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
I know I'll get flamed for saying this, but Terri Schiavo was not "killed" or "murdered" or "euthanized". Terri Schiavo was not really living - she was being kept alive by a feeding tube because she could not eat the normal way. I watched my father die 22 years ago after being taken off a respirator that helped him breathe because he could not do so on his own following a massive stroke. He was not "living", in the usual term, but still had to "die". We did not murder him, we did not "euthanize" him, we let Nature or God take her/his course. In my opinion, Terri Schiavo was helped - which should have been done years ago - the same way we helped my father not suffer further. I think Americans who believe Terri Schiavo was done an injustice are wrong. It's hard to understand until you've been there and done it. Just like combat service.
bttt
Well -- Terri was not your Dad, and HER own Mom and Dad wanted her to live, and she wanted to live to. Three times she hung on longer than mortals wishing to die would have been able to.
What if you thought your Dad was still alive, and wanted to live -- yet a roomful of armed men kept you from giving him even one sliver of an ice cube, one sip of water, one spoon of soup. Don't you think that is heartless, no matter how much you wish to be the hero?
Amen. Thank you for saying what I feel.
Terri was not on a respirator. She only needed food and water to live, just like you and I need food and water to live. Terri was not PVS, she was brain damaged. And according to nurses and her family she could communicate. Maybe not as well as you or I but they claimed they could still understand what she meant and or what she wanted.
To refuse her food and water was nothing less then murder by judicial decree. And now are all at risk of losing the same rights that they trampled in committing her murder. We are all no longer safe under our own constitution. They took away her 14th amendment rights. And in doing that we all lost Our rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit to Happiness. And we are now all at risk.
If she was dead already, then why was it necessary to kill her? She wasn't dead. Her husband and the judge made a decision that she'd be better off dead.
And that may or may not be right, but one thing is clear--the law did not authorize what they did. The courts simply did what they always do, i.e. they applied their own "law."
I never said she was on a respirator. I said she could not eat and drink the normal way. Would you like to "live" like Terri Schiavo was? Put yourself in her shoes then try to decide.
So shall we "help" all the chldren with downs syndrome and cerebral palsy, cause surely they're not really "living"?
Terri Schiavo was not on a respirator.
We really don't know how she felt about it. There was nothing in writing, only what her husband told a judge.
Yes! I would like to go on living, even if I were as handicapped as Terri was. And as hard a Terri fought to hang on to her life, it should be clear to all that she also wanted to live. But her estranged husband wanted her dead.
Who would believe that in this country an estranged husband or wife could bring about the murder thought the courts of a person who was basically their ex?
Don't know what you can call it when food and water are taken away and no effort to feed them by mouth is allowed? Looks like murder - same as a parent locking a child in a closet and not feeding them. Terri was not dying - she was judged not worthy of living.
And, just who designated some with the power to decide when others are too worthless to live?
This woman had constitutional rights - same as you and me - and they were denied to her.
The paramount question that is gnawing in anyone of good conscience is- do we in America, deprive someone of food and water as a matter of law as a means to their death?
Therein, lies the assault not only on our Constitution, but our humanity.
Many in America believe its wrong to put a mass murderer to death by means of lethal injection But here, the law says we can take a disabled woman, and torture her to death over a 12 day period.
I still can't believe it happened in America.
Had your father managed to start breathing on his own, would you have stuffed a pillow over his face to ensure that he died? There is a major difference between undertaking a course of action which is likely to result in a person dying from an underying condition, versus taking a course of action that would be 100% guaranteed to kill anyone no matter what their health. Ordering that all means of feeding and hydration, including oral, be denied is the latter type of action.
Funny thing. TS was able to swallow originally, but the ability was lost over the years she spent in the kind care of her medical/legal professionals.
Would you like to live the way the eskimos do - no, do we kill them too?
Frankly I would not like to live the way you do - so I guess I can kill you. After all, who would want to live your life?
So now, you have set up the plateau that if anyone judges that an ill one would not want to live that way (based on their 20-year-old opinion, their 35-year-old opinion), they have the just right to end that person's life - no matter if there is written direction as to what the ill one wants.
How do you prevent men from killing those they want to erase from this earth because of their estates, money, power, jealousy, greed, hate? All men have the right to judge the worth of the sick and take action if they want.
What a wonderful country. And, you and your family are no longer safe from the ghouls of our society.
If my continued existence was giving joy to my loved ones who in turn did what they could for me, why not? Of course, I'd hope that my loved ones would be able to turn on a TV news story saying that the jerk who tried to kill me was safely behind bars, but even without that if my parents and siblings were happy why would I want to deny them the pleasure of my company?
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