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]

Michael Schiavo blames everyone for his major torment except himself.

[T'wit]

OK, I checked Braveheart and it doesn't have any reviews either :-)

[bjs1779]

I see that. That is highly unusual one would think. Looks like IMDB is the way to go with your review.

[bjs1779]

Michael Schiavo blames everyone for his major torment except himself.

When he cracks, I just hope he doesn't kill his current family. They should run a check on this guy.

[T'wit]

The only one I could find with any reviews was Gone with the Wind. That had two reviews, both trivial.

IMDB next. That would be "I M D Best?"

[bjs1779]

IMDB next. That would be "I M D Best?"




http://www.imdb.com/

[floriduh voter]

How can he supervise all those people at the Sheriff's Dept. when he's so obsessed with pointing fingers? I think the job is just quid pro quo. It's hard to believe he's actually in charge of something - anything.

[bjs1779]

How can he supervise all those people at the Sheriff's Dept. when he's so obsessed with pointing fingers? I think the job is just quid pro quo. It's hard to believe he's actually in charge of something - anything.

Something is real fishy in the Sheriff's Dept. there. All of the personnel donating their off days pay for Michael, give me a break! Can't you get those records? I mean somebody should be able to.

[T'wit]

Not to change the subject, let's go back and ponder this St. Pete newspaper story from Nov. 15, 1990 -- 9 months after the incident. Generally, the earlier the testimony, the more reliable the memory, so let's think out loud about this.

Mike Schiavo vividly remembers the morning of Feb. 25. Usually a late sleeper, Schiavo awakened suddenly about 5 a.m. and started to get out of bed.

"For some strange reason that day, I was just taking the covers off, and then she hit the floor," he said.

Schiavo's 26-year-old wife, Terri, had suddenly - and as yet inexplicably - suffered a loss of potassium in her body that caused her heart to stop beating. She was rushed to the hospital.

The first thing we can say is that the final paragraph is false. If Terri had suffered cardiac arrest due to low potassium, her whole body, including the heart itself, would have been damaged by loss of oxygen ("global ischemia"). But her heart and other organs below the neck were unaffected. The damage due to lack of oxygen was only in her brain. It was not caused by cardiac arrest but by some blockage of oxygen to the brain.

What else can we glean here? Schiavo awoke at 5:00 a.m. despite being a late sleeper. No reason given for him to wake up so unusually, especially since he had worked late at the restaurant. And what a striking coincidence -- he wakes up just before his wife "hits the floor." Was he awake all along? Was the "sleep" a murderous period of time he wants to block out of his mind?

The ambulance got there when, 5:40? What happened in the forty minutes after Terri "hit the floor" and the arrival of emergency medical people?

At 5:00 a.m. in winter it's dark out. This was nighttime. How did he know that she hit the floor? Did he see her? Was a light on? Did he hear her? (But there could have been other explanations of a sound.) Why didn't he say? For someone who "remembers vividly," he's omitting every detail.

"For some strange reason..." -- what kind of witness is that?
"...that day," -- it wasn't day, it was night.
"I was just taking the covers off, and then she hit the floor." -- weird.

He doesn't describe the room, give details, say where is wife is, what she's doing, what he sees, what he hears. All he mentions is covers. What did he do next? Did he give her CPR? Nothing about calling 911 either. Nothing about the ambulance arriving, or Bobby, or going to the ER. The most traumatic night in his life and he is a clam. The reporter isn't asking any questions, either.

This does not make sense. Any other insights or views? What is he hiding?

[BykrBayb]

Prayers For Gerry Strachan

Cliff Strachan spends a lot of time in his arm chair these days.

Looking at pictures of his little brother-Gerry-and thinking about the past.

Nine weeks ago-their lives were turned upside down-when Gerry played a practical joke at a superbowl party.

"I wish there was some how he could come back," Cliff said.

Minutes later-he was punched-kicked and pummeled outside by three party goers. He's been in a coma and on life support ever since.

