Posted on 03/19/2005 9:31:06 AM PST by NetLiberty
An Open Letter to Florida Governor Jeb Bush 3/19/2005
Governor Bush: The Terri Schiavo Case is Your “Birmingam Jail” Moment
Dear Governor Bush:
As I write these words Saturday morning, Terri Schiavo is enduring her first full day without food or water. In the next two days, the effects of dehydration will begin; after that, her body will start to waste in the prolonged march to the end of her life, now mandated by order of a renegade judge in your state.
And while I write, members of the U.S. House here in Washington speak with their lawyers, exploring all legal options to save Terri's life. In the many months this case has been in public view, it is curious that these men could have acted, but did not, so their recent attention to her plight, on the day of the order beginning the process to end her life, does make one the suspect their motive is one of personal political profile over true intent. But however late these men come to their actions today, their work is appreciated.
But despite the plans of smart men working within our judicial system to save Terri Schiavo's life, now that the act of removing her feeding tube has been done, there is a growing sense among your constituents and citizens that the course of working within the legal system will not yield results in time enough to save Terri's life.
Further—and more discouraging, is the sense of resignation I fear will soon set in, as smart men, having explored every option, lose their desire to continue, having surrendered to the steadily bearing weight of what rising voices will say is inevitable.
If we are at this place, where all legal options have been exhausted, then what more is to be done? I am not sure you really know the full depth of feeling there is among those of us who have been waiting and watching the events in the Terri Schiavo case; those of us who have seen the video of her responding to her mother, and who recognize the spark of life and awareness in her which is now being extinguished, on your watch.
You have said recently you would not take extraordinary action outside of the system to save Terri Schiavo's life. In light of what is occurring now, and the judicially-sanctioned horror that will occur sometime within the next two weeks, I ask you to reconsider this view.
Having come to this place where all legal options are gone, we quiet Americans look around us and, as yet, see no man or woman in public life willing to stand alone, to put their career and reputation at grave risk, to serve a cause greater than their own fortunes.
Those of us who care about Terri Schiavo's plight—and there are far more than you realize—are left, today, with an outrage at a system that would allow this to happen—rising, righteous anger that those whom we have allowed to govern us are about to become complicit in this country's first judicially-sanctioned murder of a woman in whom there is reasonable cause to believe deserves to live.
So, Governor Bush, here is the time when fate and the forces of our world have placed you in a unique position to take what Martin Luther King once called “direct action:” With all legal options gone, you and you alone can step forward into history and take the actions necessary to save and keep Terri Schiavo's life. Today.
In 1955, an obscure Atlanta minister stood by the side of a helpless woman and started a movement that changed our country. And in subsequent, “illegal” acts of social protest, including aims described in his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King helped to begin the healing of the deep scar of racial injustice in this country.
Governor Bush, this is your “Birmingham Jail” moment.
It is just a brief helicopter flight from your residence in Talahassee to the open space next to the Pinellas Park hospice where Terri lays. You, a trusted physician, and twelve hand-picked deputies may enter, without resistance, and restore Terri's food and water. You can do this today. All you have to summon is your will.
You and your men can stand vigil with Terri, standing for life in the quiet center by her bedside, surrounded by the maelstrom that would ensue from your action. Calls for your immediate arrest and impeachment would be strong and rising. The outrage to what you have done from the perfumed princes of our media would be relentless.
Let them talk. Because that's all they can do.
But what you would do, by placing your career and reputation on the line, would now stand for something far more important than anything you've ever done: You would prove to a cynical country that someone in a position of power is willing to give all to protect someone who is powerless to protect herself. And in so doing, you will focus the attention of millions more to Terri Schiavo's plight, over time making it impossible for the forces in the Culture of Death to prevail.
Now I will move from the hypothetical to the historical: There are millions of good men and women who are watching and waiting for one good man to step up, step out of the morass of impotent legal maneuvering, stand next to Terri and say: “Not on my watch!”
Americans love and respect any man who will cast his fortune aside for the sake of a higher moral cause. In fact, our country was founded by men like these.
Here is your chance to be one of these men.
Now from the historical to the political realities of today. By this I would mean your political reality.
Let me put this to you in the way that William Frawley, who played the cigar-smoking pol advising the “Santa Claus” judge in the wonderful 1947 movie “Miracle on 34 th Street” would have said it:
“Governor, as it stands now, your chances of being president are just about zero. People have elected two Bushes three times to the White House, and there is a sense that electing a third is just one Bush too many. From here, you can continue to serve as governor, maybe even run for Senate, but that's pretty much it.
If you get elected to the Senate, you can be a windbag for the next thirty years or so, then you'll die, and you'll remembered as George Bush's son, George W. Bush's younger brother, and a decent governor.
Well Governor, sounds like a pretty nice life, don't it? But, I bet not as good as being President would have been, is it? As it stands now though, that's not gonna happen.
But, there is something you could do right now that could change everything. You could step up to this Terri Schiavo deal and make it right. Sure, you'd be compared to George Wallace at the schoolroom steps, but this isn't like that at all. It'd blow over in a month, and you'd be the talk of the Red States. Best of all, you'd be out of your brother's shadow and seriously in line for the nomination in '08.
Governor, this is just one of those win-win deals. You can do a good thing, and you can do well.”
So, Governor Bush, millions of us want to do something to help Terri Schiavo, but can't. Do you want to be the one who is in the position to help, but won't?
Take the step. Put it all on the line. Go to the hospice. Save her life.
Make it right.
You have millions standing next to you already, and millions more will join once you focus their attention. But do it now.
It's up to you, Governor Bush. Make it right.
Eric Gagnon (eric@jumpcity.com)
So9
Right like thats gonna happen.
Eric the clueless.
Not at all. Here, a life is at stake.
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