Posted on 04/11/2005 3:54:53 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Wake up America . . . the alarm clock just went off and we keep turning over and going back to sleep. There's an "uprisin' on the horizon" and we refuse to face it. Sleeping through it might make it easier, but the end result will be devastating. We've had a lightning bolt cut through the very core of our foundation forming a crack so deep we could topple by our weight of indifference. This ship is listing badly; so tilted we may never be uprighted again.
Our love affair with America is "breaking apart" because our foundation is cracking. The winds of hatred are blowing hard; the thunderous protests have challenged our will, and the disease of apathy is eating away at our very root system. Go ahead and tell me I'm crazy. I'd actually rather hear that than to believe what I know to be true. I can handle my portended lunacy, but the reality of what I see happening before my very eyes is worse than a Shakespearean tragedy.
Last week was one of the most painful times of my life. I have never been on such a roller coaster of emotion and I can't seem to get beyond it. That's an admission I'm not proud to proclaim, but it's the truth. For a person who's always ready for "NEXT, one-two-three, GO," . . . I was stricken with a paralysis. My country was in great distress over a situation that caused everyone to lose. The visuals still play clearly in my mind and are more painful than I can express.
I was one of those people who wanted Terri Schiavo to live. I was one of those people who could not find any joy in Michael's Schiavo's relentless desire to fulfill his wife's "suddenly remembered" request seven years later. And lastly, I was one of those people you told to sit down and shut up. So I did. I needed just a little more time to mourn; it wasn't that easy for me.
With the passing of the Pope two days later, I could not move away so quickly from thoughts of Terri Schiavo's passing. I knew the Pope would be okay, but I wasn't sure about the rest of us.
I've cried in my quiet moments - not only for Terri - but for my beloved country, America.
My own quietness has brought about much anguish for me because I am not a quiet person. It is frightening . . . it is terrifying, for I realize the line has been drawn. The "crack" was so loud when Terri Schiavo died, I believe the Pope hung his head even lower and gave up his own will to fight any longer. He had been so deeply passionate about her life that we may have cast a blow to his. What a tragedy for all of us. What a sad commentary on mankind.
The "crack" became an earthquake forming a deep divide as a line drawn in the sand. Americans are standing strong on the side of what has become their truth. We are no longer able to discern what the truth really is because the clouds have become so dark. There is an expert on every issue arguing both sides, so what is the truth anymore? The steel that crumpled on that fateful day in September of 2001 may be dwarfed in comparison to the crumbling of our nation's structure -- its foundation. It's a slower fall, but it's happening nonetheless, and could be just as fatal. Our "spirit of steel" -- layer by layer, floor by floor -- is crumbling.
It's not only that Terri Schiavo died . . . it's the way we sent her to her death. We stood by watching it happen as if on a daily countdown. We recorded and showed on the nightly news parents and children trying to give her water. I guess we feared she might stand up and walk. That very act defined who we are and makes me ashamed. Those are the pictures that haunt my heart.
Even if you believe Terri Schiavo had a right to die; and even if you believe her husband Michael had the right to stand by her decision to "not live like that;" and you believe her parents were pathetically selfish in not giving her the dignity she deserved in death, do we truly believe she would not want her parents at her bedside when she breathed her last breath? Do we believe that Terri would have refused her own mother's desire to hold her in her arms one last time and say, "I love you, my precious daughter?"
Then we would also have to believe that Terri would tell her family: "You cannot have a funeral with my body -- I want it burned to ashes immediately -- so go have your own service without me." For some strange reason, this was not the Terri who was portrayed to us as the young vibrant woman who went "religiously" with her family to church every weekend, and not the same person who would refuse a funeral service of her own faith?
It's also mystifying how fervent Michael was to carry out her wish of "not wanting to live like that," never considering how he made her die. But he seemed to know his wife so well -- these were surely her wishes.
Her family could not have her in life, nor could they have her in death. We can argue all day about who was right or wrong, but in the end, we became damaged goods. What we did to each other is unforgivable. What we did to Terri is a sin. And where we go from here is petrifying.
The Pope's death has been a celebration of life, but America has suffered a death that can never be celebrated. A part of us died with Terri.