The men accused of the attack were arrested and charged with assault-charges that could increase to involuntary manslaughter the family says-but only if Gerry dies.

"The only thing living on him is his stem...that is all that is keeping his head going and him breathing...so automatically they should already be prosecuted and be in jail," his brother said.

The family says Gerry needs a brain scan to see if he has any brain activity-but he does not have insurance. They are applying for long-term medicaid, but it may take a while before that gets approved.

[T'wit]

You have to wonder what really went on. Gerry played a "practical joke" at a party -- and then got beaten and kicked almost lifeless by three men?

The hospital is about to have its own little practical joke. It is going to carve up Gerry while his heart is still beating and sell his organs and tissue. It will keep the profits, too. Ha ha on you, Gerry.

[T'wit]

Prayers for Gerry, yes. And let's add the hope that his diagnosis is not as bleak as it sounds. One thing we keep hearing about brain-damaged patients is, no few of them confound the doctors and get better.

[T'wit]

[ /sarcasm ]

[BykrBayb]

I've since read another article about him. He was in the bathroom. His sister-in-law knocked on the door, and he didn't respond. She opened the door, and there he stood, exposed, and laughing. The family has said they're going to give him 30 days, then pull the plug.

In other news, I see several articles like the following, every day.

Boy Hit By Car Taken Off Life Support

A boy who was injured when a hit-and-run driver made an illegal pass was taken off life-support Monday.

Because the swelling on Jameel Short’s brain was so severe, doctors at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center determined the boy would not survive the accident.

But because of his mother’s decision, Short's life will still serve a purpose.

"He’s an angel,” his mother, Joslyn Jackson, said. “God put him here to save lives.”

After being kept on life support for the weekend, doctors removed Short’s vital organs on Monday morning. They will now be used to help someone else.

"I had him for 10 years, but he can go home now,” Jackson said. “In heaven.”

Short was hit while crossing a street in Fayetteville on Friday night.

"It was just this big boom and I ran outside,” Jackson said about hearing the car accident that caused her 10-year-old son’s death. "When I came outside I saw two pair of sneakers in the street.”

Authorities said the car that struck Short and another boy, who was released from the hospital over the weekend, did not have its lights on.

Three days after his accident, the doctors decided he should be killed for his organs. A later article states that he was brain dead, according to his mother. I'm sure they had to tell her that. What mother would allow her child to be killed for his organs? So they told her he was dead, when in reality, he was in a coma.

[Wampus SC]

I stumbled on this torture stuff by accident while researching something I *thought* was unrelated -- separation of powers. It's good to hear voices that either favor it somewhat or are relatively neutral. There was plenty there that could have been responded to as to the ethics of torture itself, regardless of who's doing it. I actually prefer it that way, since if you let who's doing it make a difference you've entered the moral relativism zone. That's a digression, though.

"I really have no way of knowing the veracity of the charges some have made against the U.S."

I dismiss many sources for that reason. Any source in the Mideast, MoveOn, etc., for obvious and known bias. My sources for the "charges some have made against the US" are the reports on torture released by the United States Army. Not just incidents at Gitmo and Abu, apparently. Including DVD's full of pictures and videos made by the torturers themselves, documenting their handiwork. Because of recent court rulings, every last bit of it will be released soon. Sworn testimony about who ordered what will be interesting.

My source for the "signing statements" where the executive exempts itself from laws - such as the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment: aside from commentary everywhere, check whitehouse.gov.

"A stated unwillingness to escallate 'badness' can encourage others to engage in it with impunity--clearly not a desirable objective, so I don't fault the U.S. for indicating preemtively that it won't do any such things."

Historically the way anti-torture agreements have worked is that stated unwillingness to torture makes it less likely that an adversary will torture your troops. Countries enter the agreements to protect their own troops. Violating the agreement makes your own troops more likely to be tortured. Unfortunately the administration claims the right to use torture techniques (and CYA by calling it something else). Not the best way to support the troops, huh?

