Posted on 08/28/2003 5:20:42 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
Freepers, we may be able to help Terri:
I made some phone calls today and have the ULTIMATE PHONE CALL for registering a Complaint against Judge Greer. I can't reveal my sources but this is the phone number for a few pay grades above J. Greer.
Call the: Judicial Qualifications Commission at
#1-850-488-1581. I am complaining to them tomorrow that J. Greer isn't God, that he's been in the husband's corner since Day One, he doesn't care a wit about Terri's parents or her husband's attempt at medical neglect, and I'd like to know if Greer can be recalled or impeached.
HE SHOULD HAVE OR COULD HAVE HONORED GOV. BUSH'S REQUEST TO ASSIGN A GUARDIAN AD LITEM to represent Terri's interest instead of once again, taking the side of the husband. Judge Greer is from the Sixth Circuit Court, Pinellas County.
Oh, and ping everybody you can think of.
72 posted on 08/27/2003 5:06 PM EDT by floriduh voter
From summer:
"..do a separate thread asking people to call this phone number FV provided. This could get a guardian appointed if the judge is tossed off the case for BIAS."
Background:
In a letter, Bush asked Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George W. Greer yesterday to keep her alive until a court-appointed guardian can "independently investigate the circumstances of this case and provide the court with an unbiased view that considers the best interests of Mrs. Schiavo."
8 From JEB to FR: Full text of Gov Bush's letter to Judge Greer re: Terri Schiavo. Email from Gov Bush to summer, for FR | 8/27
----- Original Message -----
From: [Governor Bush's office]
To: [summer's email]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 8:06 AM
Subject: Letter regarding Terri Schiavo
> August 26, 2003
> The Honorable George W. Greer
> Judge, Sixth Judicial Circuit
> 315 Court Street, Room 484
> Clearwater, Florida 33756
Dear Judge Greer:
> I appreciate the challenging legal and ethical issues before you in the case > of Terri Schiavo. As I have expressed over the course of the past several > weeks, our system of government has committed these decisions to the > judicial branch, and we must respect that process. Consistent with this > principle, I normally would not address a letter to a judge in a pending > legal proceeding. However, my office has received over 27,000 emails > reflecting understandable concern for the well being of Terri Schiavo. > Given that there is no procedural avenue available for these views to be > expressed to you in the normal course of the proceedings, I feel compelled > to write in the hopes that you will give serious consideration to > re-appointment of a guardian ad litem for Mrs. Schiavo before permitting the > removal of her feeding tube or other actions calculated to end her life.
> This case represents the disturbing result of a severe family disagreement > in extremely trying circumstances. Emotions are high, accusations abound, > and at the heart of this public and private maelstrom is a young woman > incapable of speaking for herself.
> I am disturbed by new rumors about the guardian's actions related to the > current care of Mrs. Schiavo. It has come to my attention that Mrs. Schiavo > has contracted a life threatening illness, and that she may be denied > appropriate treatment. If true, this indicates a decision by her caregivers > to initiate an "exit protocol" that may include withholding treatment from > Mrs. Schiavo until her death, which would render this Court's ultimate > decision moot. While the issue of Mrs. Schiavo's care is still before the > Court, I urge you to ensure that no act of omission or commission be allowed > to adversely affect Mrs. Schiavo's health before the September 11th hearing > you have set. No one involved should be permitted to circumvent due process > or the Court's authority in order to achieve personal objectives in this > case.
> Even discounting these rumors, there are a number of factual disputes > regarding Mrs. Schiavo's medical condition, past and current care and > therapy, and her prognosis. Given the contradictory positions of her > guardian and other family members, I respectfully ask that you re-appoint a > qualified guardian ad litem to independently investigate the circumstances > of this case, and provide the Court an unbiased view that considers only the > best interests of Mrs. Schiavo.
> It is a fine balance between Mrs. Schiavo's right to privacy and her right > to life, both of which are co-equal in our Constitution. To err on one side > is to prolong her existence, perhaps against her wishes, and continue the > debate. To err on the other is an irrevocable act that affords no > remediation. I respectfully ask that you give Mrs. Schiavo's family the > opportunity to present any new evidence as to her wishes. Evidence as to > her wishes should be reweighed as often as necessary to take into account > the effect of any new evidence, that is, to determine whether "clear and > convincing evidence" still exists that Mrs. Schiavo would now choose > withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures. While this process may delay the > surrogate's exercise of Mrs. Schiavo's privacy rights, it is necessary to > avoid denying her right to life. I urge you to err on the side of > conservative judgment to ensure that all facts can be uncovered and > considered before her life is terminated.
