Terri's Day and nation's independence protects life culture

Renew America ^ | May 29, 2006 | Kevin Fobbs

[BykrBayb]

I remember reading about Timothy Sutton's diving accident. I wondered at the time if he'd be bioethicked, as so many are. Thankfully, he wasn't. Unfortunately, he has died from heart failure. His children are looking for donations to pay for his funeral. Teens Struggle To Find Funds To Bury Father
Timothy Sutton Paralyzed In Diving Accident

[8mmMauser]

Now playing at the Kennedy Center, a play on themes like Terri's Legacy...

"This is exalted time," Lia insists about the end of a man's life in Don DeLillo's new play, "Love-Lies-Bleeding." But not everyone -- in the drama or in the country -- agrees with her. That sets the stage for a debate in both realms on what it means to die with dignity and whether we can, or should, hasten the process.

The production at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater is a joint one between Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays. It explores a very timely question -- Terri Schiavo's case is still fresh in our minds -- while avoiding cheap platitudes and easy answers on either side. But in its effort to be fair, it leaves the viewer dissatisfied. Mr. DeLillo, a literary postmodernist beloved of academic critics, does such a good job of not manipulating our sympathies that he leaves us, in the end, without any for the man whose life is at stake.

Playing God on stage

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



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

[T'wit]

>> while avoiding cheap platitudes and easy answers on either side.

I suppose they regard "Thou Shalt not Kill" as a cheap platitude.

[8mmMauser]

Father McBrien talks about "Christianists". Are any of us "Christianist"? There are new little boxes for us to fit in...

Father has a greater faith in Time Magazine than do I which equals zero.

"The distinctions between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque."

Andrew Sullivan was careful in his column not to accuse Christianists of favoring violence. Indeed, not all Islamists are violent, he pointed out, and only a tiny few are terrorists. In his rendering, the Christianist simply believes that "religion dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike."

Pro-birth vs. pro-life

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[8mmMauser]

More on priests who see Terri's Legacy through different eyes...

Boston College Prez Leahy is at the helm.

That, alas, is par for the course in today's American Catholic theological guild, in which Fathers Himes and Hollenbach are prominent members. Another member of the guild, Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen (now editor of America), has gone so far as to propose revising the Catechism of the Catholic Church to establish, not a parallel magisterium of theologians, but a shadow government of theologians who would determine when the criteria for the morally justifiable use of armed force has been met. No small ambitions there, either.

I certainly don't wish to suggest that Father Leahy's hopes for Boston College are misplaced or untoward. Still, the B.C. commencement follies came in the wake of some other --- shall we say --- peculiarities in Golden Eagle-land. Another member of the B.C. theology department, Jesuit Father John Paris, publicly supported the campaign to euthanize Terry Schiavo. B.C. has also been home to efforts by prominent and wealthy Catholic laymen to reinvent Catholicism as Catholic Congregationalism, under the rubric of improved management practices.

There are great teachers and great students at Boston College. Unless Father Leahy gets his faculty to understand that the Sixties are over, however, his honorable ambitions are going to be, and should be, frustrated.

The Boston College follies

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[8mmMauser]

Florida Bar...

Florida voters approved tort reform initiatives in 2004 that are still being sorted out by Florida’s Supreme Court, and conservative legislators have attempted to blame the Bar for everything from high insurance rates to Terri Schiavo’s death.

It will be essential for Coxe to build relationships with Florida’s next governor and attorney general, said Liles. Both offices are up for election this fall. That could steer the Bar’s relationship with the governor’s office in a less antagonistic direction than was often the case with current Gov. Jeb Bush.

Coxe follows well traveled path

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[T'wit]

A brief snapshot of liberal reality :-)

>> His second wife, Toinette, and his son from his first marriage, Sean, arrive determined to convince his fourth (and current) wife, Lia, to allow them to end Alex's life.

What is it about liberals that they can't keep their marriage vows? A vow is our most holy promise to God. Keeping our vows is our most solemn duty. Let us (with Paul Harvey) celebrate the fortitude of couples who love and care for each other all of their days. And let's not forget that Michael Schiavo stomped his vows into the dust as soon as he got his hands on the "malpractice" money.