"As for whether the U.S. in fact engages in such things inappropriately, I don't have enough real information to judge and I don't know that people who have access to accurate information are going to be in position to talk about it."

The danger in making a point based on information you say you don't know is that someone might come along and tell you where to find it. :) The internet is a great research tool - all points of view are represented and it's easy to use.... Go to google and enter these searches:
----- "US Army" torture (photos OR pictures)
----- taguba
----- "signing statement" torture
----- gonzalez torture memo

See what you find. It's an easy way to test my veracity. I welcome that.

Last thing: let's talk about that "escalating badness". In the runup to the war the administration produced proof that Saddam used torture as an instrument of policy; and used that proof as a reason why he had to be deposed. I wholeheartedly agreed, and still do. If (actually when) it becomes clear that americans torture, or that the administration claims the right to (ie: policy) -- what then? What implications? I sure hope nobody says it's wrong when THEY do it, but right when WE do it.....

[Wampus SC]

LOL! Ambition doesn't get any greater than that! In my twisted imagination I see a James Bond movie. "Will 007 stop the nefarious Lizard Man from releasing airborne ebola and exterminating the human race?"

"There is one small fly in the ointment. He says we humans are equal to bacteria but doesn't seem to realize that in putting humans to a hideous death, he'd be committing genocide on our internal bacteria."

How dare him! Doesn't he realize that the methane produced by human intestinal bacteria is crucial to maintaining the crucial ecological balance of the atmosphere? Without human-produced methane a chemical "tipping point" will be reached, resulting in catastrophic climate collapse. Some environmentalist he is, huh?

[Wampus SC]

"I think I shall make another revision in honor of Rachel Carson -- patron saint of malaria mosquitoes -- whose legacy kills two million people every year, most of them children. These deaths could be prevented except the Church of Ecological Horse Felos won't allow it."

Other prominent saints in the Church of Ecological Horse Felos:

St. Georgie (Felos or Greer - take your pick) Patron saints of drought and famine. The upside - their horses do help fertilize crops.

St. Mikey - patron saint of webs of deception.

St. Jeb - patron saint of wimps.

St. Eric of the Lizards - patron saint of pandemics.

Hey! Wait! -- I propose a new addition to the lexicon. Pianka, past tense pianked. Think of it as genocide cubed. When it's a useless eater here and there - they get bioethicked. When it's a few million in Germany or American Indians or Rwandans - they got genocided. When it's multiple billions - they got pianked.

[Wampus SC]

"The old rule is, you announce fair treatment of prisoners. (You have to keep your word, too, because the enemy will soon find out.) Otherwise your enemy will fight to the death instead of surrendering. That increases casualties on both sides."

Yep. Too bad we're throwing out the old rule. The immediate effect on Americans is that the troops are more endangered. It doesn't support them one bit.

"I have no information on present U.S. use of torture. I have only a native -- or is it naive? -- belief that Americans are above engaging in what I myself would call torture, namely, inflicting great pain."

I used to be that way too, pre-information. Those were the days (sigh). I'm avoiding going all Ike and posting some of the graphic stuff from Army records. Because it's, well, graphic, and verly likely unwelcome. But if it looks like that's what it takes, I will.

[Wampus SC]

The most important is #6, the signing statement or other means to exempt the top guys from laws. Unitary executive.

"Post 1531. Everyone should read it. Wackenhut Security helped guard Hospice Woodside while Terri was being tortured to death inside. They ran out of real law enforcement so they hired a private company to guard the brick fence. That's how crucial it was for the death care system to make sure that Terri didn't come out alive."

Wackenhut has been there for years to supposedly help out with "extracurricular activities". I first became aware of them about the time I graduated from high school, and that's waaayyyy back there.

New player people should research - Blackwater Security. Its role in NOLA was very interesting. As is the poorly understood role of their airfield. In NC IIRC.

[8mmMauser]

The DVD vote is creeping up, is now at 5.