Posted on 04/03/2005 11:09:34 PM PDT by Rastus
It’s one of those moments when the abyss seems to open up at one’s feet. There is no surprise, of course, in the fact that a judge should have affirmed the right of a husband with an obvious interest in getting his wife out of the way to starve her to death just because she is prevented by illness from protesting about it. The ugly fiction of "choice" as the justification for appalling barbarity towards the innocent and helpless has never been more naked, but it has always been pretty apparent to anyone with eyes to see. No, what is shocking, what makes some of us wonder what kind of barbaric world we suddenly find ourselves living in, is the apparent majority of Americans — a large majority, we are told by the pollsters — who are quite happy that what has now been done to poor Mrs Schiavo should have been done to her. And presumably to others in her situation.
Of course it may be the case that Americans have become so desensitized by 30-plus years of legal abortion-on-demand that the brutalization of the culture which opponents of such license have long predicted is already upon us. To some extent, we must be aware that this is true, and the media’s treatment of what amounts to legally-mandated murder can be evidence of nothing else. The ever reliable Tina Brown wrote in the Washington Post on the day of Terri’s death that "It’s become downright harrowing to live in the crucible of these hourly Passion plays.The endlessly repeated tape loop of Terri''s gaping mouth has become as ubiquitous as Starbucks. . ." Downright harrowing, eh? Poor Tina! How hard Terri’s slow death is for her! But I think that a significant proportion of the majority who are supposed to think that the courts were right to give her husband the right to kill Terry Schiavo are not really saying that. Instead, they’re saying that they are tough guys (and gals) and they don’t want the world to think they’re squeamish or wimpish.
My guess is that you would get a very similar number of people answering "yes" to some such question as: "If you were seriously injured to the point where you lost brain function and were reduced to the condition of a vegetable" — the English, for some reason, colloquially insist on specifying the vegetable as a cabbage — "would you want your loved ones to ‘pull the plug’ and allow you to die?" Now that’s not what was happening in the Schiavo case, of course, but there may be another reason for people to pretend it was than mere eagerness to let her husband "get on with his life." For one thing, it’s easy to answer yes. Not only are you not in such a lamentable state when you answer, but it’s very hard to imagine that you ever will be. Nor is anyone ever going to be in a position to accuse you of inconsistency if, should the hypothetical become real, you should change your mind. Either you would no longer have a mind to change, or you would be, like poor Terri, unable to signify that you had changed it.
Yet it is the culturally acceptable answer. It is thought to be both courageous and tough minded to regard life without — fill in the appropriate mental or bodily function here — as being not worth living. That, after all, is why Million Dollar Baby won the Oscars that it did. People, and especially people with a theatrical bent, were disposed to regard the decision of Maggie Fitzgerald, Hilary Swank’s character, to die even though she still had all her cognitive function intact as a good and brave and authentic one. Clint Eastwood, who had defined for a generation of Americans what it meant to be a tough guy, or at least to look like a tough guy, was now telling us that being a tough guy, or looking like a tough guy, means killing oneself rather than submitting to what Maggie tendentiously describes as the "humiliation" of paralysis.
What man doesn’t want to see himself, and to make others see him, as being like Clint? Remember how Bill Murray in Groundhog Day (Schiavo watch was "getting to be like Groundhog Day" wrote Howard Kurtz, also in the Post) dresses up like the Man with No Name in acting out his fantasy? And what woman, now, doesn’t want to look like feisty, beautiful, unconquerable Maggie Fitzgerald? A big part of honor, or the science of looking good in the eyes of those who matter most to us, has always concerned itself about the right way to die. In Roman times and more recently among the Japanese, the suicide of the defeated and humiliated was taken for granted as an honorable obligation, but things have always looked a bit different in the culture of the Christian West. Now that the traditional moral compass supplied by Christianity is gone, however, what we may be seeing in the popular reaction to the Schiavo case is a reassertion of primitive, pagan honor.