> I appreciate your compassion for Mrs. Schiavo's plight, and that of the > family members locked in dispute in these tragic circumstances. In light of > the ongoing contention related to so many issues in this case, I hope you > will consider appointing a guardian ad litem to ensure that the ultimate > decision is based on facts presented clearly, unclouded and uncolored by > personal interests of litigants.
> Sincerely,
> Jeb Bush
> cc: Patricia Fields Anderson, Esq.
> George J. Felos, Esq.
(WND article excerpts, cont.:) "On Friday, the Florida Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case, clearing the way for a Sept. 11 hearing in which Greer would set a date for removal of the feeding tube.
Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler of Gulf Port, Fla., have been locked in a decade-long legal battle with their son-in-law over the care and custody of their daughter, who suffered massive brain damage when she collapsed at her home 13 years ago under unexplained circumstances at the age of 26.
***The bitter dispute over Terri's lack of care became a major euthanasia battle five years ago when her husband Michael Schiavo petitioned the court for permission to have her feeding tube removed, claiming she is in a persistent vegetative state and would not want to be kept alive "artificially." The Schindlers and a number of doctors and therapists believe she could be rehabilitated, but the courts have consistently sided with Schiavo and his lawyer, right-to-die advocate George Felos.
~~~~
The article is on CNSNews.com.
Florida Judge Rejects Governor's Bid to Help Terri Schiavo
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
August 27, 2003
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Florida Circuit Judge George Greer Tuesday rejected a plea from Governor Jeb Bush to appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the best interests of Terri Schindler Schiavo, a 39-year-old disabled woman who suffered a brain injury in 1990 under questionable circumstances. Bush had intervened Monday after receiving 27,000 email messages asking for his help on Terri's behalf.
"I read [Gov. Bush's letter] because it came from the governor and I respect his position," Greer told the Tampa Tribune. "Beyond that, it is going in the file."
As CNSNews.com previously reported, Bush wrote Greer Monday asking him not to remove the disabled woman's feeding tube until a new guardian ad litem could "independently investigate" her condition. In the letter, Bush referenced the "fine balance between Mrs. Schiavo's right to privacy and her right to life," which Bush noted are co-equal under the Constitution.
"To err on one side is to prolong her existence, perhaps against her wishes and to continue the debate," Bush wrote. "To err on the other is an irrevocable act that affords no remediation."
But Greer told the Associated Press that he no longer has a choice in the matter.
"Frankly, I think I'm operating under a mandate from the 2nd District Court of Appeals," Greer said, "and frankly I don't think I can stray from that mandate."
In that same interview, however, the judge contradicted his own assessment of the limitation on his authority by stating that he was "not inclined" to appoint a guardian ad litem.
Michael Schiavo called Gov. Bush's intervention on behalf of Terri "crazy."
"The governor has deliberately twisted the facts in this case in an apparent effort to kowtow to his right-to-life political supporters," Schiavo told Tampa Tribune reporter David Sommer. "This has nothing to do with him. He should stay out of it."
Schiavo - who, for five years, has been seeking judicial approval to end his wife's life by denying her nutrition and hydration - also accused Terri's parents of manipulating their Catholic faith to keep their daughter alive.
"I believe in God and so did (?) Terri," Schiavo said, speaking of his still living wife in the past tense, "but they are out to push it on people... suddenly they are on a religious kick."
Judge refuses motion for hearing to set 'death date'
Greer also denied a motion Tuesday to hold an immediate hearing to set a date for the removal of Terri's nutrition and hydration tube. The hearing will be held, as previously announced, on Sept. 11. At that hearing, Greer will also rule on whether Schiavo may legally prohibit Terri's priest from visiting her.
Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, had also petitioned the court Monday to prohibit doctors from caring for Terri's current fever, labored breathing, vomiting, diarrhea and a "substantial infection."
