TALLAHASSEE - It was one of the shortest speeches of Charlie Crist's career, but as a campaign for governor unfolds, it may prove to be one of the most memorable.

Two weeks ago, the Republican attorney general and candidate for governor gave a late-night speech to a roomful of lawyers in Miami where he referred to the judges in the Terri Schiavo case as "heroes."

Crist insists he wasn't endorsing court rulings that prevented the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube from being reconnected, but critics view it differently. And by appearing to break his silence in the Schiavo case, Crist has sharpened the contrast between himself and Republican rival Tom Gallagher, who has said he favored government action to "prevent Terri's starvation."

At the dinner in Miami, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer and U.S. District Judge James Whittemore of Tampa were honored as jurists of the year by the Florida chapter of ABOTA, the American Board of Trial Advocates. The group champions judicial independence and its members are lawyers who represent both plaintiffs and defendants.

Greer is the judge who ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed, rejecting a subpoena from Congress and pleas from Gov. Jeb Bush, and Whittemore also denied emergency requests to reinsert the tube in the weeks before Schiavo died March 31. Both men's decisions were later upheld by higher courts, and both were praised and vilified by opposing sides of the emotionally charged end-of-life case.

"You are heroes to all of us, and your defense of the judiciary and what is right is beyond admirable," Crist was quoted in the Daily Business Review, a Miami newspaper that provided the only news account of the July 15 event at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

In an interview, Crist did not dispute the quotations. Nor did he offer a view of whether he agreed with their decisions. Rather, he said, he praised them for fulfilling their constitutional duty to provide checks and balances against the other two branches of government.

"I try to say nice things about judges. I'm sure I was complimentary," said Crist, who as the state's chief legal officer often speaks at bar-related events. "I didn't talk about any specific case. ... It's important that those checks and balances exist. Our system of government needs to have that."

"Judge Greer is a poster child for everything that's wrong with the judiciary," said Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America, a grass roots Christian political group in Fort Lauderdale that lists "sanctity of life" as one of its priorities and plans to form a political action committee.

"For Charlie Crist to hold that up as an example of good judicial practice concerns me," Cass said. "I think it was a mistake for Charlie to say that. I don't know how anybody can be happy about a woman being deprived food and water."

Rep. Dennis Baxley, the Republican from Ocala who sponsored legislation last spring to force the tube to be reconnected, said Crist's speech was revealing.

"I think it is one of those very important moments for us to know where he (Crist) stands," Baxley said. "I truly believe there's a lot of people out there who were sensitive to this case who are going to find those comments, and that association, very instructive. I'm understanding where people line up on this."

Baxley said that while Crist was "conspicuously absent" from the Schiavo debate in the Legislature, Gallagher sent Baxley a personal letter of support last spring. While activists in the Schiavo debate take aim at Crist, his Republican rival Gallagher is not.

"Tom's made his position very clear in the past. There's really no comment we're going to make on that," said David Johnson, a Gallagher adviser.

Polls show a majority of Americans agreed with the judges' decisions to order the removal of Schiavo's tube, as her husband, Michael, said she wanted. By a greater margin, polls show people were opposed to Congress' intervention in the case.

But to those who view the long-running Schiavo saga as a test case of support for the sanctity of life - like abortion - Greer and Whittemore are "judicial activists" who starved a woman to death.

Many of those people can vote in the Republican primary for governor in September 2006. Crist's stand on the Schiavo case could prove to be an asset if he wins the GOP nomination and faces a Democrat. But one Republican strategist said the damage has been done.

"Schiavo killed the Republicans. They've lost the women's vote," said Matt Towery, an ex-Republican legislator who now runs an Atlanta media and polling firm. "It's one of those turning points that you just can't get away from."

From Cheryl Ford, R.N.

Cheryl Ford RN Comments: He "stuck by her," Kenny states?

Schiavo has been carry on in an adulterous relationship for over ten years and has fathered two illegitimate children. Immediately after Terri's unexplained tragedy, he had dated several other women.

