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

[floriduh voter]

IT'S FREEP-A-THON TIME. Terri's Freepers, please support Free Republic. Thanks, FV

[floriduh voter]

Save this jpeg now before I put it away for awhile.

(by phildragoo)

[floriduh voter]

Thanks for speaking out for Terri, Pat.

[floriduh voter]

From www.theweeklystandard.com (excerpt)

"Manliness can be noble and heroic, like the men on the Titanic; but it can also be foolish, stubborn, and violent. Achilles, Brutus, and Sir Lancelot exemplify the glory of manliness, but also its darker sides. Theodore Roosevelt was manly; so was Harry "The Buck Stops Here" Truman. Manly men are confident in risky situations. Manliness can be pathological, as in gangsters and terrorists. . . ."

[floriduh voter]

BTTT for the movie jpegs.

[T'wit]

Now there are two votes. I am not going to review it this moment but probably will in due course.

Do see the movie if it's anywhere near you. It is more akin to great courtroom drama than to a horror film. The director professes to be an atheist, but true to history, he unflinchingly presents Sophie as a devout Christian who gathers sustenance and strength from God. (I can't imagine Hollywood even considering such honesty.) The Gestapo interrogator, Mohr, is also portrayed intensely. But note that Mohr is human, arguing with conviction for the values he himself believes. He is not exaggerated into a monster to make Sophie look angelic. The drama of the movie is the clash of ideas between the two. This is reflected again in the Nazi show trial, where Hans and Sophie refuse to disavow their views or to betray any comrades.

[Dante3]

This reminds me of the diverse types who have spoken out in public support of Terri in addition to Pat Buchanan - Martin Katz, Hannity, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Wendy Murphy, etc. Many more people would have supported Terri if they had had the correct facts.

[bjs1779]

Now there are two votes.

Now we are all the way up to 3 votes I see!

[Ohioan from Florida]

I'm getting nothing on that link. Page loads but has no content.

[Ohioan from Florida]

So is rehab.

[T'wit]

If one does write a review, is the writer's name and/or e-mail address revealed?

[bjs1779]

Terri Schiavo's Former Husband Attacks Tom DeLay After Resignation

[TAdams8591]

And as usual it's all about Michael, lol!

[bjs1779]

I would say that you should check some of the reviews of a random movie to make sure - brave heart : )

[bjs1779]

Again he supplies more suspicion on to himself as to Terri's original injury. He's a madman.

[floriduh voter]

From North Country Gazette re: Attorney George Felos' wishes. (you know sometimes when Felos held press conferences, he would slip up and say his wishes as in Michael instead of Terri's wishes.)

Jail for Judges should have a subsidiary called Jail for Lawyers.

[floriduh voter]

Here's the article:

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/040306FelosWish.html

[floriduh voter]

Democrat Rob Emmanuel talked about Terri on Hardball. He said that Delay made the president return to DC from the ranch to do that. That's new info to me.

Terri's responsible for a lot of nervous nellies in the dem party. If she was so disposable and not deserving of life, why do liberals and rinos keep bringing Terri up?

[floriduh voter]

Ralph Nader,David Boies,Mel Gibson,Patricia Heaton,Pat Boone and many more came out to support Terri. This just isn't over. Millions of people are just warming up in the bull pen to stop Amerika's culture of death.

[floriduh voter]

I have a few pictures will scan sometime this week from where Terri's marker is. Further, I was given a bracelet like Lance Armstrong's at the Friday Mass. It's purple, Terri's favorite color and the inscription says "Where there's life there's hope."

(the evidence/witness tampering by Judge Greer is now on a bracelet.) I should scan that too and email it to congress. Congress is going to have to do something about euthanasia because apparently, Bobby Schindler, Jr., will have an office in D.C. He's young, energetic and committed to stopping the euthanasia cult.

Wisely, they have a family member working at the federal level. It's a waste of time to try to change Florida because it's THE STARVATION STATE and Florida cronies like it that way. The latest is that Florida is thinking about opening up Hospices to "for profits". Right now, the not for profits (yeah, right) have a monopoly. If they open up the marketplace, they'll all be looking for more victims (temporary clients).