FV says: It will be up to the citizens in Jim King's districts whether they will keep him or show him the door.
I hope Randall runs. It's encouraging that the press in St. Augustine was capable of writing a balanced piece on Randall Terry.
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.
Father seeks euthanasia for daughters
Kolkata, June 11: A former bus conductor has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee asking for permission for the mercy killing of his two daughters, severely handicapped since birth.
Seventyfive-year-old Abdul Rauf, a resident of Malugram in Bolpur area of Birbhum district, has urged the Chief Minister in a brief letter, a copy of which was provided to the media, to permit the mercy killing of his two grown-up disabled daughters, Fatima Khatun (39) and Rejina Khatun (29).
"There is no such law in the country. I have heard that the USA is thinking about it," the Chief Minister told reporters at the state secretariat here.
He said that the district administration had been asked to submit a report on this.
According to Rauf and his wife Anwara Bibi (64), they had no other alternative but to approach Bhattacharjee as they were unable to meet the medical costs of looking after their daughters. (Agencies)
"JUDGE GREER HAS 76% reversal rate on appeal"
That doesn't surprise me.
I have no clue what the clown's url is. I went once to see what all the fuss is about. It's not much.
The worst I've ever heard him say is "The law of the case is that she will die." What an evil doer he is! What about all the laws he has broken and goes unchecked???? It's sickening.
Here's a new web site: http://www.nomoreswampjudges.com
"Hardliner to softy?"
Randall Terry has gone from Operation Rescue to a possible state Senate run, but who is the man behind the conservative front?
By RICHARD PRIOR, Staff Writer
Randall Terry could have used better PR. If he had gotten it, the anti-abortion activist says, the public's perception of him may not have been locked in on a one-dimensional image for the past 17 years.
That image tends toward an updated version of John Brown, whose portrait in the Topeka, Kan., statehouse shows a wild-eyed man spurring on the whirlwind, his arms stretched wide, his flowing beard blown to the side, a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other.
Terry says he's not that high-strung. And, he insists, there's more to him than has met the public eye.
He likes "Monty Python," Dave Chappelle and the occasional risque story. He's addicted to "Saturday Night Live." Terry, 46, plays classical, jazz and boogie-woogie tunes on the 1896 Steinway D piano in the entrance to his Ponte Vedra Beach home. He has named the piano Elizabeth II.
"The piano is the queen of the instruments, and music is the queen of the sciences," Terry explains. His fingers flying across all 88 keys, Terry probably could have held his own in a "Dueling Pianos" exchange with Jerry Lee Lewis. As a child, he thought he would become a rock 'n' roll musician.
His training, which began at 8 years old, was in classical and jazz. He enjoys playing church music, but several tunes featured at an impromptu recital would also be appropriate in a smoky saloon. Producers in Nashville are seriously considering three compositions.
He has written eight books, six of which have been published. The Rochester, N.Y., native is a full-time student, working on a bachelor's degree on Middle Eastern Studies through the State University of New York. He expects to receive his degree next spring.
He works hard at keeping an edge on his racquetball skills. And he's no stranger to practical jokes. The scene for one of Terry's riskier belly-slappers was set recently, just after he announced a possible run against District 8 Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville in the 2006 primary. King had turned his back on conservative principles and "betrayed Terri Schiavo," Terry said at his announcements in Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Daytona Beach.
King and eight other Republicans had helped block a bill in the Legislature aimed at keeping Schiavo alive. Local "Republican royalty" were invited to the Terry home after the announcement to hear his stand on the issues and, not incidentally, leave some campaign contributions behind.
Terry chose that occasion to put a fake cockroach under one of his guests' dinner napkins. Before she wrote the check.
A big smile crosses Terry's face as he considers the shock and waves of laughter that accompanied his audacious stunt. "A lot of those people who came to the house probably arrived expecting to hate me," he says. "They left writing checks.
"I love to joke. That's just who I am. I intend to bring humor to the campaign."
It hasn't always been that way. Activities and speeches by the founder of Operation Rescue more commonly led to anger, scorn and a lot of arrests. From about 1987 to 1994, more than 70,000 Operation Rescue followers were arrested for their protests. Terry can only say he was arrested more than 40 times.
He had to agree in 1998 to a permanent injunction against future action against abortion clinics following an out-of-court settlement with the National Organization for Women (NOW).
As a result of the judgment, he lost the equity in his 7,000-square-foot home and declared he was close to $2 million in debt when he filed for bankruptcy that year.
"It was a bitter pill," he says. "If I had it to do all over again, I would do the exact same thing. But it's still a painful loss."
For several years after the judgment, Terry's annual income was under $10,000. He scrambled to make money by showing up at every speaking engagement he could, driving cross-country at a time he had to collect change to put gas in the car.
He got paid to ghostwrite letters for people. He opened a used car lot just before 9/11 - when the bottom went out of the used-car market. "It was a living nightmare," Terry recalls.
The "kindness of the Christian community" bailed him out. "That's why we're in this house," he says. "(Former U.S. Ambassador) Alan Keyes sent out a letter to thousands and thousands of pro-lifers that said, in essence, 'We cannot let one of our heroes be destroyed by the pro-abortion movement. We must restore what the enemy took.' "
Terry is seated in the library of his home, surrounded by some of the 4,000 volumes he has collected. At one end of the room are three guitars. There is also a dulcimer, which his wife, Andrea, gave him. On the shelves, in front of the books, are collector's items from his trips to nearly all the continents.
