Posted on 03/14/2006 11:28:51 AM PST by KevinNuPac
Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify
Kevin Fobbs
March 13, 2006
Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives?
And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can bring to our lives and to the celebration of the Culture of Life.
On March 18th, we as a nation will begin to grieve again, to reach into our hearts and feel with our collective national spirit what the Schindler family felt last year at this time as each moment since Terri was disconnected from the feeding lifeline, the moments crept by like hours and hours like days.
All of us have felt in some way that pain — even if it were only in the privacy of our loved one's home, hospital room, hospice or perhaps talking with an attorney and doctor attempting to make sense out of some fleeting comments made in a conversation perhaps voiced ten, twelve or even two decades earlier — not necessarily an expression of her true feeling about an end-of-life decision but merely an incidental musing in a long-forgotten side conversation.
For at least one million Americans, and quite possibly a whole lot more, this is an opportunity to voice an opinion through a pledge supporting a resolution in each state called "Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life." Each and every person who cares that your family, your spouse, your mother, your father, your sister or brother understands with clarity what you wish the end of life for you to be, with dignity and certainty should sign the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com and take the additional step to sign a Living Will — or as they call it at www.terrisfight.org, the Will to Live.
Some have asked why Americans should care about an annual Terri's Day. It is quite simple, we tend to keep turning the page on the Culture of Life because we feel it does not affect us. We tend to believe that seemingly universal belief that those who are handicapped, those who are not quite living a "perfect" life or by contemporary notion "ideal" then those lives are possibly disposable, marginal, not relevant, and part of the Culture of Death which embraces a "disposable society."
But life and our values for the Culture of Life are not disposable. Think about the young people today who would rather hurt themselves or even take their own lives rather than feel "imperfect" or the elderly person whose family is told by an insensitive health care professional while the stricken person struggles to cling to life, "she would be better off in another place," — just let her die, disconnect her from life, because her quality of life is not up to "contemporary standards. "
Why does celebrating the Culture of Life in Michigan become so essential for all of us in America? It is important for several reasons. Dr. Jack Kervorkian, also known as "Doctor Death" helped launch first in Michigan and then the nation the notion of the death culture. Secondly, and equally as important, at the May 12 event — just two days before Mother's Day — there will also be a "Mary's Moms" celebration of those women and mothers who have met challenges in standing up for some aspect of the Culture of Life.
This past weekend I sat at my cousin's funeral — or going home celebration, which more accurately describes it — thinking about the dearly departed and how she packed so much caring for others into her life even as she struggled with illness and advancing age. She was a wonderful woman who had lived through many, many challenges in her life, but in her 73 years she had met these challenges with dignity and had conveyed to her family when would be the right time to allow her to pass away.
Her daughter, who is a minister, spoke to the packed church about the times when, with all of her pain and then a stroke, the doctors had informed them that perhaps it was better to let her go. Yet that was three years ago that that occurred, and if the family had listened to the doctors and refused to see how she fought back and not only recovered but went back to volunteering at the church to feed and clothe the homeless. The medical professionals didn't care about an elderly lady who was on dialysis, but the family did and they knew better. Patricia lived three more years — years her extensive extended family considered "a gift from God."
So isn't part of the lesson of Terri's legacy and Terri's Day for families and loved ones to have a meaningful conversation with their family and to have the written document on hand as well that conveys the wishes clearly and concisely? You betcha.
As I sat in the church I thought of all of the families across the nation and the world who were sitting at their loved one's bedsides — or even standing outside of a hospital emergency room — overwhelmed with emotion, torn by what may be days of conflicting anguished decisions. I thought again of how out of death we may have the certainty of life. Terri's death reminded the nation that yes a state can and will starve you to death, and your family may be rendered helpless as you watch your loved one's precious life forces drain slowly away.
By signing the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com or going to www.terrisfight.org, you can learn about how to encourage your state legislature to establish March 31st as an official Terri's Day. Hold a Culture of Life Home Party or meet-and-greet to sign pledges, share ideas and support The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation as well as Culture of Life activities and events in your community or around the nation. Between now and March 31st you can make a dramatic difference for yourself, your family and for the nation. Stand up for the Culture of Life because one person, one life, one family can and does make a difference in America. Make the difference and be the difference today. America...The countdown for the Culture of Life has begun.
