Terri's Fight - (Daily Thread/Updates)November 1-2, 2003

Various | November 1, 2003 | sweetliberty

[MarMema]

[Coral Snake]

Remember when some of you said that you wanted doug from upland to write a song about this case and he declined feeling it was to tragic for his style of parody. Well I write songs too based on updating 19th and early 20th century public domain lyrics. Therefore I just posted a song about this case that you will find either on the main news/activism forum or on the general interest forum. (Since I have only been here for three months I'm still considered a newbie and therefore my songs tend to wind up there.)
The song is based on the Civil War Song When Johnny Comes Marching Home and can be found either under that title or
Coral Snake Song.

[First Amendment]

And I have started the process to become a volunteer for the local Hospice here... I better check up on their attitude. Until reading the Terri threads, I thought all Hospices were meant for caring for and providing comfort for the dying, and helping their caretakers, not hastening their deaths.

[Ohioan from Florida]

From Ms. Melone's article:

She is being kept alive for use as a powerful icon in the pro-life political game.

Michael Schiavo is one man. The other side is a movement.

Mary Jo, Mary Jo, Mary Jo. I am disappointed in your assessment of what is going on in the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case. Aren't you aware she is being used as a pawn as a powerful icon in the pro-death political game? The Schindlers are just one family. The other side is THE MOVEMENT! Open your eyes, Mary Jo!

[Ohioan from Florida]

You should warn us before we see horrible images like the one you just posted! You could always put a BARF alert out! LOL!

[Yaelle]

I have shared my prayers for Terri but I don't keep up with the daily threads. However, I have just heard something tonight on the radio that you might find interesting.

John Douglas, also called The Mindhunter, who wrote a book by that name about his exploits as the top serial killer profiler and all the cases he has worked on, has a radio show on L.A.'s KFI AM 640 on Saturday evenings. Tonight he was talking about a bad time in his life when he was so consumed by his work that he nearly died.

He had become "one-dimensional" and "obsessed" with his work, and while on the Seattle Green River Killer case, his immune system was so bad that he contracted viral encephalitis. Unfortunately he was in his hotel room with the Do Not Disturb sign on the door when he fell ill and they only found him 2 days later, paralyzed in frog position on the floor. They thought he was a goner. They rushed him to the hospital but they also were having people plan for the inevitable. His family was flown out, preparations for burial took place. They saw the extensive brain stoppage and his paralysis and thought that he would never come out of his coma or if he lived he would never recover.

He said that in the past few weeks he thought a lot about Terri Schiavo because when they all thought he was in a coma, he could feel the agonizing pain of all the tubes they kept shoving into every orifice. But he was unable to respond. He could hear their voices and everything.

Whether or not Terri ever improves is not my point. John Douglas is still writing books and working and has obviously recovered completely (or well enough!) but my point is that even when from the outside, it seems (even to medical personnel) that the person has no feelings or is vegetative or is not responding, HOW DO WE KNOW???? They well could be but have been left with an instrument (body) that is not functioning well enough for them to make clear that they are responding.

Thought you all might be interested. He apparently recounts the entire episode in his Mindhunter book.

[Pegita]

Heavenly Father, we return to give You thanks that You continue to bring Terri's situation before the public. Strike down every lie that has been told, Father, and replace each one with the truth ~ a mother's child will die because her crime is disability and her punishment is death.

May outrage sweep across this country, and beyond, as Terri's family continues to speak for her and against her husband. Stir the people to action, Lord .. may they seek redress for this innocent woman through the courts. Bring to light all manner of wickedness that it may wither and die, for it is goodness and mercy that we desire. Convict the hearts of those who sit in the courts of law .. may they know that the people will take no other than justice. I pray, Father, that You will overrule any wrong, and that You will uphold all that is righteous.

O God, so many learned people have come into Terri's life, yet her family remains constant .. her legal team has stayed the course .. those with time and talents have come alongside .. united, we pray that You will release Terri from her prison surroundings and grant her length of glorious days with her family.

May she rest well this night .. secure in Your love and in the love of her family. Fill her mind with memories in which she takes great delight .. let those who look upon her know that it is her mind as well as her body that must be freed. Undertake for her, Father, on behalf of her new Guardian .. may he be worthy of this role and may he be true to its charge. In every area, Lord, take away, bit by bit, all the vicious plans the enemy has put forth .. vindicate this family, for they seek nothing more than the safety and wellbeing of their daughter and sister .. but woe to those who would hinder this .. who would seek death and not life.

"Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

We praise You, most holy One, in the Name of Jesus, Amen ...

[windchime]

You DO know how to make me grit my teeth! :)
I wrote her in a manner as venomnous as hers and then decided not to send it. She is married to the pro-death agenda. Nothing will change her position and writing her would only indicate that she has readership.

One of my comments:

Her Title - "Schiavo's life confiscated by agendas of strangers"

Interesting to find that people who gave birth to, nurtured and unconditionally loved Terri Schindler are regarded as strangers. It is THEIR agenda to preserve the life of their child.

[Graymatter]

All you night owls...

Fox News Watch will air a segment on Terri's news coverage. Sometime in the next hour, it's now 2:30 am, EST.

Wonder what they think of their own coverage :(

[windchime]

Night owl reporting that the segment is brief (saw it earlier). Note Jane Hall's comments.

[Ohioan from Florida]

You bring up a good point and it is one that I've thought about over and over. How many times have you gone to visit someone who seems to be on their deathbed, and have been told by those in the medical profession to go ahead and talk to them? They say that the sense of hearing is one of the last to go. John Douglas is a classic example, as is Rus Cooper-Dowda. I'm sure there are countless more that go unnamed. Some of the newest research going on in brain-injured patients is learning that their brains are still hearing the outside world, because their brain activity goes all wild on MRIs and PET scans during this type of testing where they wear headphones with recorded songs or familiar voices pumping through them. Just because Terri (or other supposedly PVS patients) may not always be able to respond doesn't mean that their input is messed up, just the output! Thanks for sharing about John Douglas' story. If it weren't for your post, I probably never would have heard of him.

[Ohioan from Florida]

Is it worth watching? Or is it more propaganda?

[Graymatter]

Sneeze and you'll miss it! Four comments, very brief. Three here:

Cal Thomas says husband might have helped his credibility if he didn't have a girlfriend.
Jane Hall says FL legislature injected themselves.
3rd head says MS starting to look like a low-grade Scott Peterson.

[Ohioan from Florida]

Nevermind. Just caught it, and was it ever brief! Jane Hall and Neil Gabler are pathetic blowholes who have no idea what is really going on here (JMHO)! Glad that Cal Thomas and Jim Pinkerton were there to side with Terri. Was that even 60 seconds worth of coverage?

[Ohioan from Florida]

4th head Neil Gabler said that they should take all the emotion out of it and stick to just the facts, but made it sound like the only facts they should look at are the ones that Michael conveniently provides.

[HiTech RedNeck]

As far as getting communication out of the allegedly comatose and PVS, I've been wondering about a combination of brain monitor and Morse(or Morse-like) code, with biofeedback (sounds produced by brain monitor). If someone like Terri could be taught to modulate their brain activity well enough to tap out a message, even if they are unable to muster any coordinated voluntary motion, it could be a breakthrough.

[Ohioan from Florida]

That's a really cool idea! Do you know of any way of turning that into a reality?

[supercat]

As far as getting communication out of the allegedly comatose and PVS, I've been wondering about a combination of brain monitor and Morse(or Morse-like) code, with biofeedback (sounds produced by brain monitor). If someone like Terri could be taught to modulate their brain activity well enough to tap out a message, even if they are unable to muster any coordinated voluntary motion, it could be a breakthrough.

For patients who are capable of processing auditory and/or visual information, this seems quite feasible. Indeed, if statements about Terri's apparent understanding of her environment are accurate, I believe the technologies to do this at reasonable price are already available. A bigger problem is getting the approval of her "guardian".

[oreolady]

I wrote her a scathing letter!!
But truthful, about how could she accuse the legislature of going where they don't belong,- in people's lives.
I reminded her that MS did not CLAIM TERRI WANTED TO DIE UNTIL 8 years after she was stricken!!!!!

And that we need legislatures to enact new laws that only allow SIGNED living wills to claim preference to death.
I also reminded her that when it was discovered that "pulling the plug" in the Karen Quinlan case did not "work", kill her, in the euthanasiacs (new word?) goal, they had to invent a better way to encourage people to die!!!
And that better way was naming, making legal, food and water as "life support"!!!!!

[fiesti]

"This is a dangerous abuse of power by the governor and the Florida lawmakers, and it should concern everyone,"

It's a dangerous abuse of power alright, but it isn't the lawmakers and the governor who are abusing it. "


The civil courts are abusing the power. In a criminal court the accused gets a fair trial...Terri hasen't even had a voice in her conviction only the word of her hubby (BARF)