Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify

Renew America ^ | March 13, 2006 | Kevin Fobbs

[KevinNuPac]

Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify

Kevin Fobbs

March 13, 2006

Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives?

And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can bring to our lives and to the celebration of the Culture of Life.

On March 18th, we as a nation will begin to grieve again, to reach into our hearts and feel with our collective national spirit what the Schindler family felt last year at this time as each moment since Terri was disconnected from the feeding lifeline, the moments crept by like hours and hours like days.

All of us have felt in some way that pain — even if it were only in the privacy of our loved one's home, hospital room, hospice or perhaps talking with an attorney and doctor attempting to make sense out of some fleeting comments made in a conversation perhaps voiced ten, twelve or even two decades earlier — not necessarily an expression of her true feeling about an end-of-life decision but merely an incidental musing in a long-forgotten side conversation.

For at least one million Americans, and quite possibly a whole lot more, this is an opportunity to voice an opinion through a pledge supporting a resolution in each state called "Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life." Each and every person who cares that your family, your spouse, your mother, your father, your sister or brother understands with clarity what you wish the end of life for you to be, with dignity and certainty should sign the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com and take the additional step to sign a Living Will — or as they call it at www.terrisfight.org, the Will to Live.

Some have asked why Americans should care about an annual Terri's Day. It is quite simple, we tend to keep turning the page on the Culture of Life because we feel it does not affect us. We tend to believe that seemingly universal belief that those who are handicapped, those who are not quite living a "perfect" life or by contemporary notion "ideal" then those lives are possibly disposable, marginal, not relevant, and part of the Culture of Death which embraces a "disposable society."

But life and our values for the Culture of Life are not disposable. Think about the young people today who would rather hurt themselves or even take their own lives rather than feel "imperfect" or the elderly person whose family is told by an insensitive health care professional while the stricken person struggles to cling to life, "she would be better off in another place," — just let her die, disconnect her from life, because her quality of life is not up to "contemporary standards. "

Why does celebrating the Culture of Life in Michigan become so essential for all of us in America? It is important for several reasons. Dr. Jack Kervorkian, also known as "Doctor Death" helped launch first in Michigan and then the nation the notion of the death culture. Secondly, and equally as important, at the May 12 event — just two days before Mother's Day — there will also be a "Mary's Moms" celebration of those women and mothers who have met challenges in standing up for some aspect of the Culture of Life.

This past weekend I sat at my cousin's funeral — or going home celebration, which more accurately describes it — thinking about the dearly departed and how she packed so much caring for others into her life even as she struggled with illness and advancing age. She was a wonderful woman who had lived through many, many challenges in her life, but in her 73 years she had met these challenges with dignity and had conveyed to her family when would be the right time to allow her to pass away.

Her daughter, who is a minister, spoke to the packed church about the times when, with all of her pain and then a stroke, the doctors had informed them that perhaps it was better to let her go. Yet that was three years ago that that occurred, and if the family had listened to the doctors and refused to see how she fought back and not only recovered but went back to volunteering at the church to feed and clothe the homeless. The medical professionals didn't care about an elderly lady who was on dialysis, but the family did and they knew better. Patricia lived three more years — years her extensive extended family considered "a gift from God."

So isn't part of the lesson of Terri's legacy and Terri's Day for families and loved ones to have a meaningful conversation with their family and to have the written document on hand as well that conveys the wishes clearly and concisely? You betcha.

As I sat in the church I thought of all of the families across the nation and the world who were sitting at their loved one's bedsides — or even standing outside of a hospital emergency room — overwhelmed with emotion, torn by what may be days of conflicting anguished decisions. I thought again of how out of death we may have the certainty of life. Terri's death reminded the nation that yes a state can and will starve you to death, and your family may be rendered helpless as you watch your loved one's precious life forces drain slowly away.

By signing the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com or going to www.terrisfight.org, you can learn about how to encourage your state legislature to establish March 31st as an official Terri's Day. Hold a Culture of Life Home Party or meet-and-greet to sign pledges, share ideas and support The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation as well as Culture of Life activities and events in your community or around the nation. Between now and March 31st you can make a dramatic difference for yourself, your family and for the nation. Stand up for the Culture of Life because one person, one life, one family can and does make a difference in America. Make the difference and be the difference today. America...The countdown for the Culture of Life has begun.