Obviously, he hasn't seen the new Zogby POLL which now shows that Americans basically did not believe she should have been starved to death.
The article's from Thursday.
Zogby Poll: Americans Not in Favor of Starving Terri Schiavo (poll with fair questions)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1375888/posts
"If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water," the poll asked.
A whopping 79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken away while just 9 percent said yes.
I just cannot get past this horrifying murder. Life as I knew it, is no more.
Arrest GREER and MS for murder!
To the people who kept fighting to get the message out about what was actually happening, thank you and may you be blessed. To the others...well.
Of course .. but the left slanted their questions to get the response they wanted.
It reminds me of impeachment. The media kept screaming in our face - 75% of the American people do not want Clinton removed from office. However, just one short year later - the very same 75% felt Clinton SHOULD HAVE BEEN REMOVED from office. And .. 2 years later when he left office - his personal popularity rating was STILL 25%.
What interests me here is - it didn't take a YEAR for this correct information to come out - it only took a few days.
I'm finding that very, very interesting.
I also believe Zogby redid the poll because their credibility was waning after the Kerry poll fiasco.
In Australia, one could be forgiven for believing that the MSM are nothing but a tool of the euthanasia lobby. For more than a week, every night on TV news we were told the same 30 second 'story' ...'Terri Schiavo, the brain-dead woman who has been dignosed as being in a Persistent Vegetative State is fighting for her right to die...'
With that kind of pathetic, biased information, any polling results would be utterly worthless. As time passes and the truth sinks in, that Terri was responsive and literally starved to death, opinions will change and the true horror of what she was subjected to will resound not only in the US but AROUND THE WORLD!
Thank you!
"The ever reliable Tina Brown wrote in the Washington Post on the day of Terri’s death that "It’s become downright harrowing to live in the crucible of these hourly Passion plays.The endlessly repeated tape loop of Terri''s gaping mouth has become as ubiquitous as Starbucks. . ."
How very Base, and cruel, can one get?
GEEZ Tina...You heartless BEAST...
At the risk of being banned,
I will tone it down enough to say, that I hope the SAME fate, awaits you..
After all..
A fair exchange is no robbery...
Ms.B
You are so right, they should be arrested for murder. But we can't even prosecute Sandy Berger for stealing classified documents and shredding them. I thought we voted for Republicans...the good guys. At least most of them tried to help Terri but I bet they'll do nothing about this renegade Judge who has now set a precedent to kill inconvenient adults. Disgusting, frightening, shocking, Nazis among us. The gas chamber wasn't as cruel as Greer.
Yes, and considering that the media has been trying to influence the public...seems pretty successfully, for a couple decades that quality of life is the most important issue, no wonder most Americans approve. The media must be proud that they have been so successful.
Well .. there ya go!
Nor can I!!
I've never felt so helpless.....
This, in MY Country....
I would never have thought it possible...
We had better FIGHT..like Hell....
Ms.B
In fantasy land, Hilary Swank's character had to be awake and able to talk to tell Clint Eastwood "Kill Me". In other words, in her noble and courageous state of mind(sarcasm)and of course thought out in about an hour showed that no one brought any other plans to the table that would give hope to her.
I wonder if Hilary, if been given, other choices, would have made her sacrifice?
I'm speechless, MS. B....I knew it was bad, I didn't know it was THIS bad...
I have always considered myself to be a tough old gal, until now. Emotions have run rampant, anger, hope, bitter disappointment, rage and deep sorrow. I have conservative family members that do not see this as an atrocity. I cannot get past it. I thought I knew the ones I love would see how outrageous this was, now I don't know what to think about my own family. We were betrayed by our government and watched helplessly as they worked with Terri's so called husband to kill her slowly.
What an ugly reality we have been forced to face.
I can't, either. Saddam used to injure or kill children, or other family members, in front of their parents as part of terrorism. Now, we do it here.
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