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...
I addressed this in other posts - in short, no 10-yr-old does all of those things by himself...
From the mouths of babes.
"Die in accordance with her wishes." You made a sweeping statement that implies that the circumstances and manner of her death were those that Terri Schiavo had given a legal, advance directive regarding. Can you produce such a document? Can you show me a credible instance where this individual had expressed a desire to die in the manner she did? Can you show me convincing, legally-admissible evidence that Terri Schiavo ever expressed a desire to die by dehydration/starvation?
I didn't think so. There is none. When you show it to me, maybe I'll believe your statement that she indeed did "die in accordance with her wishes". In fact, she didn't. She died the way others, who had the power over her to kill her, wanted her to die, and gamed the system to make it happen in a "legal", but completely immoral, manner. Evidently you support that. Now. But I wonder if you will when you and your loved ones go under the needle against your will?
ping to remember these clowns.
It seemed to me that the judge was forcing the young boy to genuflect at his bench. I'd advise the judge to take the backhanded apology and "move on".
Not really an issue. I fully intend to resolve the legalities of that before it becomes necessary.
post 226 also replies to this - sorry, i'm reply-to-post impaired today for some reason...
1 Samuel 17:14 And David was the youngest...
His father has a habit of "using" minors for his own purposes. Nice that father and son now have criminal convictions in common.
A guilty plea is not an admission to anything except yes, I did this act, or deed. To go beyond that and say, oh, I am going to force you to say that what you did was wrong and you are sorry...THAT is where it crosses over a line in my mind.
There are two separate acts here. One, the child is taken to a political demonstration. That could be bad if the child is used as a prop, or if the child is in danger. But in the main it is good, because the child learns about civic virtues, courage, etc. Besides, the child may simply have nowhere else to go, - no babysitter, no school. Remember, it was not like most political protests, there was a sense of urgency as Terri was dying.
Second is the child doing a work of mercy. That is outright commendable. Since the child was not in physical danger, the parents were right in allowing him to do it, for reasons I indicated in my previous post, 181. The underlying legal issue may have been knotty, but through the eye of a child, he knew the simple truth that a helpless woman was being starved to death. As Christians, we are commanded to acts of mercy regardless of all complexity. If Terri were a criminal receiving just punishment, giving to that starving criminal water would be a Christian duty as well. Even if the parents were not convinced in the right and wrong of the legal controversy (but they were), they still would have been correct in letting the child follow his heart.
Good parents and good child.
Unless you're talking suicide or giving Dr. Kevorkian a call or moving to Amsterdam then you're sadly mistaken if you think any kind of advance directive is going to save you. I can guarantee you that with the legal precedent the Schiavo case has set, I can make legal mincemeat out of any so-called "Living Will" (really a Dying Will) if that is what you are implying. Just allow me to pile up enough (conflicted) hearsay evidence and have a sympathetic (and conflicted) judge allow it as admissible, and I'll shred any document you can bring into court. And any "appeals" court will uphold that shredding because of the outrageous hold that Stare Decisis seems to have in the court system today. The whole thing is utterly corrupt and stacked in favor of those who would kill first and never give a thought to mercy or, heaven forbid, doing the right thing.
Whoever Satan cannot use to further his cause he will kill or try to break. These thugs are dispicable, maybe they should realize why they are arresting this 10 YEAR OLD BOY. Some people are such tools. Can we get a presidential pardon down in Florida????
And he said this without any coaching whatsoever from adults?
Uh..no.
That's one tough, smart, and honorable kid.
No, strike that. He's no kid, he's a man.
Bump.
It certainly is, FV. It's PATHETIC.
But not surprising, considering these *people*.
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.