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
Tom Cruise's remark about eating the placenta started it. The other jokes were about cannibalism, of course.
There is an old story that when Alferd Packer was convicted of murdering (and eating) other miners in Colorado, the judge said to him, "Alferd Packer, you BLEEP BLEEP OF A BLEEP, there were only six Democrats in ____ County and you ate five of them!"
That's not cannibalism, that's redistricting :-)
I'll be driving through a certain long stretch of Canada later this month. My cousin, who takes the same route regularly, sent me a list of every Tim Horton along the way :-) :-)
No need for the second and third words.
That is a lovely letter from Lanore Dixon. May the Lord hear every prayer for Andrea's safety and recovery. Thanks for sharing.
I hope the drain helps. Andrea doesn't sound like a good candidate for surgery at this point in time.
More good news! Scott shows just how far you can come when you have good care and proper therapy. Any word on the "wife"? Is Scott well enough to tell the authorities what happened to him?
That is more than icon bear! Yes, she just named her ziedzwiedrz Wojtek.
Thanks for the good news about Scott. He put a smile on my face too.
hahahaha!
http://victimsoflaw.net/Terri2Archive.htm
Be sure to avoid Patrick Kennedy on the highway.
Empire Journal files have been withdrawn... no surprise there.
Kennedy is proof that people far more comatose than Terri can do quite surprising things. We know it's all reflex, but I, for one, am glad he has the capacity to go out and debauch, terrorize the local population and generally behave like a true Kennedy.
From Lesforlife!
Subject: Re: Andrea Update
Here is an update about Andrea you can pass on and then there is another section that I really need to be passed around the internet.
The procedure went very well, and to my utter delight, when Andrea returned to her room, the hospital had replaced her bed liner with a fresh, clean one. I am on my way to see her today, running a bit late as I had to have some work done on the car this morning.
I'll write more when I get back home to my own computer.
Now the other thing--can you please post and pass it on:
Thank you for all you've done to help my sister. Without your help, as well as the help of many bloggers, list managers, and media people, my sister wouldn't be alive today. As much as you all have done to help, there is one more thing I need to ask of you to help my sister.
Some lists and blogs have included the names of the doctors who have been involved in my sister's care. Without going into detail, the publication of these names is causing complications for the family and perhaps even for Andrea's care. If the bloggers, list moderators and media could purge and withold these names from publication, it would go a long way to help our sister.
We are grateful that St. Luke's has decided to do the right thing by continuing to treat our sister's medical condition as she instructed.
Please pass this on to as many bloggers, lists, and media concerns as you can.
Thanks for all your help,
Lanore Dixon
On 5/4/06, lesforlife wrote: Lanore,
........................
Things are really quiet on the blogs today about Andrea.
I'd love to be able to pass along a good report.
How did the procedure go yesterday?
Is Andrea getting any nutrition?
Father God, we pray your hedge of protection
over this dear woman.
We seek you mighty healing touch for Andrea Clark, Lord.
Please give your divine wisdom and guidance to Dr. Lentz
and the family as they continue to try to nurse Andrea
back to a full recovery.
In Jesus name,
Amen and Amen
8mm
How true.
The right-to-die movement abandons pretense. There is a pretense in contemporary assisted suicide advocacy that goes something like this: "Aid in dying" (as it is euphemistically called) is merely to be a safety valve, a last resort only available to imminently dying patients for whom nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering. Meanwhile, in the real world, the founder of the Swiss suicide facilitating organization Dignitas is just about done with pretense. The Sunday Times Magazine (London) reported that Dignitas' founder, Ludwig Minelli, plans to create sort of a Starbucks for suicide: a chain of death centers "to end the lives of people with illnesses and mental conditions such as chronic depression."
8mm
It sounds vaguely familiar. Meanwhile Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist SWEARS that he doesn't run a Civil Rights Dept. You know, maybe he's right.
When will the Deputies and the nurse be brought up on charges? How many coverups can Florida's politicos do at one time???
I hope Jesse Jackson ties Crist into this death. It will finish Crist's run for governor. Terri's civil rights were violated and so were Martin's. They're both deceased thanks to Crist's lousy work as Fla AG and he wants to be governor? Hah!
DID ANY OF THOSE DEPUTIES DONATE TO CRIST'S CAMPAIGN? I bet they did.
If it's from PINELLAS COUNTY, don't vote for it (that means Rice and Crist).
http://www.baynews9.com (Martin Anderson breaking news)
"The findings of Dr. Vernard Adams regarding the cause of Martin Lee Anderson's tragic and unnecessary death shock the conscience.
"The medical examiner's report represents the first evidence-based indication that Martin's death was not by natural causes, and makes it even more compelling that unanswered questions be pursued as vigorously as possible. I am dedicated to obtaining justice for Martin Lee Anderson, his parents and the people of Florida.
"We are fortunate to have State Attorney Mark Ober leading this investigation, for he is a man of utmost integrity with an abiding commitment to finding the truth. Today's autopsy findings are an important first step toward erasing the doubts that have clouded this case for four months and moving toward appropriate actions based on the evidence."
The Bay County Boot Camp has been closed. It's unclear if any arrests will be made in the case.
“Ohhh, I love to dance a little side-step! Now you see me, now you don’t! I’m here and gone!” --- Best Little Whore House in Florida
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