not just for the individuals themselves, but for the communities that will be enriched and blessed by their contributions and participation in community life.
I know that there are other issues that need to be addressed. The state has complex legal mandates to meet. The waiting lists need to be cut way back. The best way for me to lead on these issues is to continue to learn the people who are living those issues day-to-day, their families, and the professionals who provide the care. Let's work together to make Florida a better home for people with disabilities."
"Terri is not disabled. You may continually try to make it so but it isn't. Terri cannot function on any level other than to breathe. She has no cerebral cortex. For all ostensible purposes she is totally functionless other than to lie there day after day, year after year. If anyone thinks that is merciful, they ought to have their own cerebral cortex examined."
So what? Should she be murdered? Should she not have the right to live her life up until natural death like hopefully the rest of us? Should she not have the love and compassion of her family surrounding her? Should she be treated like the murders on death rows where it could take 20 years or more to finally execute them for their taking of other lives? Please think about this instead of taking an idealic(sp) approach.
Terri is a breathing, living human being like you and me. She is deserving of a life with her loving family.
He decided (in my opinion wrongly) that he cannot act within the rule of law and get Terri's tube back in.
In 2000, Texas executed Gary Graham, a horrific, evil bag of crap. Dubya couldn't have commuted his execution (Texas law allows coomutation only if a citizen board recommends it) but he still came in for massive condemnation in the press by anti-death penalty advocates, civil rights groups, and opportunistic Dems. Jesse Jackson even compared Dubya to Pontius Pilate.
Now, if somebody had played back some speech Dubya made about better race relations (Graham was Black) and said he was a hypocrite, would you have agreed?
If people want to say Jeb is lying when he says his hands are tied, that's fine, though I expect more proof than we're getting. But believing one's hands are tied does not make one a hypocrite.
"Terri is a breathing, living human being like you and me."
Well, not quite. Have you got a working cerebral cortex? I do. As you responded to my comments, I am assuming you have one too. Terri doesn't.
If Jeb had taken her, and she lived, LAWSUIT time.
ANYONE here who thinks he should break the law and take her HAS THAT SAME OPTION
ANYONE here who thinks he has a moral right to take her HAS THAT SAME OPTION.
This Bush bashing has GOT TO STOP!!
Some are in the game, some are in the stands yelling and complaining. I think Monday Morning Quarterbacking is fine if at some point you were on the field. thank you.
It's also plain silly to say that a private citizen has the same power and authority as the governor of a State.
You also seem to be saying that critisizing the government is out of bounds. What country do you think this is, anyway? Saddam's Iraq?
That's not true according to some, do you only read and believe what you want? There are reports that say her cerebral cortex was thinning, however, that's not gone, and who are we to murder someone because they cannot talk or walk, they BREATHE, that alone makes them worth saving! Shame on the US today!
I don't think you'll see a complete and thorough autopsy, isn't going to happen! You may see a partial autopsy but Michael Schaivo won't want you to see a complete autopsy, he wanted her dead too badly!!! Greer wanted her dead too badly too, who do you think the Courts would decide with on this one??????
CT scans are useful for trauma cases. Terri didn’t have a brain trauma, but oxygen deprivation. The neurologists cited by Johannsen specifically mentioned that in oxygen deprivation cases, one needs to perform an MRI and/or PET to get an understanding of the damage to the brain. A CT, in my understanding doesn’t get it done.
With the slight chance that her cerebral cortex is somewhat present, would it not make sense to do the one test that would establish a more exact conclusion? Since your case that Terri a "living being" should be "killed" on your belief she’s dead from a lack of a cortex (?), why not go the extra mile and check?
The courts worked on the poorly gathered conclusive medical information to which they were given. The courts are not doctors and hope that the medical evidence given them is exact..medicine is not an exact science, however. Cases abound of those patients doctors considered were "dead already" and lived to prove their wrong diagnosis.
You can talk till you are blue in the face but some out there just wont' understand that you CANNOT BREAK THE LAW. Jeb did all he could. Rest in peace Terri. I wish for today we could just do nice thoughts and words.
Should Terri had been a terrorist, she would not have had the feeding tube removed...under the Geneva Convention-Re:water and nutrition. ;)
"til we rest in comfortably knowing the truth on which ever side of thinking it should fall. Just my opinion F_T_D"
The truth will out with the results of the autopsy. RIP Terri.
"Cases abound of those patients doctors considered were "dead already" and lived to prove their wrong diagnosis."
The autopsy should answer your concerns shortly. RIP Terri.
"You may see a partial autopsy but Michael Schaivo won't want you to see a complete autopsy, he wanted her dead too badly!!!"
Michael Schiavo has no say in an autopsy, nor about any findings from it. The Medical Examiner is a Jeb Bush appointee. We await the results. RIP Terri.
You, dear lady, are quite naive!
So what. She is still a living and breathing human being like you and me.
So what. She is still a living and breathing human being like you and me.
I don't think your description above fits anymore. RIP Terri.
That's pretty cruel and thoughtless of you.
That's pretty cruel and thoughtless of you.
I'm off these sicko Schiavo threads. Leaving you all to your own devices. Now only responding to those who have commented to me. You are the last comment I've gotten. Please do not respond to this so that I can get the heck out of here. You don't respond, I'm gone. You can complain to your like-minded compatriots on this thread. Leave me out of it now. Don't want to be in the company of so many irrational and delusional posters as on these Schiavo threads. Have a good time grumbling amongst yourselves. Au revoir.
All I am trying to do is explain to you it's not right to murder an innocent person, no matter what physical situation she is in.
And there is no need to get nasty and accuse everyone on this thread.
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.