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

[syriacus]

Thank you for providing the link to send a message to Andrea!

[Lesforlife]

From the mighty prayer warrior Pegita (on Freerepublic)

Heavenly Father, we return to thank You that there is none other than You who holds the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:10. How we praise You, Merciful Father, that Your mercy has overshadowed all attempts to end Andrea's life ... that You have sent others to minister to her ... that You have brought her back from the brink.

How we cry out to You, O God, that You will again intervene for Andrea and her family, not because of merit, but because of mercy. May Your healing manifest itself in blood pressure that can be sustained without medicines ... in the total disappearance of any manifestation of infection ... in a return to a measure of health that will astound, and convict, those who sought to remove her from our midst. Give ear to our plea for a miracle, O God, to the everlasting Glory and Honor of Your Name. Grace Andrea's medical team with wisdom and skill from on high, that they might be instruments of Your healing.

Take pity upon the heart of Andrea's beloved sister ... have mercy upon each one who has whispered Andrea's precious name before the Throne of Grace ... set before an unbelieving world that Creator God walks among His people ... draw near, Blessed Savior, that Andrea might touch the hem of Your garment and be healed.

Let our hearts not be broken again as they were for our beloved Terri, but strengthen and encourage Your children to continually defy the Merchants of Death, in the Power and Strength of God Almighty.

Hear our prayer, O Lord ...
Hear our prayer, O Lord ...
Incline thine ear to us
And grant us thy peace. Amen ...

[floriduh voter]

Martin was beaten and stomped but that didn't kill him. Sickle cell trait definitely did not kill him. Autopsy #2 in Hillsborough County is correct although Autopsy #1's Seibert stands by his report re: sickle cell being the cause.

Dueling autopsies is how the local news is spinning it.

[floriduh voter]

Fla AG Crist's office would not take any calls about Terri and her Civil Rights. A female there said they didn't have a civil rights dept.

Technically, she didn't lie because once a case goes to Crist's office, if it is Civil Rights, it is forwarded to Ft. Lauderdale for investigative and assignment purposes. Of course, that option was not afforded to Terri Schiavo.

I don't see how anyone can support Crist for governor. Whether a voter was for or against Terri, they should REALIZE that Charlie Crist is dishonest and he's being dishonest against regarding the death of Martin Anderson while MA was in state custody.

[floriduh voter]

FLA AG CRIST: I am dedicated to obtaining justice for Martin Lee Anderson, his parents and the people of Florida.

Charlie, why don't you tell the "people of Florida" that your friend Darryl Rousson is shadowing Martin's mom, GINA JONES? That is COLLUSION. Look it up, Charlie in your Law for Dummies book.

[Tax Government]

I trace Bush's big drop in the polls to his failure to protect Terri Schiavo

Very reasonable.

[supercat]

I trace Bush's big drop in the polls to his failure to protect Terri Schiavo

Very reasonable.

The issue isn't just that he failed to protect her, but rather he interfered with her situation by a logically-unjustifiable abount. To use a poker analogy, although "calling" may seem a compromise between raising and folding, there are situations where raising and folding may both be decent plays, but calling is a terrible. If Terri's dehydration was legally unjustifiable murder by the state, Jeb and GW Bush should have acted to prevent it, without backing down. If it was not, they should have done nothing. For them to act as they did generated the worst possible situation. Of course, Republicans seem to be good at that.

[Wampus SC]

Message from Andrea's sister:

ANDREA CLARK PASSED AWAY TODAY

"Andrea passed away peacefully a little before 3pm today, with her family and her friends at her bedside. We love her so very much and we are going to miss her terribly. We hope that the battle that we fought for our sister will bring to light and bear witness to the horrible acts committed in the name of ethics in hospitals across the state of Texas. "

(snip)

[T'wit]

Sad news.

There is good in this. Andrea died at peace because a great many people cared about her and fought for her. St. Lukes had threatened withdraw treatment. Had it done so, Andrea would have died unnaturally, not only in pain, but feeling helpless and betrayed by this world. Her family would have been embittered and left to wonder for the rest of their days whether she could have been saved. Thanks to those who cared, St. Lukes had to back off, and Andrea was given peace after all.

Thanks for passing this along, WampusSC.

[T'wit]

>> How, in the name of God, anyone can call putting someone to death when they are at their most helpless and begging for their lives "ethical," we cannot imagine. -- Melanie Childers [Andrea's sister]

One week ago, the "bioethics" department at the University of Pennsylvania held a symposium on how to put more people to death when they are helpless -- when they are sick or disabled or old.

The keynote speaker was Michael Schiavo -- invited solely because had had put his disabled wife to an agonizing death by dehydration. Other speakers included Judge George Greer and Dr. Ronald "Humane Death" Cranford, both likewise honored for their roles in putting a helpless Terri Schiavo to death. Greer should be remembered especially for his relentless bias and cruelty to Terri, such as denying her Holy Communion and refusing to let her have ice chips in her mouth to relieve the agony of dehydration.

