Posted on 04/02/2005 4:21:37 PM PST by CHARLITE
Many of the regular readers of Col Pappas articles have been asking why they had not seen any new articles from him over the past month or so. Well we are happy to inform you that he is not dead or incapacitated. Col Pappas has been on a vacation in Europe and has come back with a foot locker full of ideas and articles. Here is the first one.....
If the Associated Press Opinion Survey is correct, Americans care little about the matter and most are willing to see Terri die. As far as the adulterous (a violation of Florida Law) husband is concerned, he is granting her "wish" because "he loves Terri." There has to be more to this, and one is likely correct to suspect that it is "money." Why else would Terri's "husband" (and father of two bastard children) work so hard to grant his helpless wife's hearsay wish? Perhaps it is "power" thing, or "hatred" of Terri's parents, or perhaps it is a combination of all the above.
Under Florida Law, absent a Court appointed guardian, the spouse of a disabled person is the one vested with the authority to make health care decisions. Aside. It is interesting to note that Florida's Common Law Marriage was voided after January 1st, 1968, therefore, he is not engaged in bigamy; but an adulterous relationship, roughly defined as one married person engaging in sexual relations with a person who is not his or her spouse, is a violation of Florida Law. It would seem that Terri's parents had grounds to the petition the court to grant their daughter a divorce, given the reasonable assertion that Terri would not have condoned her husband's adulterous relationship, on her behalf assuming that they could have successfully asserted legal standing to do so.
Given the Republican dominated Florida legislature's inability to pass legislation that would require a "living will" to "remove a feeding tube" or to that effect, one wonders about the future of those thousands of the severely developmentally disabled citizens who are residents of special state supported homes who have no more quality of life that does Terri. Will "liberals" of all political stripes collaborate to save hundreds of millions of dollars by "pulling the plug" on them? At what level should any court or person have the right to decide, absent a living will that states with specificity the conditions, when "to pull the plug?"
The President's observation that "we should err on the side of life" is both sound and prudent. Only those who have elevated themselves to the level of playing "God" would act otherwise in such cases. How does anyone know what a mentally afflicted person perceives with such observations as "conscious but not aware?" Such arguments were the gist and grist of Hitler and his gang, and are now wholly embraced by "liberals" and their fellow traveling socialists. Such notions should cause every right (as in logical, correct, truthful) thinking person to shudder.
If history means anything and it does, it was socialists ("liberals" in the present context) of the world: the Nazis, the communists, fascists who have been responsible for the greatest genocides of history. They were and are the purveyors of death visited upon those who would not agree with them; they are the ones who stand good on its head and advance evil as salutary and benevolent; they are the ones who have so infected this nation with evil disguised as good that its future now hangs by a thread; and it is they who stand for Terri to die.
If there is no judgment, there will be no Heaven nor Hell and Terri's husband will suffer no worse eternal fate than Hitler, Stalin or Hussein. But if there is, their fate will be the same; and it's doubtful that it will be a bed of roses. We'll see how the "movie" ends.
Semper Fidelis
Comments: cheetah@gulf1.com
Nailed it
I could not agree more!
Please let it load -- it's 11 mb.
Have headphones or sound on.
special thanks to lafroste for generous technical and web assistance.
Great, great column. Thanks for posting it.
It seems that the parents, for whom my heart bleeds, did attempt this, but that it is necessary that one of the parties to the marriage be the petitioner in their own right, so the effort sadly failed because of their lack of standing.
If Terri had an honest judge, Michael would have been disqualified as guardian and the new guardian would have had standing to qualify for divorce on her behalf.
ping
Somebody can't ask for a divorce on your behalf but they can ask to kill you on your behalf. Is this world upside down or what?
In Florida a friend can testify that you would want to die and they'll pull the tube.
But a friend can't testify that you wanted a divorce and the court won't free you from being at the mercy of an open adulterer who stands to make millions from your death.
The travesties that occur in lower level courts like this mostly go unnoticed. If nothing else, some people have been awakened. It is beyond tragic that it took the forcible killing of a human being to focus some attention on this, and I'm not sure much good will be done because of it, but I have to hope.
I've got to read more about this to see what is true and what isn't. If anyone can point me to some links, I would appreciate it.
It reads, "Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Aramathia. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the holy grail in the Castle of Aaauuuggghhh... "
You're correct. I cannot recall the lawyer's name, though.
You have FreepMail.
Good article.
Richard Pearse. Removed because he didn't think Terri should be starved to death, notwithstanding that the purpose of a guardian ad litem is to fight controversial things a guardian may try to do.
I think Michael had always been her legal guardian, but she also had two guardians ad litem appointed by the court to make recommendations. They did not have any actual authority as far as I know. The first was named Robert Pearse, I think, and when he recommended against removing the feeding tube and noted Michael's conflicts of interest, Michael petitioned to have him removed. The court granted the request, but I'm not sure it was Judge Greer who did the deed. Eventually Jay Wolfson was appointed instead. He had to have known that his predecessor was removed because he recommended against starving/dehydrating Terri to death.
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