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Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist for the Detroit News. He is also the daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show online at www.wdtkam.com daily 2-3 p.m., and call in toll-free nationwide to make your opinion count at 800-923-WDTK(9385) © Copyright 2006 by Kevin Fobbs http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fobbs/060313
The cop's investigation was faulty and inadequate, his not even bothering to interview Terri's brother who was on the scene first after Mikey did whatever he did. But the cop did the right thing and referred it to Homicide where it remains as a Cold Case. At the time, it was not a homicide, just unfinished business.
Cheryl Ford in her book lays out a compelling argument for the "Treatment of Strangulation Cases" protocol. Subsequent discovery of the many (10 or more) broken bones all over augurs in the same direction.
March 18th is when the barflies return to Tony and Dot's Paradise Club on the outskirts of Little Rock.
Ah yes. The Scientology angle. Their views on childbirth should send every woman running for the hills. What happens if you need an emergency C-Section???
Gulp. St. John Capistron is on the 28th, uuuuh today.
Shut up and take it like a man.
I just heard that Terri's family will be on Catherine Crier Live coming up now.
Thanks. Tried to watch it. I had posted before that the communist web sites trotted out Catherine Crier more than once and that she was no friend of us. I wish poor Suzanne all graces of the right words, got angry watching how Catherine Crier was manipulating, couldn't watch further.
I hope to hear good news on how the Schindlers fared in the den of the communist supported spokespeople. Just couldn't stomach it. I would have hoped they eschew interviews with such people. Please tell me I should have stayed and watched and seen Suzanne and company put that leftie in her place.
Excellent commentary on the NCG!
I'm going to have to check out that thread later. It looks pretty interesting so far from the few posts that I looked at.
Worth repeating! I'm glad you're here, DG!
Catherine Crier did poor job.
"Today Show interview with Matt Lauer"
The segment I saw showed Matt and MS walking in the cemetary where Terri's headstone is. Ms said he goes there to visit her grave about twice a month but drives by very often.
I've see Mike on TV and IMHO the photo was retouched.
That is what I wondered about. I hope Suzanne's natural grace saw her through the interview and showed Catherine Crier for what she really is. I hope people could pick up on it.
Drinks four or five beers first. He has to keep it watered.
"Last year they turned on the lawn sprinklers...."
And they would have done worse if the could have gotten away with it.
I think Michael did cause Terri's condition. From my "back-in-time" personal files:
Dr. Hamilton, Orthopedic Surgeon, consults Terri a short time after her collapse, on February 25, 1990
While Terri was a patient at Northside Hospital, unbeknownst to Terri’s family, and according to the Northside Hospital discharge summary, Dr. Hamilton, an Orthopedic Surgeon, consulted Terri on May 6, 1990. This was just two months after Terri collapsed (February 25, 1990) and just three days before Terri was discharged from Northside Hospital.
Michael Schiavo, acting as Terri’s guardian and in control of what medical information was revealed, and also any medical decisions regarding Terri’s treatment, did not report this information to anyone in Terri’s family. Therefore, Terri’s family did not have any knowledge that Dr. Hamilton consulted Terri or what was disclosed as a result of Dr. Hamilton’s examination of Terri.
It was only a year later, on March 5, 1991, after Terri was demonstrating painful reactions to physical therapy treatment, that the Mediplex therapist director ordered Terri to have a bone scan.
This bone scan taken of Terri on March 5, 1991, revealed a healed broken right femur bone and healed bone fractures in Terri’s ribs, pelvis, spine and ankle. The injuries more than likely occurred at the time of Terri collapse. The radiologist (Dr. Walker) concluded that "Terri has a history of trauma" and presumed "that the other multiple areas of abnormal activity also relate to previous trauma."
It wasn’t until November 2002 that Terri’s family discovered this information regarding the multiple fractures found throughout her body.
Michael Schiavo never disclosed that Terri had a bone scan image taken just a year after her collapse to anyone in Terri’s family and, as mentioned, never disclosed that Terri was consulted by an Orthopedic Surgeon.
http://www.zimp.org/stuff/10%20-%20DrHamilton.htm
The last time he was on her show, he walked off when she tried to question him. It was hilarious. His lawyer Felos said the reason he walked off was because he was too upset over Jessica Lansford being dead. What nonsense. Seems Felos is none to bright - he should have come up with a better explanation such as his herpes was acting up.
Wendy Murphy really lashed into Mike, summing up what he is like.
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