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Court order causes hundreds to gather

By AETNA SMITH and DIANE HIRTH
Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat

Hundreds gathered Sunday at the steps of the state's old Capitol to rally against a Pinellas County court order to remove Terri Schiavo's feeding tube Friday.

Some held placards with the words "Rose Rally for Terri" during a blustery, yet sunny, afternoon. Others cried during the event attended by Schiavo's family - parents Bob and Mary Schindler and brother Bob Jr. - and hosted by 12 state-level and national groups including Coral Ridge Ministries, the Center for Reclaiming America and Florida Right to Life.

Gary Cass, the executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America, told a group of more than 500 that the "eyes of the world are watching us." The center, an outreach organization of Coral Ridge Ministries, advocates for pro-life and religious-freedom issues.

"The world is watching how we treat the weak, the disabled, and it will reflect on the consciousness of our nation," he said. "We need to do the right thing. We're here to save Terri's life, but it's not just life for Terri, it's also for people like her."

Members of the 12 groups also are in Tallahassee to deliver long-stemmed roses to state legislators Tuesday. They plan to ask for support of a bill moving through the Florida House that would apply generally to all cases of incapacitated persons being kept alive through water and nutrition tubes. The bill would prohibit removing the tubes unless the person left clear written instructions to the contrary.

John Stemberger, the president and general counsel of the Florida Family Council based in Orlando, said the event was not a protest. Audience members and media came from areas of Florida, Georgia and Louisiana, among other states.

"We have a governor who will do everything necessary to save Terri," he said. "The House is creating a bill to intervene. So what do we have to protest here in Tallahassee?"

The bill Stemberger referred to could affect thousands of individuals in hospitals, hospices and nursing homes. The bill (HB 701) by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, reflects the wishes of House Speaker Allan Bense and Senate President Tom Lee not to pass another bill tailored only to the circumstances of Terri Schiavo.

"Terri's Law," hurriedly passed in fall 2003, gave Gov. Jeb Bush the power to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted after it had been removed based on a court order. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned the law, and Bense and Lee said they prefer to take a more deliberative, broader approach to such highly emotional life-and-death cases.

"I certainly hope that whatever error I make is on the side of allowing someone to live rather than to die," Baxley said last week.

Stemberger also spoke against what he called the misleading information propagated by the media. He said Schiavo is not brain-dead, comatose or in a persistent vegetative state.

"She can laugh, cry, interact," he said. "She is not on artificial life support. She is fed from a tube. There is nothing dignified about death by dehydration or starvation."

Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, told the crowd that he was overwhelmed by their concern for his daughter.

"As Friday approaches, the question we keep being asked is 'How do you feel?' We have faith," he said, his voice cracking. "God is in charge. We're being supported by you people. We're so appreciative of what you're doing. "

His wife Mary said she's been trying to teach her daughter to say "I love you."

"She can say the 'I,' but she's having trouble with the 'love you,'" she said. "She's doing OK. She's a strong lady."

Schiavo did not leave a "living will" stating her wishes in case of incapacity. Since a stroke 15 years ago, she has been declared to be severely brain-damaged and in a vegetative state. Her husband and legal guardian Michael Schiavo said letting her die follows what she told him she would want in such circumstances, but the woman's parents have been fighting to keep their daughter alive. They believe she could benefit from rehabilitation.

The Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition asked the audience to attend a vigil at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Upper Waller Park near the Capitol. Then supporters of the bill will visit legislators with roses.

"The roses are a reminder that if we don't feed and water roses, their beauty will fade," he said. "Likewise, if Terri is denied food and water, she'll fade."

Cheryl Winn and her family traveled from Jacksonville to attend the rally. She identifies with the Schindler family because after her brother's stroke, his insurance company refused to pay for rehabilitative therapy. He died in a nursing home three years ago.

"They said it was too much money to rehabilitate him and that they couldn't do it," she said. "People need to know about this problem. Allowing (Terri) to die is not right. She needs to be with the people who love her."

Meanwhile, last Wednesday's House Health Care Regulation Committee 7-4 vote for the bill split along party lines, as Democrats suggested the proposal was unwarranted government intrusion into families' private lives.

"I believe in life," said Rep. Yolly Roberson, D-Miami. "But I don't believe I have the right to tell someone to hold on or to let go."

