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

[floriduh voter]

BREAKING NEWS DR. RON CRANFORD DEAD.

http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2006/05/ron-cranford-has-died.html

(pls ping your list - 2nd person from death lobby reported today). He was just hanging out with Michael Schiavo on those "Why It's so Hard to Die in America" tours.

Guess now Cranford knows it's not so hard to die.

Harsh, but they murdered Terri one year ago with phony evidence and then prostituted themselves on the speaking circuit.

[floriduh voter]

MORE ON CRANFORD...

http://www.genethique.org/en/press/press/2005/november/07_11.htm#1

[floriduh voter]

JQC's Counsel - dead. Dr. Ron Cranford - dead. The other side seemed invincible. Guess not. Pls see my posts above. That's enough for one day...even though they're the bad guys.

[BykrBayb]

Well, now he knows how wrong he was. Too bad for him that he couldn't figure it out while there was still time to save his soul. Then again, maybe he did. Maybe he was tortured to death, and learned his lesson in the process. Either way, I take no pleasure in his passing. Only relief. Satan's other minions will continue to feed off Cranford's contributions, but there will be no more contributions from him.

[BykrBayb]

I just caught your comment about 2nd person today. Two in one day? Anything yet about schitvo, greed, or felos de sade?

[floriduh voter]

The other ghouls are still walking around. One of them may be in deep trouble soon. I'll keep you posted.

[BykrBayb]

I wonder if Cranford committed suicide, to avoid the treatment he helped impose on Terri and many others.

[floriduh voter]

They were just at that seminar, was it Philly or Boston U? Cranford and Mikey and Greer, together again. The only way we'd know if he was pretty sick at that time would be to ask Mikey or Greer and well, uh, that's not going to happen.

Wesley H. Smith did say he prayed for Cranford's forgiveness for all the lives he had participated in taking.

[BykrBayb]

Philly. University of Pennsylvania. I think cranford also went to went to a seminar recently in Boston, but I'm not sure. I know he attended the seminar at UofPenn, where he was head of the "bioethics" department.

[8mmMauser]

Death comes to one of the bioethickists pushing for Terri's death. It seems only yesterday he was at a conference warbling the virtues of killing useless eaters. Fondly known to some as Dr. Death, now Dr. Ronald Cranford has met Death.

Wesley J. Smith tells it in a way much more charitable than I could ever attempt.

I disagreed vehemently with Dr. Cranford. I saw him testify in the Robert Wendland case and his cool recounting of the process of dehydration chilled me to my bones, as did his ready admission that he had removed sustenance from people who were clearly conscious. I actually think that testimony was the primary reason the court refused to allow Wendland's tube sustenance to be stopped. And his examination of Terri Schiavo seemed conducted in such a hurried way that she would be unlikely to respond.

Ron Cranford has Died

But wait, there is more...

Mr. Ethics, pal of Judge Greed and helpmate in the extinction of the innocent, also got his chance now to see his favorite subject up close. Death comes to welcome another of its friends.

Tampa's 'Mr. Ethics' Inspired His Peers Throughout Career

8mm

(this includes Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to May 17.)



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

[floriduh voter]

Evil t-shirt?

[bjs1779]

Dr. Ronald Cranford has met Death.

Gee, that is sad news. Who's next?

[8mmMauser]

We have identified the vanishing woman in the Crist video. It is TERRI SCHINDLER Schiavo!

Now we are trying to figure out why he morphs into a black silhouette in the last frame. Must be something subliminal...

Here it is again:

Click on the image, Crist launches first tv commercial, then click on the upper right handed frame. It is the one where the background is eerily similar to the sidewalk in front of the infamous hospice. Once the short video runs its course, the rest freezes up with the shadow of Crist watching you from inside a cave.

Vanishing...

8mm

[Sun]

"....I just hope they don't remove his food and water along with it."

I know what you mean. They wanted to remove Haleigh Pourtre's feeding tube and water, ALONG with the ventillator. The medical establishment seems to be too much in a hurry, and don't even give the patient a chance.

[Sun]

"CNN is going to have a BODY PARTS SPECIAL this coming Saturday and Sunday night. People are backing out of putting "donor" on their licenses."

I don't have cable, but I don't put "donor" on my license, either, because I don't trust them. However, I told my husband that he could use my eyes, or whatever, at his discretion, because I trust him.

[amdgmary]

"Dr. Death" Dies of Cancer

"Ronald Cranford died last night in a hospice near Minneapolis. He was a good man and a good sport. We are all in his debt for his work in fighting to improve dying in America. Ron got in the trenches and helped people. We should learn from his example." - Arthur Caplan (pro euthanasia advocate and friend of Michael Schiavo)

Source

[floriduh voter]

NEWS: Dr. Death is dead and Mr. Ethics is dead.

Isn't it odd that these deceased fellows actually had these nicknames? Is this Batman or Dick Tracy?

Dr. Death was Ron Cranford and Tampa's Mr. Ethics was Thomas Cook MacDonald, Jr., Attorney at Law. (Mr. Ethics protected Judge Greer from the Judicial Qualifications Commission's oversight. If men such as Mr. Ethics would have done their job, Greer would have been disqualified from the 2004 election and another judge would have gotten Terri's voluminous guardianship file.)

With a different judge, I believe Terri would have at least had a fighting chance. With Judge George Greer, she had no chance at all. Judge Greer had no morals, no ethics, no conscience and he's been picking up awards and honors for killing Terri for over a year now.

Judge Greer should be impeached, arraigned and held for a criminal trial. A judge who commits crimes from the bench does not have immunity from prosecution and TERRI WAS ROBBED AND MURDERED BY BLIND SHEIK JUDGE GREER.

www.judgegeorgegreer.com

[Lesforlife]

The irony is staggering!!!

Father God, may your justice prevail.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Well, Dr. Cranford can explain himself to a higher authority.

[TheSpottedOwl]

They don't make priests like Msr. Malinowski anymore. I hope our new Pope can change that.