Have the vows and definition of commitment and "sticking by" someone since changed in the last two decades? I don't think so!

It is clear that Michelle Kenny is a part of the ignorant clan who paid no attention to the true FACTS behind Terri's situation.

It should not come as a surprise to me that it would be the Florida Guardian Association and the ignorance of its keynote speaker, Kenneth Goodman, who would acknowledge a person like Michael Schiavo. Goodman and I were guest speakers on a Ft. Lauderdale radio talk show a few months back. I decided to use the opportunity to publicly question him about just how much he knew about the specifics of Terri's case.

When he could not appropriately respond to my questions on LIVE talk radio, stating he did not have the papers in front of him, it became clear to me that I was wasting my time speaking to a person who did not research the facts regarding Terri Schindler's case.

People like Goodman migrate to Florida because of the obvious ease they can make a living advocating for the death of the innocent and disabled. The only "PRIMITIVE" in my opinion, is the thinking of the University of Miami BIOETHICIST, Kenneth Goodman!

It still remains despicable that an organization such as The Florida Guardianship Association would have the audacity to publicly support the cruel murder of a human being, that they would go so far to organize an award for a person like Michael Schiavo!

I surely hope that all the people who wrote and supported Terri throughout her inhumane death will take the time to write and show just how many "THOUSANDS" there are who did not agree with what Michael did to Terri!

kgoodman@miami.edu

Tel: 305-243-5723,Fax: 305-243-6416

Mailman Center for Child Development,Suite 2050,P.O.B. 016960.(UM M-825),Miami FL 33101

FLORIDA STATE GUARDIANSHIP ASSOCIATION

P.O. Box 13978

Tallahassee, FL 32317

Email: executiveoffice@floridaguardians.com

Cheryl Ford sends this.

Dear Friends of Terri:

As we all know, it is imperative for us to continue to show unity for the sanctity of life and for Terri. When the people in a state agency go out of their way to organize a banquet to honor Michael Schiavo for what he did to Terri, we know that we have some serious problems in our country.

Please, take just a few moments out of your day to call Elizabeth Langston, Account Executive of the Florida State Guardian Association at 850/322-0525 and ask her how a state organization can justify honoring a man who just starved and dehydrated his wife.

I am eager to post the response you receive from Elizabeth at the Fla Guardianship Association to the Fight4Terri blog, so please take a few moments to call her
at 850/322-0525 with your opinions.

Each of us can make a difference like we did when we brought in Congress on Easter weekend. Continue to allow the people who honor the criminal actions of the innocent and disabled to hear our voices. Together, we will make a difference!

See article below.

Please pass this email on to others and ask them to do the same.

Thank you so much,
Cheryl Ford RN
Fight4Terri@aol.com

Elizabeth Langston
Florida State Guardianship Association
Account Executive
P.O. Box 13978
Tallahassee, FL 32311
liz@floridaguardians.com

Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005

Guardians laud Michael Schiavo for fulfilling wife's wishes

BY MAYA BELL

The Orlando Sentinel

DORAL, Fla. - (KRT) - He has been rebuked by the Vatican, castigated by Congress and slandered on the Internet, but Michael Schiavo was welcomed as a hero Friday by a state organization whose members make end-of-life decisions for people unable to make them for themselves.

The Florida State Guardianship Association bestowed its Guardian of the Year Award on Schiavo for carrying out his wife's wishes not to be kept alive artificially despite a drumbeat of withering criticism.

In a rare public appearance, Schiavo, 42, modestly accepted the award at the association's 18th annual conference at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa west of Miami.

"As you know," he said, "I'm not much of a speechmaker. I don't talk much. But on behalf of my wife Theresa, I thank you."

Association members, most of whom are appointed by judges to represent people who have been declared incapacitated, acknowledged Schiavo was a controversial choice and they anticipate a backlash. After all, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joined world leaders from the president to the pope in aligning themselves with Bob and Mary Schindler, the couple who fought their son-on-law's effort to remove the feeding tube that kept their severely brain-damaged daughter alive for 15 years.

