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 remember kids in elementary school hurling immature insults like that. Adults don't usually call each other "cabbages."
I trace Bush's big drop in the polls to his failure to protect Terri Schiavo. He could have stopped her death, in less dramatic fashion than Clinton did when he swiped that Cuban boy from his family. When he failed to act, and let her slowly die a horrible death, it dispirited the base and emboldened the libs. They won a big one, showed that the judiciary was in charge and there was nothing conservatives could do about it. But there was, if someone with cojones had been in charge.
I don't mean to be harsh, but that's just delusional.
I see from your history that you are a consistent disrupter that would be more at home at DU, where your own delusions would be the norm.
I polled myself and I think you are right. I sent him a fax at the time saying, "Mr. President, don't you think it is time for Terri to have a sip of water"?.
I noticed the same drop in the polls at that time. I think he lost supporters on both sides. Those who value life were disappointed in the limited gesture he gave, and those who support forced euthanasia were angry at him for interfering at all. His poll numbers have steadily dropped since then.
Imagine, the courts say she can't have a drink of water, and a President who fears to give her one.
I don't know to what extent Terri affected most voters, but both Bushes fell into the same trap Republicans always seem to fall into--trying to come up with a position to satisfy both sides, even when such a position is logically unsupportable.
If it was not wrong for Felos et al. to block any efforts to offer Terri oral hydration and sustenance, the the Bushes should not have interfered at all. If it was wrong, the Bushes should have acted decisively against Felos et al. One can debate whether Felos' actions were proper; both sides do have facially valid arguments. Regardless of whether Felos' actions were wrong, however, I see no argument that would support the Bushs' actions. If Bush is acceeding to a coup, he should acknowledge such. Otherwise, their actions look like insincere tokens.
| A BIRD IN A BARREN CAGE VERSE 1: CHORUS: VERSE 2: REPEAT CHORUS VERSE 3: REPEAT CHORUS |
Before I reply, I will give you a chance to make yourself somewhat clearer.
It is possible to argue that refusal of Felos, Greer, et al. to allow anyone to even attempt to give Terri oral hydration and sustenance was nothing short of murder. Indeed, I happen to believe that to be the case.
It is also possible to argue that such refusal was right and proper. I happen to find such arguments unconvincing, but they are at least facially valid.
If the actions constituted murder, then Bush et al. should have seen that immediate action was taken against the perpetrators.
If the actions were right and proper, then Bush et al. should have left well enough alone.
Either course of action would have been supportable, even if one was wrong. But the only way I can see that the Bushs' actual actions could be argued to have been "correct" would have been if the initial interference was correct, and further interference would also have been correct but was blocked by a coup, and circumstances were not ripe for dealing with said coup.
"I see from your history that you are a consistent disrupter that would be more at home at DU, where your own delusions would be the norm."
Calling you delusional is an understatement.
It's worth noting that trolls on any Terri thread didn't know her or the Schindlers so their perspective is from afar.
It's all right here: www.judgegeorgegreer.com. And a lot of info is here: www.northcountrygazette.org. Finally, the Schindler's Foundation web site: www.terrisfight.org.
By the time it got to Bush, he could have stopped it by sending federal marshalls and enforcing the House's subpoena. The judge in Fla. was basically trying to kill a witness to a congressional investigation. He backed off from that, and the House leadership didn't have the juice to do anything without the White House behind it. It was Rove, I think, who blinked.
And bingo, the Dems were energized, the conservatives were demoralized, and we were left with the feeling that it could have turned out differently had someone with some gumption taken action. Like Reagan firing the AT controllers, it needed someone to step in and do what was right, and the country would rally around that kind of leadership. Instead, by shrinking away from leadership, and forcing us to watch her die a slow, terrible death, we all became a little less enthusiastic about GW Bush at that time. All except that small but vocal wing of the GOP that was for Terri's death--people like this guy on this thread who is going around calling people names.
Ignore the trolls.
You're right in your assessment of how things played out. A swamp judge weilded more power than the Executive and Legislative branches put together. And the liberals squeeled with delight.
Many Bushbots quit supporting the entire Bush clan. Many republicans quit the party. I stay in so I can send surveys back to them telling them what they did and making them pay the postage.
Jeb can never be President. He let an incompetent judge push him around. Judge Greer had a speaking engagement today. During the Q & A the question came up re: why this country treats animals better than people through groups like The Humane Society. Greer's Answer: "Animals don't talk."
His answer shows that he's not playing with a full deck. What about people who don't talk or people who do talk? Judge Greer killed Terri for Michael Schiavo. The Bushes let him do it. You are absolutely right. They couldn't save one woman. When the administration talks about spreading liberty, I think about Terri and how hypocritical it is to discuss spreading liberty when Terri had no civil rights.
Florida: the starvation state and now, the boot camp death state; not just for vacations any more. Terri Schindler Schiavo and Martin Anderson, rest in peace. Both of your deaths were state sponsored.
Martin Anderson (14 years old) was beaten to death by Florida Sheriff Deputies while a nurse watched the 30 minute beating before calling an ambulance.
Terri was murdered and Martin was murdered on Jeb Bush's watch. He can't be president of anything now. They martyred Terri. The local good old boys were more important to the Bushes than Terri was.
Martin died on January 6th and when there's a dead child, no amount of damage control will suffice and Jesse Jackson hasn't arrived yet. Martin's death is going to be huge. There's no excuse for beating a child who couldn't keep up during an exercise period and then let him die so he isn't a witness against them.
I congratulate you on a post remarkably lacking in substance.
One year later, this is still totally unacceptable to me. Judge Greer belongs in a federal prison instead of being on the lecture circuit before special interest groups and joking about his line of work (a hit man in a black robe).
Terri's Final Hours is on my profile page.
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