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Cheryl Winn attends the Rose Rally for Terri Schiavo on Sunday March 13, 2005, in Tallahassee, Fla. Schiavo has been in a coma for 15 years and the Circuit Court has given permission to remove her feeding tube on March 18, 2005.

LATE NIGHT TERRI PING AND PRAYER. FIGHT, TERRI, FIGHT ON!

Ruling sparks Schiavo rally aimed at blocking her death

Sun-Sentinel/Staff and wire reports
Posted March 14 2005

TALLAHASSEE · Women knelt in prayer and raised their hands to the sky during a rally Sunday set up to urge state legislators and other officials to prevent Friday's court-ordered removal of the feeding tube keeping Terri Schiavo alive.

The brain-damaged woman's parents told the emotional crowd that their daughter still jokes with them and is trying to learn to say "I love you." And religious groups at the rally argued the removal of the feeding tube would be cruel.

"Terri may be disabled, but her life is of great worth to God," James Dobson, founder of the Christian group Focus on the Family, said on a recorded message that was played to the crowd.

Doctors say Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state -- and that any movements or sounds she makes are coincidental and not a result of consciousness. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, contends his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially, and the courts have agreed with him.

Bob and Mary Schindler doubt their daughter had end-of-life wishes and have fought their son-in-law in court for nearly seven years. They also dispute that she is in a vegetative state, saying she laughs, cries, interacts with them and tries to speak.

Bob Schindler said his daughter's situation is "the inception of genocide."

Steve Hering, an engineer who drove from Atlanta to attend the rally, held a sign reading "Criminals and animals don't get starved ... why should Terri?" Another sign read "Stop starving elderly and disabled people."

State legislators are rushing to pass bills requiring doctors to provide nutrition and hydration to incapacitated patients who fail to leave very specific advance instructions. The measure is designed to be retroactive and could apply to Terri Schiavo.

The bill is expected to move through the House in the next few days, and the Senate will likely consider a companion bill this week, said the Schindlers' attorney, David Gibbs III.

Critics of the proposed law say it could force people who thought they had denied such measures to undergo surgery to insert a feeding tube. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has called the measure an assault on privacy rights.

Turning to the Internet, alternative media and grassroots organizations to spread their right-to-life messages has unleashed an avalanche of support for Schiavo's parents. That has ignited not only the legislative effort in Tallahassee, but a national debate on the withdrawal of medically supplied hydration and nutrition, drawing the likes of the Vatican, and on Saturday, actor Mel Gibson, to their cause.

The first goal of the campaign, said Rev. Pat Mahoney, executive director of the Christian Defense Coalition, is to save Terri Schiavo's life. But he and others also hope to roll back the laws and ethical and medical guidelines that have evolved since 1990, when the U.S. Supreme Court recognized artificial sustenance and hydration as medical treatment. That ruling eventually cleared the way for the parents of Nancy Cruzan, the Missouri woman whose case predated Schiavo's, to remove her feeding tube.

Now, patients or their health care decisionmakers in every state have the right to refuse or withdraw artificial feedings under certain circumstances. That is something many of those joining the Schindlers' campaign reject as immoral and inhumane, and a step down the road to legalizing euthanasia.

"I cannot disagree more: Food and water is not medical treatment. It's ordinary care," said John Stemberger, the Orlando-based president of the Florida Family Policy Council. "Our primary interest is what the law should be, not what the law is, and this will be one of our top priorities: to create new public policy."

There were even rose petals at Hospice Woodside yesterday. I kept picking them up and thinking about the roses in Tallahassee. There is so much symbolism around Hospice Woodside that cuts both ways. Seeing trolls in person who were normal people probably days ago, is a real eye opener. satan's having people drive by Hospice for him to scream at Terri's protectors who have all been sent there by God. This isn't about the religious right. It is about GOOD V. EVIL. What denomination doesn't understand that?

That's why we go there to that sarcophagus shaped building - to protect Terri by our presence, to make her family feel better that we are there for them.

When the cops are there Friday, they will be locked and loaded. Death Warrant day for the prisoner is FRIDAY MARCH 18th and the police don't want any trouble while medicaid is beginning the murder inside for the corrupt judge and evil husband and his deranged legal counsel.

IN AMERICA!!!!!