"Given the imminence of the ward's death, further treatment (other than comfort care) for the ward's infection and other medical problems is unnecessary, unwarranted, inappropriate and futile," Felos said in an emergency motion, adding that Terri, "should be put back in hospice and receive comfort care and die in a peaceful setting."
Greer denied that motion, as well.
55 posted on 08/27/2003 5:29 PM EDT by yhwhsman ("Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small..." -Sir Winston Churchill)
Michael Schiavo is using "privacy" as an excuse for denying Terri every contact from the outside world, even flowers. "One sign of the case's nastiness is the Schindlers' complaint that Schiavo limits their visits with their daughter. They also say he has refused to allow doctors to examine her, refused her antibiotics and needed dental work, refused to replace a broken wheelchair so she could be taken outdoors and refused the delivery of flowers from a friend to her room on her birthday."
"Her teeth are fine; she doesn't eat," Michael Schiavo said. "Why take her to a gynecologist? She was supposed to die months ago. I don't want her room filled with flowers from strangers or right-to-life activists. Even though she is vegetative she has a right to privacy."
17 posted on 08/27/2003 10:14 AM EDT by I still care
***
I thought Gov Bush very eloquently made his case here, in this part:
To err on one side is to prolong her existence, perhaps against her wishes, and continue the debate. To err on the other is an irrevocable act that affords no remediation.
18 posted on 08/27/2003 10:14 AM EDT by summer
***
..this judge is going to look really bad if this part is ignored by the judge:
Even discounting these rumors, there are a number of factual disputes > regarding Mrs. Schiavo's medical condition, past and current care and > therapy, and her prognosis. Given the contradictory positions of her > guardian and other family members
21 posted on 08/27/2003 10:17 AM EDT by summer
*** HE SHOULD HAVE OR COULD HAVE HONORED GOV. BUSH'S REQUEST TO ASSIGN A GUARDIAN AD LITEM to represent Terri's interest instead of once again, taking the side of the husband. Judge Greer is from the Sixth Circuit Court, Pinellas County. That is one thing that floors me .. This Judge should have long ago appointed an independent Guardian Ad Litem and not left her husband as her sole guardian .. especially since there are questions about her husband with abuse and the fractured bones that were reveled in xrays of Terry. Everything I have read .. this Judge seems hell bent on having her killed 73 posted on 08/28/2003 2:45 AM EDT by Mo1 (http://www.favewavs.com/wavs/cartoons/spdemocrats.wav) *** I know that Mr. Schiavo has tried to ban Terri's mother and family and priest from seeing her. 27 posted on 08/26/2003 7:34 PM EDT by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US) *** Judge Greer has been with the husband since day one. A guardian ad litem would have been fair for Terri and her parents. Her parents love her but they are treated as the enemy. I'm ashamed this is happening in Pinellas County. 31 posted on 08/26/2003 7:41 PM EDT by floriduh voter
Judge Greer will not appoint a guardian ad litem. I have phone numbers from the phone book for the Clearwater Courthouse and all the guardianship phone numbers. He husband held a presser today and was very flippant about Jeb's letter and called the emailers a "bunch of right to lifers." Hubby is looking a little nervous but with a pal like Judge Greer who is no Judge Moore, Terri has until the September 11 hearing to decide the date her starvation begins. Here are the phone numbers: courthouse - 727-464-3000, guardianship numbers: 727-582-7563, 727-582-7771, and 727-464-8700. We can at least call as friends of Terri and voice our concerns. 25 posted on 08/26/2003 7:34 PM EDT by floriduh voter Freepers, please call the Juducial Qualification Commission regarding Judge Greer: 1-850-488-1581. *** Contact friends, thank those have been fighting on Terri's behalf, including Glenn Beck, Lars Larson, CNS News.com, WND, and Bill O'Reilly. *** Terri Schindler Schiavo's website - background and news updates: www.terrisfight.org *** 8 Terri Schiavo's website Media Contacts Governor Jeb Bush (R) The Honorable(?) George W. Greer Attorney General Charlie Crist
But, I don't know how a court could prevent doctors from ordering therapy, speach therapy (which is often actually swallowing therapy) and most especially oral nutrition.