But, group members said, Michael Schiavo's unwavering commitment to honoring his wife's wishes in the face of public scrutiny and enmity embodied the professionalism and compassion with which court-appointed guardians quietly carry out their duties every day.

"We see a lot of situations where family steps away," said association president-elect Michelle Kenney, a care manager and professional guardian in Broward County. "He stuck by. He didn't walk away."

Added past president Joan Nelson Hook, an attorney from New Port Richey: "He was an ordinary guardian who carried out his duties in extraordinary ways."

News of the award brought the same swift reaction - surprise - from both sides of the right-to-die case that divided a family and a nation, but for wildly divergent reasons.

"Yikes! That took a lot of courage," said Bill Allen, director of the bioethics program at the University of Florida. "It would have been easier for them to whisper, `Atta boy!' privately and not take such a public stand."

"Oh, my God, that's offensive," said Brother Paul O'Donnell, a Franciscan friar who serves as the Schindler family spokesman. "Michael Schiavo ... basically let her rot."

State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who pushed legislation limiting the circumstances under which artificial sustenance and hydration could be withdrawn, called the recognition "ironic."

"There were a lot of issues that raised some questions about his credibility to act in her (Terri Schiavo's) best interest," Baxley said.

But Kenneth Goodman, a University of Miami bioethicist and the keynote speaker at the conference said the record speaks for itself. He noted that Michael Schiavo, a one-time restaurant manager, became a nurse to better care for his wife and took her to California for experimental treatment after her unexplained 1990 collapse consigned her to a persistent vegetative state.

"And then he's maligned and vilified and condemned when he decides to get on with his private life," Goodman said. "Frankly, what he said his wife wanted is what most reasonable people want. It's primitive to believe that human consciousness is not important. What most of us value about life is cognition and communication and interaction. We don't value simply not being dead."

Yet, association officials made it clear it is their job to adopt such "primitive" views if the incapacitated person they are appointed to represent held them. Conversely, it is their job to reject treatment or life-prolonging measures if their ward would have chosen to do the same.

"That is our main mission. We stand in their shoes," said association president Barbara Reiser, a public guardian in Miami.

Deciphering what Terri Schiavo would have wanted was at the core of the once-private family dispute that launched unprecedented but ultimately unsuccessful efforts in the Florida Legislature and Congress to keep her alive. Her feeding tube was disconnected in March, and she died 13 days later at age 41.

Though she never wrote down her wishes in the event she became incapacitated, her husband said his wife made it clear in casual conversations: She never wanted to be kept alive artificially, unaware of her surroundings, dependent on others for her every need.

But her parents' vehemently disagreed, saying their daughter was a devout Roman Catholic who would choose life no matter how she had to live. They also questioned their son-in-law's motives, accusing him of wanting his wife dead so he could inherit a malpractice settlement he won in her behalf.

However, like the guardianship association, the courts repeatedly found that Michael Schiavo acted in his wife's interests and carried out his guardianship duties professionally and compassionately.

As wellwishers lined up Friday night to congratulate Schiavo, he said the diamond-cut crystal award was the first public recognition of his actions, and he was deeply gratified by what it represented.

"These people are part of the silent majority," he said. "When Terri's wish was finally carried out, I had thousands and thousands of letters saying, `We are with you. We believe in you. You did the right thing.' Thousands."

---

From Cheryl Ford and Pat Anderson, who was attorney on Terri's behalf for a long time...

8mm

Attorney Patricia Anderson sent a letter to Bioethicist Kenneth Goodman in response to the Guardian of the Year Award Goodman presented to Michael Schiavo. Read the article about the so-called "welcomed hero" Michael Schiavo. The article follows Ms. Anderson's letter.

