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

[8mmMauser]

Emboldened and puffed by their "victory", supported by the media, they see no reason to hide, consider themselves above the rules. How egregious will finally be too egregious for authorities to swallow?

[T'wit]

>> Wasn't afraid of the bear, should have been.

I have a hunch she could speak niedzwiedz and would have had the beast licking her hand in two minutes. Ask her if she ever heard of a bear in the Edinburgh Zoo named Wojtek.

[T'wit]

>> How egregious will finally be too egregious for authorities to swallow?

I don't know. There seems no lower limit on human degeneracy.

[floriduh voter]

If free republic held a spelling bee, who would win?

noboty.

[floriduh voter]

Jeb didn't appoint Sheriff Rice as temporary director of FDLE. Maybe Jebediah, the righteous one, actually read John S's email. A fellow named Bailey will head Florida's FDLE dept. for awhile. (the last chief resigned after Florida Sheriffs beat poor teen Martin Anderson TO DEATH while Martin was in State Custody).

George Greer is the face of Florida's culture of death and Everett Rice is the centerfold. State Attorney Bernie McCabe is one of those smelly perfume ads. You can try to make McCabe smell better but he still smells putred.

Will Jebbie backtrack from his cult of death and greed friends or is he going to stay loyal to their agenda?

It's not just death. It is a cult of greed and death.

[floriduh voter]

What Greer's TOPIC SHOULD BE at the Law Day Luncheon "What Laws I Violated to Kill Terri Schiavo, How I Usurped the Power of the President, The Congress, the Rule of Law, Cheated in my 2004 Re-election and Why I haven't been Impeached or Jailed".

Cheryl Ford's book Our Fight For Terri has a Violations section. Zombie Judge Greer's in the Violations section along with DCF and ACHA.

I like it... Zombie Judge Greer (a zombie for felosers).

[BykrBayb]

Eye wood. Cause I halve a spelling checker.

[floriduh voter]

I know, I know. When Michael Schiavo isn't the center of the universe, he time shares with Zombie Judge Greer. They take turns explaining why it was okay to murder Terri.

[T'wit]

Wood knot!

[BykrBayb]

Ewe think it wood bee ewe?

[BykrBayb]

Well, dew ewe?

[T'wit]

>> When Michael Schiavo isn't the center of the universe, he time shares with Zombie Judge Greer. They take turns explaining why it was okay to murder Terri.

Many years from now, all the places they have been together will be haunted by their two spirits, still whining, still trying to explain.

[T'wit]

Neigh! (Soiree, Aye em horse two dey.)

[T'wit]

Jew effort here detail off Ladle Rat Rotten Hut? Reel phony! Hear!

Ferry Tail

Transcript here -- but listen first

[T'wit]

>> You cracked the secret code.

I think it was Pat Anderson who cracked it. (Wasn't it?) It is nevertheless intriguing to find it operating in a different state under completely different circumstances. The ghouls have been busy.

[Lesforlife]

TELL EM WHAT YOU THINK!!

The (Texas House) Committee on Public Health

Legislative Session: 79(3)

Appointment Date: 01/27/2005
Clerk: Tom McCarty Phone: (512) 463-0806 Room: EXT E2.118
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/db2www/tlo/committees/cmtembrs.d2w/report?LEG=79&SESS=3&CMTECODE=C410&CHAMBER=H&CTYPE=House

has an "interim study" in progress to "study" the Texas futile care
law. They plan hearings on the law for "sometime" this summer. No date
set.

The public may contribute to the "interim study" by voicing their
opinion in contributing materials to that committee.

We can:

a) Tell them today about how evil the futile care law is
via the lense of Andrea Clark

b) Insist that they hold hearings soon, put a date on the
calendar, and tell them we want the bill repealed.

The parallel committee in the Senate is:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/db2www/tlo/committees/cmtembrs.d2w/report?LEG=79&SESS=3&CMTECODE=C610&CHAMBER=S&CTYPE=Senate

Committee on Health & Human Services

Legislative Session: 79(3)

Appointment Date: 01/28/2005
Clerk: Kevin Jackson Phone: (512) 463-0360 Room: SHB 420

[floriduh voter]

Put Florida back on a just course. Volunteer for Tom Gallagher for Governor (he's the only real conservative in the race).

www.tg2006.com

[floriduh voter]

Dirty Laundry Thread on Charlie Crist and Everett Rice:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1501884/posts

[Dante3]

BUMP

[amdgmary]

Terri Schiavo Family Blasts Pro-Euthanasia Symposium

From Pro Life Blogs

Bobby Schindler had a few harsh words for Judge George Greer:

"I am here today at the University of Pennsylvania to speak out against the participation of Pinellas County probate court Judge George Greer in the University's so-called 'Bioethics symposium.' Our family publicly stated for years that Judge Greer has a pro-euthanasia, pro-death bias, which tempered his decisions in my sister’s case and caused him to unethically, immorally and illegally ordered her to die."

"For Judge Greer to speak on ‘The Legacy of the Terri Schiavo Case’ at a one-sided pro-death gathering without an opposing view or organized rebuttal is not only unethical for a sitting judge who still oversees precisely this type of case, it is a callous disregard for the preamble to the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct which says that our legal system is based on the principle that an independent, fair and competent judiciary will interpret and apply the laws that govern us. Judge Greer's participation in this event should cause fear and trembling for any disabled or vulnerable person whose fate is decided in his court."

"How can any citizens of Florida have confidence that Judge Greer will remain unbiased now that he is on the speaking circuit justifying the killing of an innocent, disabled woman without any proof of her consent? Will he continue to play God and decree that all persons like my sister die by thirst and starvation?"

"Canon 2 of the Florida Judicial Code says, ‘a judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all the judge's activities. A judge shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.’"

"Judge Greer's appearance here today certainly shows his bias against the disabled. He makes a mockery of the entire judicial system."

"Does George Greer know the Law or is he so callous that he and his cohorts believe he is above the law?"

"While canon 4 would allow Judge Greer to participate in quasi-judicial activities involving the law, the code requires that such an event should not cast reasonable doubt on the judges' capacity to remain impartial. For George Greer to speak at an event where Michael Schiavo, Jay Wolfson, Dr. Cranford, Ms. Labyak, and others are appearing leaves little, if any doubt on how biased Greer is toward the disabled and his advocacy of promoting dehydration and starvation for our less fortunate brothers and sisters."

"We would urge that the Judicial Qualifications Commission review Judge Greer's activities both within and outside the State of Florida for the sake of other vulnerable persons that may have to appear before him."

"Those of us with the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation Center for Healthcare Ethics and my family are outraged at Judge Greer's participation in today's event and the appearance of bias he has perpetuated. The whole world has watched the actions of George Greer, and we believe history will one day record that his court gravely violated the law in my sister's case, committing judicial homicide."