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

[cyn]

thanks for the pings to http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1630307/posts?page=1,77

Need help in NJ with Dr. Kevorkian clones
Posted on 05/11/2006 12:57:25 AM EDT by Simplemines
// I'm in desperate need of some advice and some help. //

As you've asked, what further help / support can we offer Simplemines in NJ? I wish I could take her a sandwich & drink... as it is, prayers are with her and that she would soon find herself surrounded by help.

[BykrBayb]

-snip-

"The law school is designed to help journalists, who are trying to provide accurate information to the public, but who may not have a legal background," said John T. Nockleby, Professor of Law and Director of the Loyola Law School's Civil Justice Program. "The goal is to enhance their understanding of the judicial branch."

The curriculum will focus on constitutional structure, criminal law, and civil law.

-snip-

ABOTA (http://www.abota.org ) is a national organization of more than 6,200 lawyers dedicated to the preservation of the 7th Amendment right to trial by jury.

-snip-

This is a joke, right?

[T'wit]

>> This is a joke, right?

Only to sane minds.

I didn't notice that Terri Schiavo was given a trial by jury in Greer's court, did you? Greer made all the decisions himself. He was judge, jury and executioner. What he's doing at a conference about the law is hard to imagine.

[Wampus SC]

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

Easy question. It can't go on in the name of God, and it doesn't. It can go on in the name of Satan or Mammon, and it does.

[8mmMauser]

This ought to be interesting, from North Country Gazette, a bioethics parley coming up...

ALBANY---Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Wesley Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, will be among the speakers at a two-day conference in Albany this summer at the Alden March Bioethics Institute of Albany Medical Center.

The conference, entitled "Bioethics & Politics: The Future of Bioethics in a Divided Democracy", will focus on how politics and ethics are intertwined in such topics as advanced directives, cloning and stem cell research.

Albany To Host Bioethics Parley

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]

Jeb Bush article featured in many news outlets today.

TALLAHASSEE - Every second, a digital clock on Gov. Jeb Bush's desk counts down to the moment in January that his term ends, a reminder that one of the most powerful figures in American politics is about to step off the public stage.

On one afternoon this month - with 241 days, three hours and 20 minutes to go - the fading term was on the minds of some important supporters as well. A group of Christian activists had gathered near Bush's office to commemorate the National Day of Prayer. "Four more years," one worshipper called out as Bush prepared to address the group. "Don't I wish," replied the master of ceremonies, a local Christian organizer. A murmur of approval rose from the crowd.

Jeb Bush pauses at the next political step

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Martin Anderson update...

Miami Herald has a full article on the matter including links to videos and timeline.

The person who initiated the coverup was Cruel, Sgt. David Cruel.

On the morning of Jan. 5, Bay County sheriff's Sgt. David Cruel called 911 to report a medical emergency at a boot camp for juvenile delinquents.

''We need an ambulance over here immediately, please,'' Cruel said. ``We got an offender that we just entered this morning. Looks like he's passed out.

What Cruel didn't say: At least seven of his co-workers had spent more than half an hour manhandling 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. They punched and kneed him, dragged him around and shoved ammonia capsules in his nose. When they were through, he lay on the ground, dying.

• Video | Boot camp beating (edited version)
• Video | Boot camp beating (full unedited version)
• Read letter from Jeb Bush to McKeithen
• Read Sheriff McKeithen's response to Bush
• Press release | Boot camp offender receives medical care
• Press release | Juvenile offender passes away in Pensacola
• Timeline of Boot Camp incident
• Versions of what happened

Hidden truth of youth's death at camp

8mm

[Lesforlife]

Organ (Donations?)

Family stops hospital from taking boy off life support


Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The family of a 14-year-old who was shot in the neck has received a restraining order preventing the University of Kansas Hospital from taking the boy off of life support.

Michael Todd of Kansas City was shot Tuesday at a Blue Springs apartment. Police said a witness told them that the gun might have gone off accidentally.

"Our doctors have determined him to be brain dead," hospital spokesman Dennis McCulloch said on Friday.

But Michael's family argues that the hospital wants to remove the boy from life support because it wants to use his organs for a donor program.

"It's so quick," said Odette Cole, Todd's aunt. "He's 14 years old. ... You're acting like you're in a grocery store for body parts."

Though McCulloch could not discuss the case specifically, he said a family would be required to authorize any organ donations.