Office of The Governor
Florida Capitol Building, PL-05
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
(850) 488-7146
(850) 488-4441
jeb.bush@myflorida.com
6th Judicial Circuit
315 Court Street, Room 484
Clearwater, FL 33756
(727) 464-3933
ggreer@co.pinellas.fl.us
Office of Attorney General
State of Florida
The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
(850) 487-1963
Fax: (850) 487-2564
ag@oag.state.fl.us
A persistent vegetative state, which sometimes follows a coma, refers to a condition in which individuals have lost cognitive neurological function and awareness of the environment but retain noncognitive function and a perserved sleep-wake cycle.
It is sometimes described as when a person is technically alive, but his/her brain is dead. However, that description is not completely accurate. In persistent vegetative state the individual loses the higher cerebral powers of the brain, but the functions of the brainstem, such as respiration (breathing) and circulation, remain relatively intact. Spontaneous movements may occur and the eyes may open in response to external stimuli, but the patient does not speak or obey commands. Patients in a vegetative state may appear somewhat normal.
What is the prognosis?
The outcome for coma and vegetative state depends on the cause and on the location, severity, and extent of neurological damage: outcomes range from recovery to death. People may emerge from a coma with a combination of physical, intellectual, and psychological difficulties that need special attention.
Recovery usually occurs gradually, with patients acquiring more and more ability to respond. Some patients never progress beyond very basic responses, but many recover full awareness. [This gradual recovery and thus ability to let someone know what happened to her initially and has occurred since when Michael makes his locked door twenty-minute visits that leave Terri visibly upset is, IMHO, why Michael has withheld rehab and tries his damndest to keep her from getting stimulation!]
Patients recovering from coma require close medical supervision. A coma rarely lasts more than 2 to 4 weeks. Some patients may regain a degree of awareness after vegetative state. Others may remain in a vegetative state for years or even decades. The most common cause of death for a person in a vegetative state is infection such as pneumonia.
Information provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
Civil Rights - Health Care Advance Directives
765.404 Persistent vegetative state. -- For persons in a persistent vegetative state, as determined by the attending physician in accordance with currently accepted medical standards, who have no advance directive and for whom there is no evidence indicating what the person would have wanted under such conditions, and for whom, after a reasonably diligent inquiry, no family or friends are available or willing to serve as a proxy to make health care decisions for them, life-prolonging procedures may be withheld or withdrawn under the following conditions:
(1) The person has a judicially appointed guardian representing his or her best interest with authority to consent to medical treatment; and
(2) The guardian and the person's attending physician, in consultation with the medical ethics committee of the facility where the patient is located, conclude that the condition is permanent and that there is no reasonable medical probability for recovery and that withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging procedures is in the best interest of the patient. If there is no ethics committee at the facility, the facility must have an arrangement with the medical ethics committee at the facility of another facility or with a community-based ethics committee approved by the Florida Bio-ethics Network. The ethics committee shall review the case with the guardian in consultation with the person's attending physician, to determine whether the condition is permanent and there is no reasonable medical probability for recovery. The individual committee members and the facility associated with an ethics committee shall not be held liable in any civil action related to the performance of duties required in this subsection.
History.--s. 33, ch 99-331 __________________________________________________________
Terri's "attending physician" rarely examines her. I've read he sees her only three times a year.
Complaints to The Florida and American Medical Associations should be made on Terri's behalf.
>>who is indicted or informed against for commission of any felony, or for any misdemeanor arising directly out of his or her official conduct or duties<<
-PH-
Can the Attorney General bring up charges against Greer based on his not throwing the case out because of conflict-of-interest type stuff? Michael has a conflict-of-interest in that he already has another "partner". Felos has a conflict-of-interest in that he sat on the Board of the hospice even while he represented Michael. There's just got to be a way to help Terri!
I once knew someone who had a hydraencephalic baby - smart as a whip, could talk, friendly & smiled. He had a very large head, died at a little over a year old.
"Your brain is getting crammed so full," mine too. I am sick of the Florida State pages. They don't make anything easy.
Yeah, right! ROTFLMAO!
"optimum treatment" as defined by Michael Schiavo: kill the b****!
"proper treatment" as defined by Michael Schiavo: any type of treatment or lack thereof which would result in the outcome of "optimum treatment"
Well, at least he got ONE thing right: never hesitating to annoy the nursing staff!
