I stuttered again.
An article in the Michigan City Indiana News Dispatch from someone who almost gets it, but rattles off the same platitudes debunked long ago.
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http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2005/07/22/columns/woolsey_leonard___in_plain_view/col37.txt
Terri Schiavo case makes us value life
By Leonard Woolsey, In Plain View
Every once in a while an event crops up that causes each of us to more closely examine our deeply held personal beliefs about life and death. The Terri Schiavo case, for many of us, is one of those watershed moments.
Generally as my 14-year-old son and I drive to school in the morning we talk about whatever seems to be on our minds - school, a television show we watched the night before or a story he ran across about a new computer application nearing its release date. Earlier this week, after a few moments of silence, he brought up the very subject dominating my thoughts as we drove past a dairy farm.
"You know," he said, "I really feel sorry for the family of Terri Schiavo."
Surprised at his ability to seemingly read my mind, I dove into the subject I could not clear from my mind for the past several days.
"I know," I said, "How does anyone ever reach a decision on that without deeply questioning their own personal beliefs about life?"
As the farms passed behind us we talked about Terri Schiavo's quality of life and the excruciating pain her entire family must be dealing with during this entire ordeal.
"You know," I said, "Man cannot create life on a workbench. Only God can create life. If we believe that to be true, then who are we to take a life?"
Nearing the school, my son and I continued to talk about how we - not only as a society, but as individuals - justify our conflicting opinions on the subject of life. How can it be we can feel passionately about protecting newborn life yet accept putting a criminal to death? Or vice versa? Or how is it we can justify the taking of any life - even in the face of war? Mankind is a most hypocritical creature.
The Terri Schiavo case rocks many of us to a core we'd just as well not visit too often. Not only is it deeply personal, but prompts us to provide very painful answers that can easily wilt under the light of scrutiny.
Terry Schiavo is, for all practical purposes, not the same person she was minutes before she suffered the heart attack that left her in her current condition. She was - and still is - a wife, mother and friend. She laughed, cried and loved those around her.
But today, now in a deep and irreversible vegetative state, she is dependent on us to provide her with both food and water to survive. No machine is pumping artificial life into her organs - without that, the life God gave her will be extinguished. The only thing she requires for the life to continue are the basic necessities - food and water - what we faithfully provide for the pets we keep in our home.
Letting my son out at the curb of his school we parted ways both knowing there is no easy answer to the subject - regardless of how many miles we could drive that morning.
Terri Schiavo and her family have gone through a painful decision of life and death. And if there is a saving grace, let it be we are all being invited to once again examine and evaluate our personal value of life. And if that is so, then both God and Terri Schiavo will have reminded us that life is not created on a workbench by the hands of man.
Leonard Woolsey is publisher of The News-Dispatch. You can reach him at inplainview@netnitco.net or at publisher@thenewsdispatch.com.