Posted on 06/05/2005 11:45:26 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
"Too Late To Die Young: Nearly True Tales From a Life," by Harriet McBryde Johnson.
About two years ago, Harriet Johnson appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. If you saw her portrait, you probably haven't forgotten it.
A thin woman in a wheelchair leans forward, a purple shawl draping one shoulder. Johnson describes it this way in her new memoir: "The portrait has been described as beautifully disturbing, and most nondisabled people seem to see it that way. I'd prefer to call it disturbingly beautiful, but I'll take it the other way around if I must."
Johnson has an unnamed muscle-wasting disease, but don't dare say she "suffers" from it. She insists on being her own complicated person, a Southern lady, for instance, as well as a socialist, an atheist, a lawyer and a born storyteller with a wicked sense of humor.
She eschews pity and sentimentality. She supports the work of Not Dead Yet, a group of anti-euthanasia activists who demonstrated outside Terri Schiavo's Pinellas Park hospice earlier this year, dramatically sliding out of their wheelchairs and lying on the ground.
And though Johnson hates the hackneyed trope of triumph in the face of disability, she nevertheless has a string of interesting adventures. She runs for elected office. She travels to Cuba to discuss disability rights. She protests the Jerry Lewis telethon annually in her hometown of Charleston, S.C., and she bribes her friends to join her with promises of free food.
Her gripe with the telethon is its grim prognostications. When she was 30, her mother became ill, and Johnson had to accept for the first time that, contrary to all expectations, she might indeed outlive her parents. "While anyone may die young, it's not something you can count on," she writes. "You have to be prepared to survive." It's that angry, proud but utterly normal brand of survival that is at the heart of Johnson's memoir.
The most fascinating chapter is her encounter with the philosopher and animal rights activist Peter Singer. (It was this encounter that rated The New York Times Magazine cover.) Singer believes that in some cases it is morally acceptable for parents to kill severely disabled infants. Johnson disagrees, so much so that she fears even debating him would dignify his ideas as socially acceptable. Nevertheless, she meets him, travels to Princeton University to debate him and ends up with a great story about it.
The best memoirs don't necessarily tell every event in a person's life, but they do capture the voice and the emotional feel of the author. Yes, it's impossible for a nondisabled person to fully know what Johnson's life is like. But her writing is so vibrant, so interesting and so funny that you can't help but feel as if you're in her world, sitting beside her and hearing her story for yourself.
When I am 101 years old (were I to live that long), I could log on to FR and there still would be a Terri Schiavo supporters thread. None of that thread would make any sense, as the 101 year old's thought processes would be considerably diminished, but so are the thought processes of those on these Schiavo threads today, so I suppose nothing would be any different. I'm very curious as to how much longer this subject can be stretched out. Forever, I'm afraid, but I guess it gives great pleasure to those with nothing better to do in life than feed off of what was someone elses's life, now deceased.
Guess you miss the point of the threads totally. You will never live to be 101 if the people that killed Terri have
their way.
RN Ford Comments: Note the dates of when Schiavo says Terri left the earth. If he truly felt that, I wonder how he justified upsetting the lives of two physicians in a med mal suit, and taking all that money from an insurance company in 1993. If this marker doesn't summarize the entire story of how his mind works, and who he is, nothing will ever awaken America to Terri's tragic story. He kept his promise? To whom?
The first expose and sourcebook on the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case! Discover the true facts behind the most significant legal battle over constitutional rights of the disabled in history. Read the actual documents. Discover the dangers all Americans face with Terri's death!
You will never live to be 101 if the people that killed Terri have
their way.
That has got to be one of the silliest statements I've heard. Do you realize how ridiculous the above statement you made is? How totally ridiculous. "If the people that killed", is this your fantasy conspiracy theory? Have you no logic, no sense of the rational? Geez....
Well, thank you for bumping the post and helping to keep it going!
My aunt actually lived to 103 and never would follow such a thing either. But I am a Christian and Catholic and she is not. That probably makes the difference with my aunt, anyway.
I am glad you pointed out how durable this topic is. The mark Terri has made on us and the whole world is powerful, indeed.
8mm
8mm
"Gov Jeb Bush approves "hearsay" bill"
This is sickening. I guess Jeb Bush took some polls.
Your kind of people appeared on the Scott Peterson thread also, who had nothing better to do than to complain that we discussed the case.
Many of us are horrified that an innocent person was dehydrated. And Terri's fate has numerous other implications that might have an impact on our lives, such as the appointment of a guardian. I'm sure you wouldn't want someone as sadistic as Michael Schiavo to be your guardian.
One interesting recent development is Mark Fuhrman's book, "Silent Witness."
I am glad you pointed out how durable this topic is.
Well, as eventually you will all be speaking only to the choir, the point of these threads will become moot. Jumped on, and now gladly will jump off. These threads are all the same. A lonely hearts club for people who get all of their meaning in life from living through another's. Buh bye.
Old news and views, is no news.
From the excellent article you provided:
"Michael was one of those intensely jealous, intensely violent types. In February 1990, Terri collapsed at home when oxygen was cut off to her brain. Michael claimed she had a potassium imbalance. A neurologist later testified that she had suffered a neck injury, the kind you get when someone tries to strangle you."
Just recently, in the area where I live, a man was sentenced to jail for strangling his wife to death. I wonder if he would have gotten away with it if one of the small children didn't witness it.
I wonder how many men get away with strangling their wives to death?
I guess this isn't the right lonely hearts club for you, then. Hope you find your own choir.
See ya later,
8mm
Wow! Little anger there....those trions, or xetabetas, or bibbidty bobbity boo aliens that only scientologists can get rid of (at a huge cost, of course, LOL) must have gotten the upper hand here. Seek out an audit session ASAP!
We don't know where this will end, but one thing is for sure, I be right here fighting with those who understand the horror of Terri's life after her personal monster got his money.
Hope you find your own choir.
I did. It's called any other thread on FR than a Schiavo one. But each to their own. You stay right here on these threads where you belong. Toodles.
that only scientologists can get rid of (at a huge cost, of course, LOL)
You know, I don't understand you and so many others on these threads fixation on Scientology. You've all been watching too many Tom Cruise movies.
First you say: "or angry, needing to insult those who stand on my side",
and then in the next breath you say: "after her personal monster got his money".
And in your mind, your comment is not insulting. It's not only insulting to Michael Schiavo whom you don't know, it's probably grounds for him to sue you for defamation of character and libel. Find a mirror and look in it; you need one.
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