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
Sad news. Lyn Nofziger's life made a difference for all of us. May God bless him and may Terri give him a huge welcoming hug.
Idiots. No, she never had a heart attack. It was known the whole time, from her initial hospitalization to the autopsy. But we can't expect the presstitutes to check their facts, can we? And we can't expect them to tell the difference between a heart attack (myocardial infarction) and cardiac arrest.
I hope everybody notices that that word "collapse" has now become Michael's primary alibi. It implies a natural cause for Terri going down. Therefore, it prevents the mind from thinking that she was assaulted. But there is not an ounce of evidence that she did "collapse" of some medical problem.
Domestic violence is the #1 cause of death and injury to young women. Statistically, if nothing else, it's ten thousand to one that Terri did not "collapse" of natural causes but was assaulted and left for dead, probably by some form of strangulation.
When you have law enforcement that's bought off by the death worshippers, they'll fight w/anyone.
The lies are coming out every time Michael opens his mouth. 1. Schindlers wanted the money. (for her rehab - truth). 2. Bobby fought with a cop. (cop strongarmed Bobby because he wanted to run to his sister's side). 3. I've seen so many fake tears this week by the killer (Mikey's only crying for himself and to sell more books).
I don't know if Matt Lauer is doing the nation a service or a disservice. Michael Schiavo blaming the Schindlers is immature and false. Michael Schiavo had the crooked judges and politicos eating out of his hand. Keep talking Mikey. Your comments are so transparent and false.
The Happy Murderers on tour.
She's ugly inside.
How great a job did Terri's mom do? She dominated the program a lot. Terri had such a close relationship with her mom. A Life That Matters is non-fiction and Mikey's book is pure fiction - a sociopathic chronicle of lies and excuses. My book review for the day.
If the Beyond meant disbarment and jail, I'd say it's a good title for a Felos book.
Terri didn't drool so maybe you'd like to rethink doing that on the 31st.
Then, thank you, Anderson, Anderson Cooper had some of the Schindlers on to tell their side which is the real deal. His opening footage & audio had some errors in it but once the Schindlers were interviewed, they did a great job.
Remember the seminar: What to do about Dying? Mikey should have been the keynote speaker at that. It took him 15 years to kill her. Poor baby. Judge shop and hook up with the ACLU and a living will's not even required.
TERRI WAS MURDERED and she said "Where there's life, there's hope" testimony of Terri's girlfriend that J. Greer ALTERED, which is TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE. Greer changed the date of the statement by Terri and changed her age to make her too young to know what she meant.
Hello, FBI? Felony murder from the bench. Wake up, freepers and lurkers.
Mikey's book will be in a clearance bin real soon. There aren't that many ghouls out there.
Larry King was spouting polls that said Americans wanted the feeding tube pulled. Larry King picked polls that were favorable to Michael. There are MANY polls that showed once they knew the facts and the questions weren't loaded, most Americans believe that Terri was murdered and that it was wrong.
Free Republic had a survey and 87 or 89 per cent of freepers said it was wrong to starve Terri to death.
don't forget Deathknell, the wicked witch with a laptop.
If she was pretending to be asleep, how did she get out in the hallway?
Terri's mom said last night that "only two people know what happened to her and Terri's dead." Did he drag her out of bed and interrupt her pretending to be asleep? She didn't pretend to sleepwalk to the hall.
There will be a 1 year Memorial Mass this Friday, March 31st, 8pm at St. Patrick's in Largo, FL. Presiding will be Fr. Frank Pavone (Priests for Life) and Fr. Euteneuer (Human Life International). Terri's family will be in attendance. This Mass is open to all who supported Terri's fight for life.
Cheryl Ford, RN (www.Fight4Terri.com) is not affiliated with any other group and works to protect the rights of the disabled community
Father Pavone Friday. Sounds good to me.
THIS FRIDAY, A MEMORIAL SERVICE REMEMBERING TERRI'S PASSING
And thanks from all of us for being there at that time! I can't understand why 11-13% of freepers could be against Terri what with all the well-documented information available on this website; but then I wonder whether we have made any progress in getting people who were misled a year ago to now see the truth. Have there been any articles out yet about "Now I understand?", anyone with a Road to Damascus moment?
I invited Gov. Jeb Bush to the Memorial Service. Of course he will not attend. If Extreme Makeover was giving a needy family a fancy, new house, he'd show up for the photo op.
So, watch out for strangers trying to stand by you and strangers with notepads.
Believe it.
See my last. It rings true.
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