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]

Seems it was a regular activity in handling the kids.

In the caught-on-tape manhandling, Martin appeared to do little to resist when a group of guards kneed, punched, wrestled and pressure-pointed him. The guards tried to revive the rubber-legged boy by shoving ammonia capsules in his face -- a practice that another boy from the boot camp said was common.

[T'wit]

It follows that word-twisting is tampering with God's authority and that in the end it will avail nothing. I wonder if this ever occurs to the professional word-twisting class (liberal media, professors, talking heads)? They think they are the anointed, the priestly class, the taxherders of the masses. They worship power and bend words to gain ever more of it. But all they are is useful idiots to the enemy.

[T'wit]

>> The guards tried to revive the rubber-legged boy by shoving ammonia capsules in his face

Yes, that would be smelling salts or equivalent -- available in many a first-aid kit. The reporter's phrase, "ammonia-wielding," sounded like somebody got a bottle of household cleaner and held it under the boy's nose.

I figured the guards got frustrated when he didn't revive -- perhaps clapped a hand over his mouth and jammed the smelling salts under his nose to get a bigger dose. But ammonia is poisonous and can only be given in small doses. It works to irritate the throat and lungs so that the recipient reacts by breathing harder and gulping for air -- and that is the resuscitation. If he breathes hard but can only gulp more poisonous ammonia fumes (remember, they're holding his mouth shut), it kills him.

[8mmMauser]

That is a fascinating way to look at the deeper roots behind the word juggling games of the dark side. I had never considered that perspective but it all falls into place.

[T'wit]

>> For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armored tanks with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of "subjects"; and when whole classes and whole nations become hypnotized by the arts of the spell binder, we have the impudence to be astonished.

The Lost Tools of Learning, by Dorothy L. Sayers (1947!)

[8mmMauser]

I enjoyed reading it. Consider how far we have come,or sunk. Frequently I am embarrassed for supposedly educated people today who display abysmal grammar, scant ability to assemble words into any rational meaning.

[8mmMauser]

North Country Gazette...

SB 1280, the Starvation and Dehydration of Persons with Disabilities Prevention Act, authored by Senator Bill Morrow (R-Carlsbad) would have established a presumption that every person legally incapable of making healthcare decisions would direct his/her healthcare providers to err on the side of life, continuing to provide nutrition and hydration unless clear and convincing evidence proves that the patient desires otherwise.

Despite Morrow's explanation of the pains of dehydration, a process which can take up to three weeks, the committee voted to defeat the measure, arguing that the clear and convincing evidence standard was too strict and could never be met.

California Senate Committee Votes Against Disabled and Dying

8mm

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



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

[8mmMauser]

The sunny side of Jeb...

I bite my tongue.

..................

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - U.S. President George W. Bush has endorsed his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, as a potential future U.S. president.

Jeb would make a "great president" of the United States, the U.S. President said, according to An AP report. The president admitted he did not know whether his brother had any intention of running for the Oval Office: "It's up to Jeb to make a decision to run," he told reporters at a roundtable interview with several Florida newspapers.

"I have no idea what he's going to do," Bush added. "I've asked him that question myself. I truly don't think he knows." The president emphasized that Jeb's "political future is very bright - if he chooses to have a political future. But he is an independent-minded guy. His priority is his family."

The Florida Governor has been featured in numerous LifeSiteNews.com stories as a defender of human life and family values. Jeb Bush is also a devout Catholic, and has joined the Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus which is known for its strong pro-life and pro-family stands.

He was a key reason why Terri Schiavo was able to live as long as she did, before the courts eventually ruled against "Terri's Law" - a law initiated by Gov. Bush to prevent the starvation of Terri Schiavo when her estranged husband attempted the manoeuvre in 2003. (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/may/04050601.html)

In 2004, the Governor attempted to have the unborn child of a severely disabled woman be appointed a court guardian.  (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jan/04011202.html)

The Florida Governor was successful in implementing parental notification laws in the state, after nearly two decades of wrangling between the courts, the legislature, voters and governors. The law, which requires physicians to inform parents before their minor daughter is scheduled for an abortion, was signed into law by Bush last May. (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05052701.html)

The Governor lamented the loss of life of an unborn child when a 13-year-old in his state was given permission by a judge to have an abortion. (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05050405.html)

Last year, the younger of the Bush brothers unveiled a counselling plan for women considering abortion to help them consider alternatives such as adoption. (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/mar/05030202.html)

The Governor has been on the cutting edge of pro-life initiatives.  When a pro-life film by a Hollywood filmmaker was yet to be released, a copy had already been requested by Jeb Bush.  The film, A Distant Thurnder, is a courtroom thriller which exposes the horror of partial-birth abortion. (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05101105.html)

On the pro-family front, Jeb Bush has been no less active.  The governor applauded the US Supreme Court last year for rejecting an appeal of the state's ban on adoption by homosexuals.  Florida is the only state with a complete ban against same-sex adoption. (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05011004.html)

US President Endorses Catholic, Pro-Life Brother Jeb for President

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Tampa Tribune...

