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
One day, life (or death) may turn the tables on Greer and Felos and they'll have to face what they've done to Terri and the others.
ANDREA UPDATE - MANY PRAYERS NEEDED!!
Leslie,
Andrea had her gall bladder drained yesterday and now
she seems to be getting worse. The doctor thought
that she had a block in her gall bladder, but found
nothing.
Since then, Andrea's white count, which is a signal of
infection, has increased and her blood pressure has
dropped so much that she has had to be put back on the
pressor medications that are so hard on the rest of
her organs.
Her doctor, Dr. Lentz, tells us that unless a miracle
happens, he doesn't expect Andrea to live more than a
few days now.
Please pray for Andrea. She needs all the help that
she can get to get through this.
Melanie Childers
"The findings of Dr. Vernard Adams regarding the cause of Martin Lee Anderson's tragic and unnecessary death shock the conscience.
Man from Glad is bad. www.sorrycharlie.com
Canada Free Press is plagiarizing NCG again.
Andrea had her gall bladder drained yesterday and now she seems to be getting worse. The doctor thought that she had a block in her gall bladder, but found nothing.
Since then, Andrea's white count, which is a signal of infection, has increased and her blood pressure has dropped so much that she has had to be put back on the pressor medications that are so hard on the rest of her organs.
Her doctor, Dr. XXXXXXXX, tells us that unless a miracle happens, he doesn't expect Andrea to live more than a few days now.
Please pray for Andrea. She needs all the help that she can get to get through this.
FV says: What the heck is wrong with Andrea?
and, note that Crist says "doubts" instead of coverup. what a wordsmith he is. reminds me of mikey's crack legal team.
Yes, he said "the conscience." In other words, there is only one, and he doesn't have it. It's locked in a vault below Fort Knox.
Still praying for Andrea.
Original diagnosis was endocarditis but she has a serious bed
sore and this gall bladder complication.
She is only in her early 50s and would have a full
life ahead of her if she survives the previous neglect of
St. Lukes Hospital in Houston.
>>MARTIN LEE ANDERSON'S HILLSBOROUGH AUTOPSY IS IN. SUFFOCATION BY FLORIDA DEPUTIES KILLED 14 YEAR OLD MARTIN. Interesting, the media has not identified any of the sheriff deputies or the nurse who stood by while Martin was schiavoed while in State Custody.<<
Wasn't he beaten and stomped to death?
"" * ANDREA UPDATE - MANY PRAYERS NEEDED!! * ""
Thank you for the udate concerning Andrea. I'm so sorry to hear of her condition.
Continued prayers for Andrea and her family.
Obviously the Law Enforcement Officers were in fear of their lives./s
"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."
"" Interesting, the media has not identified any of the sheriff deputies or the nurse who stood by while Martin was schiavoed while in State Custody. ""
It's totally unreal. Are you serious about Crist saying he doesn't run a *Civil Rights Dept*?? What the heck does he mean by that? Like you said, maybe he means it and doesn't practice or run a Civil Rights Dept??? Just what type of a dept does he run?
Perhaps Fox News will have him on their Sunday morning news show to explain himself. (sarcasm)
I love that photo of the beautiful White Rose. Thanks for posting it. ;)
Leslie,
Please, send the call for prayer out to everyone you
know that has a blog. Andrea has fought so hard for
her life. If there's anyone that can beat this
system, it's that mean little girl, my sister. I wish
I'd never let those butchers at St. Luke's touch her.
Please give the web address below out:
https://www.sleh.com/sleh/SectionSecured/index.cfm?pagename=Send%20an%20eGreeting&PageMD=Families%20and%20Visitors
This is an address that your everyone can go to and
write a message to Andrea. These messages are printed
out and my sister, Lanore, will read them to Andrea.
You just need to fill in her name; you don't need her
room number. Please send her some egreetings of hope.
Please encourage her to fight for her life; as she's
always done.
Thank you and God bless you for all of the help that
you have been to our family.
Melanie
Ping to the Lesforlife post #2,958 above. Andrea is in need of prayers and encouragement.
8mm
Dakota Voice, Carrie Hutchins
GUEST COLUMN 5/06/2006 Have I mentioned lately that the world has gone mad? By Carrie K. Hutchens I was reading some comments on the Andrea Clark case. (Andrea Clark being the woman in St. Luke's Hospital in Houston, Texas. The Andrea Clark who was determined to be a futile care throw-away by an anonymous Ethics Committee. An Ethics Committee that decided she had ten days to get out or be intentionally put to death? That Andrea Clark.)
Some of the comments were about the insurance companies having so much say in what care will or will not be given to "anyone". How the insurance companies are not allowing the doctors to practice medicine and be true physicians to the people in their care. How the insurance companies certainly take those premiums, but don't always so readily uphold their end of the bargain when it comes time to pay out.
Yep, that is what people are saying. Think it might be because it is true? Think there might be something "MIGHTILY WRONG" with the system and laws as they have become?
Have I mentioned lately that the world has gone mad?
8mm
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