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Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist for the Detroit News. He is also the daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show online at www.wdtkam.com daily 2-3 p.m., and call in toll-free nationwide to make your opinion count at 800-923-WDTK(9385) © Copyright 2006 by Kevin Fobbs http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fobbs/060313

[T'wit]

The two are amazingly similar.

[supercat]

The two are amazingly similar.

Somehow I don't perceive them the same way, though. I think that Nancy Cruzan's parents wanted to do what they thought was best for their daughter. Michael Schiavo wanted to do what was best for Michael Schiavo. Nancy Cruzan's marker recognizes her family; Theresa Marie's marker recognizes her HINO alone.

[T'wit]

They are much alike in format. As for the thoughts behind each, you may well have it right. HINO's really does manage to sound artificial and loveless, doesn't it? Note that he cuts out the Schindlers.

But, th'th'th'that's all, folks. Have fun, y'all.

[Pepper777]

I think you're right about Wolfson. He was on TV, radio and everything else promoting Terri's death prior to and during the time of her tube removal. Like you said, the offer of another swallow test was bogus, imo too.

IIRC, he recommended another swallow test only if the Schindlers would consent to some sort of agreement. Not sure but I think the agreement was something like this - if Terri doesn't pass the swallow test, you the Schindlers will back off. Does this sound familiar?

[Sun]

Has anybody seen the Schindlers on ANY of the tv MSM shows, or are they just interviewing Michael and/or Jodi?

[TheSarce]

I got the Schindler's book last night, and here's the answer to the guardian ad litem you're thinking of, it's Richard Pearse. From pp 69-70:

Prior to the trial, another guardian ad litem was appointed to investigate the merits of Michael's guardianship, a man named Richard Pearse. He recommended that Terri's feeding tube be kept in. He felt that Michael had huge conflicts of interest--the disposition of Terri's estate, for example--and wondered why Michael had waited seven years to assert her wish to die. In a long document rebutting Pearse's opinion, Felos filed an objection to the report before the trial started. The report was thrown out. In the ensuing five-year period, Judge Greer acted as Terri's guardian ad litem.

This would have been right before the January 2000 trial.

[TheSarce]

The Schindlers did a LOT of shows on Monday and Tuesday-- Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, Hannity's radio show, Fox Dayside, Catherine Crier on Court TV, Paula Zahn, Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News (for the whole hour, it was very good), Hannity & Colmes, Scarborough Country, and The 700 Club.

And those are just the ones I know of! Someone had kindly posted a schedule a few pages back, or I would never have caught all these. But I haven't seen anything since, and don't know if they have anything else scheduled.

Links to some of the transcripts are scattered throughout the last few pages of posts.

[lula]

He's got a wife all but dead on the floor and he leaves her to get dressed?

Was she not found wearing some sort of sweat suit? Funny thing to have on at 4AM. Just how well dressed was he, is what I want to know. Shirt tucked in? belt? socks?

[T'wit]

>> Does this sound familiar?

Yes, I think that's exactly what it was. The swallowing test was bait for a death trap. Dr. Code Blue discussed the implications in detail. It boiled down to the same trap -- if you can't swallow, that's the Brave New World's medical excuse to kill you.

[8mmMauser]

Today is Terri's Day

Regardless of what governments or polls decide, today is the day to remember Terri.

Today's Highlight in History:

One year ago, on March 31, 2005, Terri Schiavo, 41, died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House and divided the country.

Today in History

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[T'wit]

>> Just how well dressed was he, is what I want to know. Shirt tucked in? belt? socks?

I would love to know that too. Well enough dressed to go to the ER, I gather. There was a witness. Anybody in touch with Bobby Schindler, ask him what Mikey was wearing when he got there.

[T'wit]

I shall try to have her remembered at the meeting I am attending tonight. I hope it doesn't start a war :-) Solid folks and lots of old friends, but... there was a lot of misinformation dished out by the presstitutes.

[T'wit]

>> right-to-die

They always have to figure out a way to lie, even if the item is only one line.