TAMPA - When the Florida Senate rejected two constitutional amendments on education in the closing days of the recent legislative session, it didn't just hand Gov. Jeb Bush a stunning setback.

It also raised questions about the future direction of the Florida Republican Party.

In the two votes, maverick Republicans joined Democrats to chip away at pieces of Bush's education reforms, the signal achievement of his political career.

GOP Votes Suggest Centrist Future

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Union Leader...

..................

WHEN U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a heart surgeon, declared that in his medical opinion Terri Schiavo was not brain dead — though he had never examined her — the world scoffed. Under a bill to be voted on in the House today, it is conceivable that patients could have their life support removed after such a long-distance diagnosis.

One provision of House Bill 656 would allow a patient to be declared "near death" or "permanently unconscious" by "two physicians or a physician and an ARNP." Nowhere does it say that the physician or advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP) has to be one who has attended or treated the patient.

The bill also allows the attending ARNP alone to determine whether the patient "lacks the capacity to make health care decisions."

If this bill were to become law, a husband could legally pull the plug on his wife without a doctor who has examined her ever being involved in the decision.

The bill contains dubious definitions of "near death" and "permanently unconscious," and it gives a tremendous and unwarranted amount of power to ARNPs. ARNPs are nurses with graduate degrees in certain nursing specialties. They are highly trained. But they are not medical doctors. And yet this bill treats them as such.

This bill has been a mess ever since it was introduced. Its supporters claim that it merely clarifies when life-sustaining treatment can be withdrawn. But it does far more than clarify. It makes it easier to deny such treatment. It even manages to cut the attending physician from the process.

This is a terrible bill. The House should kill it and try again next year.

Inviting death: Pull the plug on resuscitation bill

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Martin Anderson update...

North Country Gazette

TALLAHASSEE---Within hours after Hillsborough County medical examiner Dr. Vernard Adams issued his findings that a 14-year-old boy who was beaten at a Bay County boot camp had died by suffocation at the hands of sheriff's officials who had shoved ammonia capsules up the boy's nose, Gov. Jeb Bush wrote the Bay County Sheriff and urged him to fire the camp's former supervisor.

The juvenile boot camp in Panama City where Martin Lee Anderson died on Jan. 5 has been closed. ''I believe it is essential that you identify and take appropriate disciplinary actions for each individual who may have had knowledge or responsibility for authorizing guards to force youths to inhale ammonia in order to obtain compliance,'' Bush wrote Friday to Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen.

Gov. Bush Seeks Ouster Of Boot Camp Supervisor

8mm

[8mmMauser]

From Joseph Farrah, World Net Daily...

But I don't want you to think Skinner got off scot-free. Oh, no. Not by a long shot. She was convicted of filing a false police report. The judge ordered her to pay for the cost of the police investigation – a $750 fine.

Had Skinner shot her baby three or four hours later when she had been delivered, she would no doubt be facing life imprisonment. But because she shot her daughter while she was still within her – even on the scheduled day of her birth – she doesn't serve a day in jail.

It's OK to shoot your baby

8mm

[T'wit]

Dorothy Sayers was close to The Inklings, that group of British literary giants (and personal friends) centered on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. (More about the group and Sayers at this link.)

What particularly strikes me in The Lost Tools of Learning is the need to learn rhetoric. Sayers said young people were helpless before the onslaught of words, words, words in 1947. Things are so much worse now! That's about all the "press" and public schools do nowadays -- twist words in order to twist minds.

If our children do not have clear words, how will they find The Word?

[T'wit]

The nation's murder statistics would take quite a turn for the worse if we started counting dead babies.

[T'wit]

I'll believe this stuff when Terri Schiavo endorses Jeb, in writing.

[T'wit]

>> This is a terrible bill. The House should kill it and try again next year.

Yikes! Don't encourage them!

[T'wit]

"Ouster"? "Disciplinary actions"?

Florida has really tough battery and murder laws, doesn't it? They can put an official letter of reprimand in your file! They can suspend you with or without pay! You might even get fired!

[Saundra Duffy]

Jeb Bush should be fired for allowing a disabled Floridian to be dehydrated and starved to death. He is the worst of the worst of the Republicans. They all make me sick. How they turned on Terri the minute they thought the polls were going south. I will never get over it.

[T'wit]

>> "I believe it is essential that you identify and take appropriate disciplinary actions for each individual who may have had knowledge or responsibility for authorizing guards to force youths to inhale ammonia in order to obtain compliance," Bush wrote...

Absolutely awful English.

Actually, it isn't English at all. It's bureaucratese, and what it says in a spectacular outburst of buzzwords is "cover this up."

[floriduh voter]

Isn't it ODD the Jeb wants people to be fired but he's not really demanding any indictments or charges. Neither is Charlie Crist. Who are they protecting with this death? We knew who they were protecting re: Terri's death.

Seems like they are protecting the sheriffs who killed the young man. Until they arrest them, book them and arraign them, I believe this is another Florida coverup of a crime by the state.