Posted on 09/01/2005 9:51:24 AM PDT by NYer
TAMPA BAY, August 31, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Ten year-old Joshua Heldreth, the eldest of eight children, was arrested on Good Friday of this year for trespassing while attempting to bring a drink of water to Miss Terri Schaivo. Days later Schiavo died of intentional dehydration. In court Joshua pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 hours of community service and ordered to write an apology for his actions.
The boy whose arrest photo was splashed on front pages of newspapers across the nation wrote in his apology letter, "I was arrested on Good Friday for trespassing on the hospice center's property . . . Not giving Mrs. Shiavo (sic) food or water was wrong. The reason I had to go on your property was because Jesus would do the same thing. It made me sad that she was so thirsty and it made Jesus sad too. I knew she would die without water and I am called by Jesus to be a defender of the defenceless. So I had to go on your property to try to bring her a drink."
Joshua added, "I am sorry that you didn't like that and wouldn't allow me to help save her life and one day you will have to tell God why. I won't be able to help you then like I tried to help her. I will pray for you every day . . ."
LifeSiteNews.com caught up with Joshua's father Scott Heldreth today. Scott told LifeSiteNews.com he is very proud of his son. "My son has amazed me through this whole thing," said Heldreth. The proud father said it was his son's own initiative to attempt to give the starving woman a glass of water, and despite the warning of his parents that he'd be arrested, the boy insisted. "He was the one who begged us to go down, because he wanted to give her a glass of water . . . We explained that police will never let you help . . . you'll be arrested, but he went anyways."
Pro-life leader Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America told LifeSiteNews.com that the whole pro-life movement shares Heldreth's pride in his son. Benham recalls the reaction of Heldreth on Good Friday as he watched his son being arrested: "When that all took place Scott was weeping, this father was weeping tears of joy seeing his son not only talk the Christian talk but walk the walk."
While the apology letter has been submitted, Heldreth told LifeSiteNews.com he's not completely sure it will be accepted.
See Joshua's full handwritten apology letter here:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005_docs/JoshuaApolog...
Was it too long for you to read? Maybe you should stick to Dick And Jane.
Yeah...I may be grammatically impaired, but at least I have a heart. I can improve. But you?
OH THAT MAKES ME SICK! I assume his parents are talking him through this. The world turned upside-down.
Should the Judge ( and I use the term 'Judge' in the loosest of all ways) have enforced his ruling that that pig attend depositions regarding his lack of guardianship care? Hmmmmmmmmm....
Hope the sentence is short enough for you to wade through.
Judge Greer is a muderer. And so is Michael the Monster. And so was the system that failed to stand for Terri's rights.
"Nope" or "whatever." Take your pick.
A lack of heart is always evident.
No. It's just that a 15 line sentence screams "frothing at the mouth," IMHO.
Again with the legalisms? Hitler was "democratically elected". What good did that do in terms of the morality of the things he did? Saddam Hussein was "democratically elected" in Iraq, to hear it told. Did that make the things he did acceptable because they were legal?
Are you even able to distinguish the difference between legality and morality? Don't you understand that the mechanics of how those who hold power over others obtain it have little bearing on the larger moral questions? What matters, from an ethical viewpoint, is the nature of the actions those in power take when they exercise that power. No matter how much you argue legalities and process and mechanics, you will not convince me that killing an innocent person is moral or just. It may be to you, but to base a society on such principles is to forfeit any claim to being civilized, much less just.
And you terri-bots wonder why government officials in Florida won't take your calls?
You have some nerve with that "terri-bot" crap when you seem to base your argument completely on legalistic process and mechanics. If anyone, you and those who lusted for Terri's death are more like death-bots, driven to kill an innocent person to satisfy nothing more than an unthinking, unfeeling, mechanical legal process. Greasing the wheels of death, more or less.
And, no, I don't call "government officials" in Florida. There is a higher power that I answer to, as they, and you, will, eventually. I will not have Terri's blood on my hands. But those who killed her, and those who agreed with and supported the acts of those who killed her, will.
I have to run some errands now. By the time I get back, I expect the two biggest trolls will have made an entrance. Have fun!
If you say so. Good luck with your prosecution.
Oh, wait. You're not a prosecutor, are you? So you can't actually file any charges.
Not really. He got something like a third of the vote then manipulated events and dissolved the Weimar Republic.
Are you even able to distinguish the difference between legality and morality?
Sure. I just don't see anything immoral about letting a woman in a vegitative state die in accordance with her wishes.
I will not have Terri's blood on my hands. But those who killed her, and those who agreed with and supported the acts of those who killed her, will.
Yawn. Same old, same old.
Catholic Bump.
Viva il Papa!
Viva Christianity.
Vivat Jesus.
But according to MS, this is not possible, because he SAYS she died on the day of her collapse, and put that belief on her TOMBSTONE for all to see. Oh well....I'll search for better grammar and you can search for a heart. And we will simly disagree, deeply on this, forever. Perhaps someday our Father in heaven will sort it all out for us.
Oh, and you are right, I am not a prosecutor. I am, like you, sharing opinions and beliefs.
Good kid. His parents are doing an admirable job. Making him write an apology letter reminds me of "self-criticism" in China during the Cultural Revolution. He aint playing along. Good kid!
She was NOT in a coma. Educate yourself.
Michael Schiavo's appeared on "Larry King Live," and said:
"We didn't know what Terri wanted, but this is what we want.."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.