On either side of the door is a set of bagpipes and a replica of William Wallace's sword. Above an antique bureau with sink is a painting he commissioned. It is of a medieval soldier in full armor "who has recovered from his wounds in a convent and is heading back to battle," Terry says.
"I have told my wife on more than one occasion I was born out of time," Terry says. "I would have liked to have been a great general at some of the key battles that determined the fate of nations."
On the shelves is a photograph of Terry with Pope John Paul II. There also are pictures of two of his heroes, Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt.
"Winston Churchill is my ultimate hero," says Terry. "He was the towering figure of the 20th century. TR would have been a towering figure, but he had no great issue.
"Churchill, in my mind, is followed by John Paul II and Ronald Reagan. Mother Teresa was another towering figure. They all possessed an incredible prophetic insight into the nature of man and the movements of nations."
Even while playing the perfect host, Terry stresses that he's not a big fan of print journalists. In fact, the two who visited him recently were the first ones allowed into his library.
"I've never been burned on radio or TV," he says. "But I've always been burned in print."
One reason, he says, is most reporters don't check their "core values" at the door when they cover someone they don't agree with.
Several prominent quotes, he says, were taken out of context and have "haunted" him since they were first reported."Let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good," Terry was quoted in The News Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Ind., following a 1993 speech.
"What happened was, I was too intense," he says. "When I speak publicly, and I get too intense ... I'll step back. Do something for comic relief.
"'Let the hate wash over you. ... Hate is good.' If you were there, you could hear people laughing. It's obviously a joke.
"What I was saying, though, was, 'If you don't hate child pornography and child molestation, something is wrong with you.' "It was taken completely out of context. I hate retail politicking. I wear well in person. If you take my quotes out of context ... I look like a lunatic." Every now and then, Terry concedes, he managed to load reporters' cannons for them.
"When you're in your 20s, you say stuff you wouldn't say in your 40s," he says. "You say stuff for shock value. You say stuff that you're trying to outdo what your buddy just said.
"We had jokes among us who could say the most wild things. One of my friends said, 'You make promises we have to cash with our bodies.' "
Other than study for his bachelor's degree, Terry fills his time by writing and lecturing. He hopes to start broadcasting his radio program by the end of summer from the studio attached to his library.
Terry still hasn't said he is definitely running against Jim King. But, if he does, "I'm praying to God we can have more than a bumper sticker campaign. Content really matters to me. And I believe content really matters to the average person."
Such a campaign would give Terry a chance to talk about the issues he says are important to him: foreign policy, taxes, education.
"I'm a Reagan Republican," he says. "I believe wholeheartedly in vouchers. We need to shift our revenue base away from property tax to user fees and sales tax."
He is pleased with the reception he's gotten so far from "Republican royalty," Terry says. Some of that reaction, he says, comes from people getting go know him up close and personal.
And some of it, he says, has come from him being a more likable person. "Yeah," he says after a thoughtful pause. "I have softened over time. Age does that to you. You make a few mistakes, and you think, 'Hmmm. Maybe I'm not quite as smart as I thought I was.'
"I've become more merciful than I was. The more I have embraced the moral absolutes of Heaven, the more it has freed me to be more merciful to myself and others."
Monday Ping from FV's low volume ping list.
FV says: It will be up to the citizens in Jim King's districts whether they will keep him or show him the door.
I hope Randall runs. It's encouraging that the press in St. Augustine was capable of writing a balanced piece on Randall Terry.
meekie, can you Monday ping your Florida list? Thanks in advance.
(this is a little fuzzy but this is the gang of 9 GOP. 1. JIM KING 2. NANCY ARGENZIANO 3. BURT SAUNDERS 4. D.J. ALEXANDER 5. LISA CARLTON 5. DENNIS JONES (from Terri's county) 6. PAULA DOCKERY 7. MIKE BENNETT 8. EVELYN LYNN
Only Jim King is up for re-election in 2006. That simplifies the task at hand.
Isn't it great to know that a paid protester got to spend time at Terri's bedside and then came outside to laugh about and mock her?????
I remember that night. Talk about devilish. Fruitcake of course is shilling for yet another Michael. (ironic isn't it?)
The death lobby lynches victims every day.
I think we did a pretty good job exposing lots of those paid demonstrators for what they were. One of them came very close to admitting it to me in private, was actually embarrassed, but a job is a job.
That is what is so revealing, the only ones to protest were either the gay/lesbian community, the truly evil ones, and the paid actors. For the most part it was a lonely handful. Yet, folks from all walks of life were on the side of Terri.
8mm
But, clearly that guy was a fruitcake as in nuttier than.
BUMP
Good post. Thanks.
Neither am I bashing, but that is what several of them were, plain and simple, and they wore their identities proudly. Their orientation was clear and their stance on Terri was clear. On the Terri side, I don't think we missed a single category of those supporting Terri, including orientation. It was stunningly across the board.
Just great. We're setting such a good example. /sarcasm
Thank you for not bashing the Gays an Lesbians.
To often the MSM wanted to pigeon hole Terri's supporters as Fundamentalists Christian. her merder was truly a Human Rights viloation that people of all persuasions saw and recognized for what it was.
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