Melanie Childers asks how in the name of God this can go on. So do we.

[8mmMauser]

Andrea...

Requiescant in Pace

[8mmMauser]

Saddened as we may be over this loss of Andrea, she denied the death ghouls their victory. Ping to #2,968 post from Wampus SC.

Terri's Legacy continues...

The Schindlers say since the death of Terri, hundreds of families across the country have reached out to them, wanting to know why doctor's aren't treating some patients equally.

"They're saying that that person's quality of life isn't worthy of that treatment, so they're literally allowing them to die," said Schindler.

Terri Schiavo's Parents Speak Out on the First Coast

8mm

(this includes Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to May 1.)



Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.

[CindyDawg]

Prayers for the families.

[8mmMauser]

Andrea's Fight...

From North Country Gazette:

She passed away peacefully a little before 3 p.m. Sunday in St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, with her family and friends at her beside.

Her death came a week to the day that the hospital had said it was going to remove all life support from the 54-year-old heart patient because the hospital's ethics committee had decided April 19 that it was medically futile to keep her alive.

Andrea Clark Loses Fight For Life

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Some unlikely political bedfellows want to change the state's "medical futility" law, saying it gives doctors too much power to make life-and-death decisions and families who disagree too little time to fight back.

The law has received renewed attention in recent days after doctors in Austin and Houston sought to withdraw treatment from patients whose families wanted to keep them on life support.

A collection of conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, Texas Right to Life members and disability rights advocates — all members of the Texas Advance Directives Act Coalition, which helped craft end-of-life legislation in Texas a decade ago and is considering changes to the medical futility provision — are largely in agreement that the deadlines imposed on families are too burdensome. But so far they haven't been able to persuade many of the doctor and hospital representatives in the coalition of the need to extend the deadlines.

'Futility' law gives doctors too much power, groups charge

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Martin Anderson update...

They called it a change to the game plan.

TALLAHASSEE - It happens nearly every year: An unforeseen issue that changes the game plan in the Florida Legislature.

A year ago it was the kidnapping and slaying of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford two weeks before the session began and the end-of-life battle between Terri Schiavo's husband and parents that consumed lawmakers' activities. In 2004, lawmakers reacted similarly to the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia.

Boot camp death changed legislative game plan

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Catholic Online...

Too many people in this neo-pagan age have, knowingly or unknowingly, been lured into a new form of idolatry. “Choice” is the new golden calf around which many now worship. As a culture, we have stripped the word of its moral content and try to hide evil under its verbal guise. We have the arrogance to call some choices “rights”, when they are always wrong. “Freedom” can be exercised wrongly. This is obvious in the horror of legalized abortion on demand. We all know that procured abortion is the taking of innocent human life. Even its most vicious advocates rarely debate that issue any longer. They follow instead the way of the modern sophists, seeking to hide the horror of the act under the shadow of the new golden calf - the idol of unencumbered “choice”.

The truth is that some choices are always and everywhere wrong, such as the taking of innocent human life. It should never be chosen, even if there are no apparent legal impediment to killing certain subsets of persons, such as is currently the case with children in the womb. This “culture of death” has expanded the so called “right to choose” to the killing of “unwanted” disabled people like Terri Schiavo and, if left unopposed, will soon set include “unwanted” elderly and infirmed. Authentic human freedom must always be exercised with reference to the truth concerning the inviolable dignity of every human life, at every age and every stage. Otherwise, it becomes a counterfeit.

The Choices We Make Determine the People We Become

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Another ping to the thread on Martin Anderson...

Autopsy: Boot camp guards killed teen

8mm

[Pegita]

Heavenly Father, we return to thank You that You have this day again declared the truth of Your Word ... that in Your hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:10. How we praise You, Merciful Father, that You allowed not any man to usurp Your authority ... that in the fullness of Andrea's time, You called her unto Yourself.

Comfort Andrea's beloved family and friends, and all those who have stood between her and the Merchants of Death ... may they know the assurance that their every effort will be recorded throughout eternity, even as every effort to end her life will be an eternal testimony against the Authority of Sovereign God. Strengthen us, even in the midst of tears and grief, with the resolve to continue to uphold the preciousness of life wherever it is threatened, unto the time when an unbelieving world truly knows that God, not man, is the Creator and Sustainer of Life ... that You, Most Gracious Father, hold the life and breath of all mankind.

Unto You be all Glory, Power, Honor, and Praise ... now and forevermore, Amen ...

[wagglebee]

Prayers for Andrea, her family and friends.

And thanks to our Lord for allowing her return to Him to be at a time of His choosing rather than the culture of death.