Aha, I think Michael is not making "health" care decisions for Terri. He is making Death decisions for Terri. Any "health" decisions he has made in her regard are not healthy for her!!
This consensus statement of the Multi-Society Task Force summarizes current knowledge of the medical aspects of the persistent vegetative state in adults and children.
The vegetative state is a clinical condition of complete unawareness of the self and the environment, accompanied by sleep-wake cycles, with either complete or partial preservation of hypothalamic and brain-stem autonomic functions. In addition, patients in a vegetative state show no evidence of sustained, reproducible, purposeful, or voluntary behavioral responses to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli; show no evidence of language comprehension or expression; have bowel and bladder incontinence; and have variably preserved cranial-nerve and spinal reflexes. We define persistent vegetative state as a vegetative state present one month after acute traumatic or nontraumatic brain injury or lasting for at least one month in patients with degenerative or metabolic disorders or developmental malformations.
The clinical course and outcome of a persistent vegetative state depend on its cause. Three categories of disorder can cause such a state: acute traumatic and nontraumatic brain injuries, degenerative and metabolic brain disorders, and severe congenital malformations of the nervous system.
Recovery of consciousness from a posttraumatic persistent vegetative state is unlikely after 12 months in adults and children. Recovery from a nontraumatic persistent vegetative state after three months is exceedingly rare in both adults and children. Patients with degenerative or metabolic disorders or congenital malformations who remain in a persistent vegetative state for several months are unlikely to recover consciousness. The life span of adults and children in such a state is substantially reduced. For most such patients, life expectancy ranges from 2 to 5 years; survival beyond 10 years is unusual.
The term "persistent vegetative state" was coined by Jennett and Plum in 1972 to describe the condition of patients with severe brain damage in whom coma has progressed to a state of wakefulness without detectable awareness1. Such patients have sleep-wake cycles but no ascertainable cerebral cortical function. Jennett and Plum thought that patients in a persistent vegetative state could be distinguished clinically from those with other conditions associated with prolonged unconsciousness.
In 1983 the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research accepted the definition of persistent vegetative state proposed by Jennett and Plum and defined unconsciousness as the inability "to experience the environment." In the commission's judgment, a persistent vegetative state is only one form of permanent unconsciousness2. The others include coma after a traumatic or nontraumatic injury, with death occurring before the recovery of sufficient brain-stem function to allow a stable vegetative state; the end stages of degenerative neurologic conditions, such as Alzheimer's or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; coma from untreatable mass lesions such as neoplasms or vascular masses; and anencephaly in infants. Because of the diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic uncertainties concerning the persistent vegetative state, several professional medical organizations began a comprehensive examination of their standards of medical care for patients with this condition3,4,5,6,7. In 1989, the American Academy of Neurology published a position paper that defined persistent vegetative state, classified artificial nutrition and hydration as forms of medical treatment, and stated that patients or their surrogates could decide to terminate treatment and that there were no medical or ethical distinctions between withholding and withdrawing treatment8. A 1990 survey by the American Neurological Association found that 88 percent of responding members agreed with this document9. In a 1991 survey by the Child Neurology Society, 92 percent of respondents agreed with the position paper as it related to adults, but only 72 percent thought that it was applicable to infants and children10. In addition, 75 percent of the respondents to this survey indicated that they would not withdraw nutrition and hydration from children in a persistent vegetative state.
In 1990, the Council on Scientific Affairs and the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs of the American Medical Association issued a report that provided clinical criteria for the diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state and discussed ethical and legal implications of decisions to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging medical treatment -- matters that were receiving widespread attention at the time11,12,13,14,15. In 1991, the United Kingdom's Institute of Medical Ethics Working Party on the Ethics of Prolonging Life and Assisting Death published a position statement indicating that a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state could usually be made with confidence three months after the acute insult but that in young children, the extent of damage and period of recovery were less predictable16. More recently, the British Medical Association's Medical Ethics Committee and the American Neurological Association have published position papers that define criteria for the clinical diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state and address several of the ethical issues concerning the care of patients in such a state17,18.
Because of the acceptance of recent consensus statements concerning guidelines for determining brain death in children19 and the medical aspects of anencephaly in infants,20 the Multi-Society Task Force on PVS was established in 1991 and charged with the creation of this document. Two representatives were appointed from each of the five societies, and an advisory panel of consultants was selected from the related fields of medicine, ethics, and law. The document was approved by the executive committee of each society.
