Posted on 03/14/2006 11:28:51 AM PST by 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
I think you've been reading too much about mercy death (aka peaceful passing, euphoric end, final solution, etc). The accent is rubbing off on you. Keep it up, and you can slip unnoticed into a bioethics seminar.
It makes it difficult for them to convince anyone she's just abortion residue, when she sings so beautifully.
She has been on for about 15 minutes and Craig is trying to
trip her up on what the appropriate penalty should be for
the abortion is murder claim.
Dan asks her if she feels used by Rep. Harvey as Alice
Madden stated in the Post.
She will take calls next.
She is so dear and joyful and happy!!
Leslie
She has been on for about 15 minutes and Craig is trying to
trip her up on what the appropriate penalty should be for
the abortion is murder claim.
Dan asks her if she feels used by Rep. Harvey as Alice
Madden stated in the Post.
She will take calls next.
She is so dear and joyful and happy!!
Leslie
I'd never fit into my old uniform.
What would you think about a Happy Birthday thread for Sophie? The day is slipping away.
I am hungry to see her smile and to hear her sing! Failing that, somebody give the lass a hug, medals, awards, applause, two dozen roses, all the chocolate truffles she can eat, plus both of Craig's ears and his tail.
That was a good idea. But now, the day has slipped away.
Change of Date!8mm
Terri’s Day – A Celebration of the Culture of Life – the Right to Live
event being held in honor of Terri Schiavo featuring her parents and siblings
along with other major guests that was to be held at Millennium Centre in
Southfield, MI – has been rescheduled to July 14, 2006 (time, location, cost all
remains the same). If you have tickets for the May 12 event, please hold them
and they will be honored for the July 14 event.
New Date: July 14, 2006
Time: 5:00 p.m. VIP Reception
6:30 p.m. General Admission
Location: Millennium Centre
15600 J. L. Hudson Drive, Suite C
Southfield, MI 48075
Featured Guests: Bob, Mary, Bobby, and Suzanne Schindler
Other guests: Entertainer Melba Moore, Rev. Dr. Alveda
King (niece of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.),
Hollywood Director Jonathan Flora and
Actress Deborah Flora, GOPUSA CEO and
President Bobby Eberle, and more! Stay
tuned to _www.kevinfobbs.com_ (http://www.kevinfobbs.com) for more details
on the booking of special guests for the
new date and other pertinent information.
Cost: VIP Reception $200
General Admission $50
ALL TICKETS FOR THE ORIGINAL DATE WILL BE HONORED FOR THE NEW DATE
Call Karen at 734-525-7323 or 313-749-1659 for more information
Pinellas County taxpayers paid Michael Schiavo over $6,000 plus benefits last March to watch his disabled wife die after he pulled her feeding tube to cause her long, tortuous death.
This year, taxpayers paid Michael Schiavo over $2,500 plus benefits to honeymoon in Las Vegas with his entourage of 10.
Michael Schiavo: Immune From Accountability
Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.
8mm
During his 15 minute presentation, Greer took issue with a lot of things concerning the Schiavo case, especially ridiculing Terri's parents for appealing to higher courts for a review of Greer's rulings.
He emphasized that by his count, "we had some 30 judges and Supreme Court justices in both the state of Florida and the federal system review the evidence submitted".
Once again, Greer is wrong. Thirty judges didn't review the merits of the case.
COMMENTARY - Schiavo Judge Wrong Again
8mm
I never could quite figure taking ten people on a honeymoon. But then, Michael had two wives for years and years, which is perfectly acceptable to certain judges in Florida. Besides, in Florida, if you have two wives, you get to kill one and take the other to Las Vegas with the proceeds. That's the law.
Some euthanasia, it appears, is not nifty.
To my mind, passive euthanasia is immoral. The abrupt withdrawal of medical treatment, feeding, and hydration results in a slow and (potentially) torturous death. It took Terri Schiavo 13 days to die, when her tubes were withdrawn in the last two weeks of March 2005. Since it is impossible to conclusively prove that patients in PVS (Persistent Vegetative State) do not suffer pain, it is morally wrong to subject them to such potential gratuitous suffering. Even animals should be treated better. Moreover, passive euthanasia allows us to evade personal responsibility for the patient's death. In active euthanasia, the relationship between the act (of administering a lethal medication, for instance) and its consequences is direct and unambiguous.
Euthanasia and the Right to Die
8mm
No foolin', Dick Tracy. As I noted as recently as yesterday, a key purpose of ALL the euthanasia laws is to evade criminal charges for killing people. Euthanasia laws with any force -- the Texas futile-care law, for instance -- perforce have provisions to exempt the killer(s) from civil or criminal penalties.
It's all about getting away with murder.
Miami Herald
In a sign of his unease with the Martin Lee Anderson case, Gov. Jeb Bush demanded that a sheriff fire a captain who supervised the boot camp where a boy allegedly was suffocated by guards.
Gov. asks for dismissal of camp's ex-supervisor
8mm
It is the old argument of the good badguys against the bad badguys. How they love to play with word meanings...
And we have our prime example of evasion of criminal activity by Mikey and the wiseguys.
Well, I launched bravely into reading it but was overcome by bloviation fumes after a few hundred yards. Gah! It takes SO much verbiage to tell God He's wrong.
Oh, boy, Jeb suffered "a sign of unease." Can't wait to read this one.
And that comes very close to original sin. Look at the first verses of St. John.
Last gospel, Traditional Catholic....In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. etc.
Are they saying that the guards actually held a bottle of ammonia under Martin's nose? Or is it just that the reporter has never heard of smelling salts? (= Ammonium carbonate.) I suppose it doesn't make much difference. The autopsy said "manual" closure of his mouth. Iow, they held his mouth shut and made him breathe ammonia fumes. Whether it was from smelling salts or straight from an ammonia bottle, that would kill him -- quickly, I suspect.
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