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
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I am bookmarking this site! Thanks again, BykerBayb!
Now, that's interesting. Where did Taguba go? Gave up, I suppose.
Re: Greer - anybody seen this yet?
http://tekgnosis.typepad.com/tekgnosis/2005/04/floridah_gov_an.html#comments
While I disagree about some of the comments re: culpability in the comments of this person I wasn't aware of this url he mentions at the end of the comments.
Nuts! Now, I HAVE to leave. Til tomorrow.
You're welcome. Just remember, if you come across any of the other videos that I have broken links to, please let me know.
Of course you'll get flamed. You'll get flamed because you haven't got the sense to understand the difference between removing a dying man from a respirator and starving a disabled woman to death.
>>>Would you like to "live" like Terri Schiavo was? Put yourself in her shoes then try to decide.>>>
So that is what America is about now? The decision of who gets to live and who is forced to die is decided by what 'astounded's' idea of living is.
You are what is wrong with America today. IMO
>>>i mean, like i don't want to seem callous, i was against michael schiavo, but let's move on. >>>
MOVE ON???
It's obvious you have no idea what this site is about.
This isn't JUST about Terri Schiavo, but it IS about the injustice our judicial system has been allowed to perform. What happened to Terri Schiavo should scare the crap out of you. Why don't you read the article, it talks about people like you who want to hit the snooze button while your rights are being taken daily.
Go ahead, hit the snooze again. I'll decide NOT to move on.
>>>So many keep confusing their decisions to let their terminal relatives go with Terri.>>>
You said it!
My mother died from cancer, I would not have considered putting her on any tubes. She was not Terri. Terri was alive and well, just brain damaged.
What is scarier to me is that people like 'astounded' think that the determination of who should live and who should die are other people saying "I wouldn't want to live like that". People are too damn weak in this country and have NOOOO idea under what conditions the will to live is. There are people who say they wouldn't want to live if they couldn't walk, but faced with that situation, changed their mind.
This attitude above is the exact reason I cannot bring myself to listen to Neal Boortz any longer. The fact that he wants the liberatarian 'live and let live', but supports a government enforced murder. He makes me sick.
>>>I'll tell you, the last thing I wanted to deal with while my mother was dieing, was a bunch of government types approving the process.>>>
Well, let's reverse the process. Let's say your mother had a chance of survival, but there was a bunch of government types disapproving of that chance and told you that if you tried to feed her, you would go to jail. How would you feel then?
>>>The entire case showed Boortz for the shockmouth he wants to be, but it was sad to hear such doltish rhetoric from a man who espouses rational thinking.>>>
This is exactly right. He spoke too soon and then his pride wouldn't let him budge.
Pride goeth before a fall and God can humble anyone.
Michael "remembered" only THREE short months after receiving the malpractice $$.
What a coincidence, huh?
I could be wrong on that though
I could be wrong on that though
Actually, it would make sense that Michael did BOTH at the same time.
Here's a "two for."
Please call your Republican Congresspersons AND U.S. senators and tell them to support Tom DeLay.
Get you Congressperson's office number here: http://www.house.gov/ and tell them to support Tom DeLay.
====>> Here's the "two-for" part:
While you are talking with your senator's office, to tell them to support Tom DeLay, please also tell them you want them to vote to end a filibuster by a simple majority as the Constitution requires.
If you don't know your U.S. senators phone number, you can find it here:
http://www.senate.gov/general/conta...enators_cfm.cfm
Whether your U.S. senators are Republican or Democrat, please call them to vote to end the filibusters.
BykrBayb - A lot of those videos are on Terri's site - terrisfight.org. I wish they would post the Lazy Eye video - I feel it's the strongest one yet showing how alert Terri was.
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