Data reviewed by members of the task force were obtained from several sources, including a comprehensive literature review of all Medline references to the terms "vegetative state" and "persistent vegetative state," a "request for information" published in medical journals supported by the five sponsoring societies, a review of stories in the popular media concerning unexpected recovery from prolonged coma, and data from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Traumatic Coma Data Bank.
This statement by the task force summarizes the medical facts about the persistent vegetative state; it does not address associated ethical, legal, or other issues. The statement is divided into two parts. The first defines persistent vegetative state and related terms and conditions and discusses the epidemiology, causes, and pathological features, as well as ancillary diagnostic studies. The second part addresses the prognosis for recovery and long-term survival of patients in a persistent vegetative state and discusses issues related to pain and suffering and treatment.
Get back to you - there's lots of work to do tomorrow. 'nite
'nite to you, too, Ohio from Florida.
I am! I understand medical terminology far better than legal. I am not in the medical profession, but I used to do medical research many moons ago!
One thing in particular that I find of interest in this article , as pertaining to Terri is this: In addition, patients in a vegetative state show no evidence of sustained, reproducible, purposeful, or voluntary behavioral responses to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli; show no evidence of language comprehension or expression
First off, all those "or"s in there are justification that Terri doesn't need to fulfill ALL of those requirements.
Secondly, if Terri couldn't comprehend language, she wouldn't even attempt to follow directions that are given to her. She wouldn't delight in hearing her mother's voice. (They say that hearing is the last sense to go). She could never have laughed at her priest's joke about singing an Irish song in the Polish tongue! Those who insist that Terri is in a PVS are willingly determined to not see that which is obvious to the rest of us! My husband saw the video of Terri for the first time tonight, and he was disgusted that this case has gone on like this for so long.
It also mentioned in the excerpt survival beyond 10 years is unusual.
I have news for them! The reason Terri has survived for 13+ years is proof that she is NOT in a PVS!!!
I'm just soooo mad at M. Schiavo, Felos, and Greer and anyone else who has purposely hurt Terri! I pray for their souls, because they will need God's mercy greatly!!
However, that is a GOOD question!
There is one among us who claims we are "....close. So close....", offering no direction, save a telephone number of negligible value.
There are others who would present themselves as knowing much, while their writings betray their blindness.
Our collective lesson is learning to separate the wheat from the chaff.
We have a right and a duty, to ourselves and FR, to initially weigh the veracity and relevance of information placed before us.
We are obliged to demand links or sources, before we seriously consider an author's assertions .
In the instant circumstance our avocation is that of Citizen researchers - sharing with FReepers and FR lurkers (worldwide) - the facts surrounding the barbaric treatment an American Citizen for the singular 'crime' of lacking the ability to raise a teaspoon of jello to her lips.
Terri Schindler-Schiavo and her family have been surviving a living hell for the past five years, because our courts and elected representatives have entered into a conspiracy of collusion - with the critical cooperation of the media - toward establishing euthanasia as the final solution to eliminating the presence of the disabled, aged, and those unable to care for themselves.
Officially sanctioned murder of Citizens who are a burden to the state.
Of all the American soldiers who gave their lives to defeat Hitler's Germany, where this was their public policy, how many would have offered to give their lives, if they knew America would be committing the same kind of murder seventy-five years later?
Surprisingly, you wrote, "....It is a thankless task." I don't want to believe you meant it, but.....
Consider the following when you feel unrewarded for your efforts in helping Terri:
Attempt to walk in the shoes of any member of the Schindler family for a moment.
What words would you use to thank unknown Americans for the smallest and greatest individual action and prayer directed to putting a halt to the sub-human psychological and physical torture the State of Florida has been unleashing upon your family and Terri for the past five years.
It's an impossible task, because words are inadequate to communicate the gratitude the Schlinders have for all you've done for them.
Having a sense of that reality is good enough for me.
Today the State of Florida will proclaim the day their slow and horrific death by starvation of Terri Schindler-Schiavo will begin.
May His love compel Terri's executioners to allow her the constant presence of priests of her family's choosing, until she is released from her agony into His eternal embrace.
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