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
Hirsh is a senior editor of Newsweek with four supposedly non-fiction books to his credit. If this is all the better he can do checking facts, he should abandon any pretense of reporting and try his hand at writing soap opera for afternoon TV.
OUTSTANDING.
life
However, a look at prices gives the opposite impression. The book was deeply discounted -- meaning it's not selling up to expectation. Some readers were trying to dump used copies for much less than even the discounted price -- meaning it's not a book that one would treasure and keep on one's library shelves (surprise).
Piece of junk.
If you don't like my review, get over it. Email me with nasty comments I and I will report you to your Internet provider for harassment.
;)
4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
A Complete Fabrication found in Michael Schiavo's book, May 22, 2006
8mm
Good work all y'all!!!!
I did see that line :-) If she had calmly been telling the truth, why would she worry about what anyone has to say? It's people with an agenda who aren't going to like the feedback.
Fortunately, the review was so syrupy, I couldn't stand to read much of it. I have to protect my delicate stomach.
That's what happens when everyone is lying, and didn't bother to rehearse their stories. Nothing meshes.
As for remembering dates, no comment :-/
TOM GALLAGHER FOR FLORIDA GOVERNOR
"Tom Gallagher is the only businessman running for Governor of Florida, and is the best Republican candidate for Governor because he will:
Champion Family Values, Define a Conservative Vision and Lead with Experience.
So, the hospice folks would rather just get to do their thing before the cancer docs finish doing theirs.
The exiters would rather use MORPHINE instead of CANCER DRUGS. We know the morphine kills every day, every hour but if new cancer drugs hold promise, they hospice ilk should mind their own beeswax.
moonbats probably wrote those reviews.
We saw a Dr. Phil show about child predators that made us ill. He even stopped the tape. It had to do with undercover cops, and what they have to do to bust these inhuman creeps. After stopping the surveilence tape, Dr. Phil asked the detective if it was hard not to reach across the table(he met the creep at a restaurant), and knock his teeth out.
Las Vegas police felt they couldn't wait, so they busted the man before the FBI was ready to move in. I may have trouble remembering numbers, but I'll never forget what was said between the cop and that scumball.
Montel Williams has had some pretty harsh programs on the subject, as well.
(Topix net presents both sides but the other side always omits that laws were broken at the local level before Terri's life or death reached the federal level.) The first article never addresses Terri's Civil Rights.
They are only correct in asserting that the fight was by her parents.
Remember that Terri was never represented by her own counsel which is a violation of her due process rights.
WHILE HE WAS BREAKING THE LAW, JUDGE GREER ALSO VIOLATED THE LAW THAT A JUDGE CANNOT ACT AS A PERSON'S GUARDIAN UNLESS THEY ARE RELATED TO THAT WARD. Oops, Judge Greer has violated more laws and canons than ANY OTHER JUDGE IN AMERIKA. Why isn't he impeached YESTERDAY? (caps off).
www.judgegeorgegreer.com
>> ATLANTA - Doctors are reporting a disturbing rise in the number of cancer patients getting chemo and other aggressive but futile treatment in the last days of their lives.
The "disturbing rise" is from 10% to 12% of cancer patients. That is merely one more patient out of fifty. This is a statistical molehill, not a story. If you look from the other side, here is the story: the number of cancer patients who did not get this "futile" treatment dropped from 45 out of 50 to 44 out of 50. Pretty dramatic, eh? Furthermore, the alleged "futility" of the chemo was not known to the doctors but discovered only by looking at death records later. Pure hindsight.
The writer's opinion that this is "disturbing" in the very first paragraph announces that he is preaching, not reporting. And, of course, his sermon follows the Death Cult party line. This is -- we see every day -- the rule at Associated Press, so we cannot expect any better from them and their ilk. Still, it's a shame that none of them has the integrity to be a journalist.
You cannot hope to bribe or twist
Thank God! The British journalist;
But when you see what they will do
Unbribed, there's no occasion to.
Aw, don't be hard on them. They don't know any better. Moonbats become moonbats by believing people who DO know better and who lie for profit or for subversive purposes (or both). The supreme Lie-Master in Terri's case was, by a wide margin, George Felos.
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. - A tip for visitors to Florida this summer: Don't start talking about "dynasty" unless you want to make Jeb Bush cranky.
Jeb Bush silent on political future
8mm
I am surprised the resident death culture trolls haven't started their own memorial thread. Still, I must wish he repented at the last as Our Lord, not we, makes the final judgment.
Schiavo suffered a heart attack in 1990 and her breathing stopped for several minutes, resulting in brain damage. In 1998, her husband, Michael Schiavo, petitioned a state court to allow the removal of her feeding tube.
Dr. Ronald Cranford, was expert witness in Schiavo case
8mm
Hahaha! And I hope they succeed :-)
>> Here is one from the Cleveland Plain Dealer salted with the more preposterous lies, shouted loud enough to make them truth.
I don't think it will work :-) Lies do not turn into truth at 121 decibels. How could this moron write that Terri had had a heart attack? That was known not to be true back at the ER in 1990.
Oh, wait a minute. Didn't Ted Bundy's 100+ victims all have heart attacks?
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