Please..........pick up your telephone and let your voices be heard. Call Elizabeth at the Florida Guardianship Association 850-322-0525 and give your opinions.

Our voices are the only way to STOP state organizations like the FSGA from honoring people like Schiavo. Even though Terri tried to say ...I waaaaaaa to live...no one listened.

Let us continue to speak for her so her death was not in vain.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email. Please share with others.

Remember, we CAN and WILL make a difference!

Cheryl Ford RN

Fight4Terri@aol.com

---

Dear Mr. Goodman,

As Bob and Mary Schindler's former attorney, I have a passing fair familiarity with the facts of Michael Schiavo's conduct as a guardian for Terri Schiavo.

Did you know that FOR TWELVE YEARS -- from 1990 until 2002 -- Mr. Schiavo steadfastly refused to take the statutorily-mandated training all private guardians must undergo? Did you know his refusal came in the face of annual demands from the Clerk's office that he do so?

Did you also know that Mr. Schiavo did not file annual reports and plans in a timely fashion year after year and, for at least two years, filed no report and plan at all?

Did you know that when Mr. Schiavo did grudgingly and belatedly file plans -- there was no plan at all for her improvement?

Did you know the experimental surgical treatment that you specifically mentioned as praiseworthy occurred in NOVEMBER, 1990? Did you know that after the summer of 1992, Terri never received another minute of therapy of any kind -- including routine physical therapy -- up until the moment of her death, on Mr. Schiavo's orders?

These are facts documented in the court file, Mr. Goodman. They are not unwarranted "attacks" on Mr. Schiavo, simply facts that anyone who makes an effort can discover. The further fact that the Court did not ever sanction Mr. Schiavo for his shortcomings as a guardian is more a testament to an overloaded court docket than a testament to Mr. Schiavo's dedication.

Don't you think honoring Mr. Schiavo as "Guardian of the Year" is insulting to the thousands of honest, hard-working guardians who follow Florida law in act and spirit? There is much more to being a guardian than insisting on the ward's death, Mr. Goodman.

I would like to know how many of the Florida guardians voted on this year's award. Was it the entire membership or a committee of a handful of people?

Please do me the honor of a reply.

Pat Anderson

7116 Gulf Boulevard

Suite D

St. Pete Beach, FL 33706

727 / 363-6100

kgoodman@miami.edu
Tel: 305-243-5723
Fax: 305-243-6416

Mailman Center for Child Development
Suite 2050
P.O.B. 016960
(UM M-825)
Miami FL 33101

FLORIDA STATE GUARDIANSHIP ASSOCIATION
P.O. Box 13978

Tallahassee, FL 32317

Email: executiveoffice@floridaguardians.com

KRT Wire | 08/05/2005 | Guardians laud Michael Schiavo for fulfilling wife's wishes

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/12316077.htm

Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005

Guardians laud Michael Schiavo for fulfilling wife's wishes

BY MAYA BELL

The Orlando Sentinel

DORAL, Fla. - (KRT) - He has been rebuked by the Vatican, castigated by Congress and slandered on the Internet, but Michael Schiavo was welcomed as a hero Friday by a state organization whose members make end-of-life decisions for people unable to make them for themselves.

The Florida State Guardianship Association bestowed its Guardian of the Year Award on Schiavo for carrying out his wife's wishes not to be kept alive artificially despite a drumbeat of withering criticism.

In a rare public appearance, Schiavo, 42, modestly accepted the award at the association's 18th annual conference at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa west of Miami.

"As you know," he said, "I'm not much of a speechmaker. I don't talk much. But on behalf of my wife Theresa, I thank you."

Association members, most of whom are appointed by judges to represent people who have been declared incapacitated, acknowledged Schiavo was a controversial choice and they anticipate a backlash. After all, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joined world leaders from the president to the pope in aligning themselves with Bob and Mary Schindler, the couple who fought their son-on-law's effort to remove the feeding tube that kept their severely brain-damaged daughter alive for 15 years.