Btw, "Toinette" sounds like the chat room for F.A.O. Schwarz.

[8mmMauser]

Mor on Peter Singer, through ProLifeBlogs...

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

According to a post in First Things, Peter Singer is telling half-truths. In a letter to The Nation, Princeton University's outspoken defender of infanticide claims that fellow Princeton philosopher (and pro-life advocate) Robert George refuses to debate him on whether human life is sacrosanct.

Here's what Singer said:

Great universities thrive on the contest between deeply opposed positions, so I welcome the presence of conservatives like Robert George on the Princeton campus. For Princeton’s undergraduates, a debate between someone like myself and George on whether human life is sacrosanct would be a stimulating educational experience. What a pity it is, therefore, that it has never happened. On several occasions over the past years, student organizations have tried to set up a debate between George and me. I have always accepted. George has always refused. Which of course makes me wonder: If George thinks it is so important to challenge the liberal hegemony at universities, why won’t he do it in the time-honored arena of a public exchange of ideas before the university community.

Robert George is Right not to Debate Peter Singer

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[8mmMauser]

You touched on one of the greatest dismays in our march through the years. When we married, divorce was an anomoly, even a stigma and now generations since see it as but one more arrangement while living together becomes the norm, the successful hammering of liberal values into their soft skulls.

[T'wit]

Sorry, I gagged on the first sentence and quit.

Pace, Fr. McBrien and Andrew Sullivan -- anybody can "coin" words, but that doesn't make them valid. Or honest. Language is a great democracy and general usage determines which coinage we accept or reject. "Bling," e.g., has been accepted. "Christianist" will find favor only with God haters, and not for long. The cat will cover it with kitty litter.

[8mmMauser]

Ping reminder to visit the thread of BykrBayb on Senator Sam Brownback...

Legislator takes reins against assisted suicide

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[8mmMauser]

Shucks, I gagged on the first sentence, too, and on the following sentences as well. Poor Fr. dithers about the word "Christianist" and then tries to coin his own term. New words are an effective weapon for those who try to lead us down another path.

We are seeing lots of successes these days of the liberal side succeeding in hijacking fundamental and traditional faith.

"He who stoops to conquer conquers stupes."

[T'wit]

The only divorced person I knew as a child was a woman who, in her shame, was reduced to giving ballroom dancing lessons. She was nice and everybody was nice to her; her classes were well attended (including me). But the stigma was unmistakeable.

No one supposed that marriage was for everyone. There was no shame in being a spinster. "Miss" was an honorable title. My piano teacher was a spinster and a pillar of the community. (It wasn't HER fault that I was as inept at the piano as I was at ballroom dancing :-) )

Into this happy world rode the Enemy Harridans, led by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Dykes on Bikes. When they were done, marriage was "no fault," vows were scrapped, municipal benefits were the goal, bunk buddies could be one sex or multiple partners or a domestic animal, chivalry was dead, and the harpies think they are "liberated." (So why do they go on whining and whining?)

[T'wit]

>> If George thinks it is so important to challenge the liberal hegemony at universities...

Lookathat! Next thing you know, somebody in the presstitute biz will admit to the "liberal hegemony" in the media.

[T'wit]

>> "He who stoops to conquer conquers stupes."

:-)

[8mmMauser]

It slipped out as Singer sang his one note.

[8mmMauser]

As I recall that was a quote from Pogo. Lyn Nofziger frequently quoted Pogo, so it may have been echoed by him.

[T'wit]

>> Coxe follows well traveled path

Yeah, the one paved with good intentions.

[T'wit]

Pace, Lyn, I do not miss Pogo. Never cared for the strip. I will say this much for Walt Kelly -- he was a liberal but at least he had a sense of humor. He didn't try to pass off sour indigestion as a cartoon the way Gary Trudeau does in Doonesbury.

[Dante3]

I have a problem with the way the phrase "death with dignity" has often been used. If anyone calls Terri's death a "death with dignity" that person has mental problems at best. The implication that using medical science to try to save someone's life is "undignified" is just perverted.