Yes, the Pope is in a better place, and so is Terri Schiavo . . . but not America.
We have lost our way.
Debbie Daniel can be contacted at: dddtx@yahoo.com
No we won't get over it. We will continue our fight to make sure this never happens again.
Even if we save one life, it will be worth it. Though I expect we'll be saving more than one life from these cold blooded murderers.
If she didn't feel pain, then she wouldn't have felt the muscle cramps and therefore wouldn't have needed the morphine. So apparently she could feel pain, Einstein.
You only know the surface.
You appear to think M Schiavo aka HINO is a saint who can do no wrong and who is as honest as the day is long.
You also aren't thinking logically.
Against the death penalty but for murdering innocents in cold blood. Sheesshh
Some will get tired of you trying to shout them down but that doesn't mean you've changed their minds.
You certainly haven't changed my mind.
This just makes me realize how deeply Satan has gotten to people with his evil thinking and ways.
It doesn't terrify me like it has others because I've known about it for a while and I've seen it.
There is no use talking to you two since I can't penetrate your fake reality to reach you. No one can.
Good Day.
Lord, if that ain't the truth. Y'all are the most close-minded folks. Close-minded enough to appear dumb. Change your minds? not a chance! Nor do I desire to shout you down. You have good points which I want you to pursue, especially in regard to re-validating the judiciary.
Good day back atcha.
Lots of people cannot eat the normal way: stroke patients, cancer patients, disabled patients of every stripe. I feel sorry for you that you consider the inability to do something in the "normal" way as a reason to off someone.
Hey, since I pity you for your beliefs, does that mean I should have the right to off you now? Of course not, and it's just as ridiculous that it was mercy to remove Terri's feeding tube without her written informed consent.
Guess I missed this one yesterday. Sorry!
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
You've also shown your complete ignorance of the simplicity of a feeding tube.
Taguba - if you had seen ANY of the videos on her site, terrisfight.org, you'd see how wrong you are. Oh, she interacted, all right. Especially in the video with her laughing at her father talking to her about her lazy eye, asking her if she remembered how she'd tease her mom, and she laughed and said "Yeah!". SHE SAID, "YEAH"! Did you even see THAT one???? She was as alive as you and me. That is NOT pvs or a cabbage? Absolutely not!
http://gnn.tv/headlines/2121/A_Culture_of_Death_Not_Life
Mae Magouirk safe for now. See Tekgnosis for further details.
Tell the Media to report the REAL Schiavo polls!
http://capwiz.com/sicminc/issues/alert/?alertid=7351686&type=ME
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw226586.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/prweb/20050408/bs_prweb/prweb226586_3
My account, etc. of Terri Schindler's Funeral Mass:
http://tekgnosis.typepad.com/tekgnosis/2005/04/terris_funeral_.html
Main page:
http://tekgnosis.typepad.com
Obvious you never did any research.
Nice post! My heart is broken for what we have become. I hope it's not too late to turn this Titanic around.
I wrote to the author....had to...to let her know that her words were my heart.
Thanks again...I would not have missed this for anything.
Surely you jest. I hardly think that this has become the Terri Schindler Schiavo forum that you're thinking it has become. I see plenty of other threads that should interest those who want to discuss something else. One day you may thank those of us who are taking on a different kind of enemy of civilization than you picture it is at the moment.
OFFl----I wept. Again. But just feel so deeply, I dunno, touched ?, perhaps, impacted ?, that others understand and feel so much like I do...I am just beside myself right now.
I cannot stand that we had to sit by and know that the Schindler's, that TERRI, had to suffer so needlessly, and so OUTRAGEOUSLY, under just a travesty of justice there just are not words.
John Paul II understood, as the author stated, and how it hurts to know that Terri's own bishop ran.....even the highest authority in her beloved church, locally, bishop lynch, RAN rather than STAND for Terri's right to review! I dispise him.
It is sad that you think this was about whether someone should have a feeding tube inserted when it isn't wanted or warranted. Somebody has misled you terribly.
Exactly
If you haven't read this, it explains it in great detail, especially the Dred Scott article he wrote. The only people in this country as US citizens that are going to have a "right to life" and "due process" are going to be criminals.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1380607/posts
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