[8mmMauser]

A year ago today, the morning was disturbingly quiet at Pinellas Park. Exhausted families lay asleep in the damp grass in sleeping bags. TV crews tiptoed quietly from place to place capturing the innocent looks of the sleeping. They, themselves appeared touched by the scene. I went to post next to where Nikki always stayed in her wheelchair. We were next to the entrance, next to the checkpoint. A lone vulture came down from the north, circled once over the hospice, then left.

No sign of the gaggle of ghouls as they took the entrance further back anyway, safely away from us.

Something broke the silence. Fr. Pavone came out at a quick pace, escorted right past us. I wished I could have talked to him, but it was not the time for anything like that. He was concerned. More silence. I took a break and walked. At a little after nine, I heard the news.

Terri was now safe from the torment of her earthly creatures.

[8mmMauser]

Good luck. It is hard to reason with those who drank the pink Kool Aid.

[8mmMauser]

I would rather see "better" replacing "More". I also see Terri's Legacy as an order of magnitude bigger.

TAMPA - Tulie Taylor, her husband and other members of her family argued last year over whether Terri Schiavo should have been allowed to live or die. But they all came to agree on one thing - none of them wanted it to happen to them.

Schiavo's legacy: More living wills

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[8mmMauser]

TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO's death a year ago today occurred on the anniversary of a 1976 New Jersey Supreme Court decision authorizing the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan to remove her from a respirator so she could "die with dignity"--although she lived for nearly 10 more years. Her father, when asked if he wanted Karen's feeding tube removed, replied, "Oh, no, that's her nourishment."

How far we've come. Nearly thirty years later, a woman, whose severity of brain injury reminded us eerily of Karen Ann Quinlan, was declared to be in a "persistent vegetative state." But unlike Ms. Quinlan, Terri Schiavo was not on a respirator. There was nothing "artificial" keeping her alive.

On the anniversary of Terri Schiavo's death, questions still linger

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[8mmMauser]

Here is what happens when you drink too much pink Kool Aid.

Terri got all her broken bones and subsequent torture because of "bulemia", they would imagine us to swallow.

So appalling in this foolish statement is their glossing of the most glaring of facts long since emerged. They still push it as the "right to die" as if thirteen days of dehydration is a right. They still bring up the wiped out mantra of a weak heart when Terri survived thirteen days without a drop. How could it be with a weak heart? It is easy to get angry at such drivel, but better to consider it as the failed argument of the death lovers, the horse felos of the world.

What has been forgotten is the original cause of Schiavo's condition affecting women across the United States today: bulimia.

Schiavo desperately struggled with weight issues for years. Her 1990 collapse was caused by a potassium imbalance due to her eating disorder.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, the binge-and-purge cycles of bulimia can lead to chemical imbalances that harm major organs and can cause heart failure, the situation in Schiavo's case.

"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. We will give you no peace."

Terri Schiavo's True Tragedy: Bulimia, says Casa Palmera

Terri after the attack and before bioethicking.

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[8mmMauser]

Mary Schindler calls it "the euthanasia cult."

She's the mother of Terri Schiavo, who died one year ago today after a 15-year battle over whether to keep her alive despite a damaged brain.

In Washington yesterday, Schindler pledged to continue fighting what she calls, "the growing culture of euthanasia." She says a foundation established several years ago to keep Schiavo alive will now focus on educating the public about end-of-life decisions.

In contrast to the broad political support Schindler got last year, Republican Kansas Senator Sam Brownback was the only lawmaker with her at her news conference yesterday.

Schiavo's parents vow to keep up fight as anniversary arrives

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[8mmMauser]

From North Country Gazette...

As Michael Schiavo parades himself on the talk show circuit to peddle his book which he claims is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, once again, as in the 15 years between the time of Terri’s collapse in 1990 and her death orchestrated at the hands of her estranged husband, his pro-euthanasia attorney George Felos and Judge George W. Greer, Michael Schiavo’s story continues to change and misrepresentations and inconsistencies abound.

A year later, the need for an impartial investigation hasn’t abated, it’s intensified as Michael Schiavo reveals more and more inconsistencies with virtually every word he utters.

COMMENTARY - Terri: The Truth

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