But, group members said, Michael Schiavo's unwavering commitment to honoring his wife's wishes in the face of public scrutiny and enmity embodied the professionalism and compassion with which court-appointed guardians quietly carry out their duties every day.

"We see a lot of situations where family steps away," said association president-elect Michelle Kenney, a care manager and professional guardian in Broward County. "He stuck by. He didn't walk away."

Added past president Joan Nelson Hook, an attorney from New Port Richey: "He was an ordinary guardian who carried out his duties in extraordinary ways."

News of the award brought the same swift reaction - surprise - from both sides of the right-to-die case that divided a family and a nation, but for wildly divergent reasons.

"Yikes! That took a lot of courage," said Bill Allen, director of the bioethics program at the University of Florida. "It would have been easier for them to whisper, `Atta boy!' privately and not take such a public stand."

"Oh, my God, that's offensive," said Brother Paul O'Donnell, a Franciscan friar who serves as the Schindler family spokesman. "Michael Schiavo ... basically let her rot."

State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who pushed legislation limiting the circumstances under which artificial sustenance and hydration could be withdrawn, called the recognition "ironic."

"There were a lot of issues that raised some questions about his credibility to act in her (Terri Schiavo's) best interest," Baxley said.

But Kenneth Goodman, a University of Miami bioethicist and the keynote speaker at the conference said the record speaks for itself. He noted that Michael Schiavo, a one-time restaurant manager, became a nurse to better care for his wife and took her to California for experimental treatment after her unexplained 1990 collapse consigned her to a persistent vegetative state.

"And then he's maligned and vilified and condemned when he decides to get on with his private life," Goodman said. "Frankly, what he said his wife wanted is what most reasonable people want. It's primitive to believe that human consciousness is not important. What most of us value about life is cognition and communication and interaction. We don't value simply not being dead."

Yet, association officials made it clear it is their job to adopt such "primitive" views if the incapacitated person they are appointed to represent held them. Conversely, it is their job to reject treatment or life-prolonging measures if their ward would have chosen to do the same.

"That is our main mission. We stand in their shoes," said association president Barbara Reiser, a public guardian in Miami.

Deciphering what Terri Schiavo would have wanted was at the core of the once-private family dispute that launched unprecedented but ultimately unsuccessful efforts in the Florida Legislature and Congress to keep her alive. Her feeding tube was disconnected in March, and she died 13 days later at age 41.

Though she never wrote down her wishes in the event she became incapacitated, her husband said his wife made it clear in casual conversations: She never wanted to be kept alive artificially, unaware of her surroundings, dependent on others for her every need.

But her parents' vehemently disagreed, saying their daughter was a devout Roman Catholic who would choose life no matter how she had to live. They also questioned their son-in-law's motives, accusing him of wanting his wife dead so he could inherit a malpractice settlement he won in her behalf.

However, like the guardianship association, the courts repeatedly found that Michael Schiavo acted in his wife's interests and carried out his guardianship duties professionally and compassionately.

As wellwishers lined up Friday night to congratulate Schiavo, he said the diamond-cut crystal award was the first public recognition of his actions, and he was deeply gratified by what it represented.

"These people are part of the silent majority," he said. "When Terri's wish was finally carried out, I had thousands and thousands of letters saying, `We are with you. We believe in you. You did the right thing.' Thousands."

---

Coming Soon!

READ
Over 400 pages
Trafford Publishing: Our Fight4Terri
http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/robots/05-1041.html

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!

Fight4Terri @aol.com

Theresa Marie Schindler
December 3, 1963 ~ March 31, 2005
Light a candle For Terri at her online Memorial Website
Memory-of.com - Memorial website in memory of Theresa Schindler (1963-2005)
http://theresa-schindler.memory-of.com/about.aspx

Visit: www.fight4terri.blogspot.com

Cheryl Ford, RN (Fight4Terri@aol.com) is not affiliated with any other group and works to protect the rights of the disabled community.

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