"I can tell you generically that under federal regulations all deaths or imminent deaths are required to be reported to the organ bank," he said. "Beyond that is between the organ bank and a family whether a donation is made."

Michael's family filed for the restraining order in Wyandotte County District Court. McCulloch said the hospital planned to respond to the injunction Monday.

McCulloch couldn't provide more information on the boy's injuries because of privacy laws. But he said that generally when a patient is declared brain dead, only hospital equipment is keeping the person's heart and lungs functioning.

"A declaration of brain death usually results in the beginning steps of ending treatment," he said. "We work very closely with the families in those situations, as it is a very difficult time for them."

Cole said her nephew's 15th birthday is May 31. He attended J.A. Rogers Middle School.




© 2006 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansas.com

[8mmMauser]

This comes from my own state of Maine...

A case is in parallel to the plight of Haleigh Poutre.

Maine's highest court is considering a case that asks if the state has the right to make an end-of-life decision for a child in foster care, or whether that right remains with the child's parents.

On Monday, attorneys presented their arguments before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Nationwide, only a handful of courts have addressed the issue.

The case revolves around an 8-month-old boy referred to in court documents as Matthew W., who suffered irreversible brain damage when he was 6 weeks old. His father, Matthew L. Williams, 22, of Bangor has been charged with aggravated assault for allegedly causing his son's injuries.

If convicted, Williams faces up to 10 years in prison. If the child dies, Williams could be charged with manslaughter.

Four days after the baby was injured in September, District Court Judge Jessie Gunther granted a do-not-resuscitate order to DHHS when she gave the agency custody of Matthew W.

Court weighing state's rights in end-of-life case

8mm

[T'wit]

So far I'm getting an error message -- in both Netscape and IE -- on both video links. ("Requested file not found." etc.)

[8mmMauser]

I wonder how often this happens and not only misses the news, but is accepted by uninformed family as inevitable. First the victim is pronounced "brain dead', then organ harvest time and they (try to) convince the family it is noble when all they wanted in the first place is the parts.

Thankfully, the parents responded. They won that round now will have to keep vigilant, I imagine, to ensure he gets proper care and proves them wrong on the "brain dead" label.

Poor kid's birthday is same as my wife's.

[T'wit]

>> The boot camp's nurse, Kristin Schmidt, expressed few concerns about Martin's treatment by guards [when interviewed by a doctor]

As the video showed, she had "few concerns" watching the boy get beaten to a pulp by so-called law enforcement officers. She had no objection to the sadistic brutality and did not intervene. She was as guilty as the others because she could have stopped the beating.

Now we know your name, Kristin Schmidt. What we don't know is what happened to your heart and soul.

[8mmMauser]

Seems to be realaudio file, but I can't open it either, don't have realaudio. Guess I should have tried those video files first.

[TheSpottedOwl]

I don't know what kind of a relationship they have. I would assume it is cordial and familial. So the only other explanation for Bush's kiss-of-political-death endorsement is ignorance. He just doesn't know how unpopular he is right now – and what long coattails of disenchantment he wears.

No sh*t. This guy owns stock in ignorance. Maybe arrogance is a better word? Anyone who lives in America these days is smacked upside the head with the results of his asskissing Vincente Fox.

I'm going to have to go back through this thread. Andrea passed away? Anyway, Happy Mothers Day, and big hugs!

[T'wit]

>> but is accepted by uninformed family as inevitable

It happened in my own (extended) family a year or so ago. The victim was still breathing unaided -- ergo, not brain dead -- but the family didn't want to hear it and I had no say in the matter. She was duly carved up for organs.

[T'wit]

I do have Real audio; still doesn't work.

[8mmMauser]

You have no problems conveying your sentiments!

Warm regards on this Mother's Day.

[8mmMauser]

Simplemines Fight update...

FReepers and Terri fighters are rallying to help and prayers for Simplemines' husband. Ping again to her thread:

Need help in NJ with Dr. Kevorkian clones

8mm

[T'wit]

>> a case that asks if the state has the right to make an end-of-life decision for a child in foster care, or whether that right remains with the child's parents.

We may confidently expect all of Michael Schiavo's supporters to argue forcefully against any government role in an end-of-life decision, to side with the child's family, and to sermonize about privacy rights.

/Sarcasm

[T'wit]

>> "He's got incredible experience, unqualified conservative credentials and he brings Florida. It's the trifecta."

Depending on how you read "incredible" and "unqualified."