I agree, but being in Ohio, I must use other means of getting their attention:-) Here's what I sent to him:
dyckman@sptimes.com Mr. Dyckman:
I write to you from Ohio, as one who knows several people that have been on feeding tubes for various reasons, from having had facial injuries in a car accident to having had a minor stroke.
A feeding tube is not by any means a 'heroic measure' to prolong life. In Terri's case, she has been able to be spoon fed. She has -- for all these years -- been able to maintain her own blood pressure. She swallows. She does not drool.
You surely know all these things, Mr. Dyckman. Why, then, do you and your paper continue to 'vilify' those that love Terri and seek her safety and rehabilitation -- and continue to paint a violent and pro-euthanasia, proven unfaithful 'husband' as the 'good guy'?
You SURELY know that Michael wants Terri quiet, forever, only because he knows that she knows what happened that night. He is terrified that somehow she'll talk and tell the truth about that night in early 1990.
There but for the grace of God could be anyone that did not do as few do and make SPECIFIC WRITTEN DIRECTIVES for such an unforeseen 'event' as what happened to Terri in February 1990. This entire charade has been Michael Schiavo's fight to keep the ONE PERSON that might tell the truth about what happened that night, from ever being able to tell it.
Terri does not HAVE a REAL Husband; she has an unfaithful, violent and anything BUT 'loving' one -- one that should have been removed as her guardian due to VERY REAL SAFETY CONCERNS for Terri, YEARS AGO, concerns that are STILL VALID AND ONGOING TODAY. That, Martin, is a fact, whether you or your paper or the AP ever tell the truth and report it or not.
You need only visit:
http://www.sweetliberty.org//bulletins/terri/index.shtml http://www.sweetliberty.org/bulletins/terri/hospice_collusion.htm http://www.wilkesmchugh.com/schiavo http://www.cogforlife.org/schiavo.htm http://www.LifeNews.com http://www.PropertyRightsResearch.org/articles4/TerriFrms.htm http://heavenlyhands.net/terrislinks.html http://libertytothecaptives.net/terri_schiavo_cognitively_able.html http://www.frtl.org http://www.TerrisFight.org Search
http://www.Google.com and get:
Results 1 - 10 of about 36,900 for "Terri Schiavo".
Search
http://news.google.com and get:
Results 1 - 10 of about 735 for Terri-Schiavo.
Visit
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35305 and read a vast array of articles that prove the SPTimes and its 'reporting' to be in error, regarding Terri, far more often than it is accurate.
As you know, Terri had an unfaithful 'husband' and one with a volatile temperament. Her original injuries were sustained when she was alone with him and were likely at his hands.
'Strangulation' certainly does not sound like the action of a loving husband.
Neither does failing to mention any wishes of Terri's until AFTER Mister Schiavo had been awarded the court judgements for his own 'loss of companionship' and for Terri's care.
No matter what your feelings or mine are on other matters, I believe in honest reporting.
Continuing to refer to Terri as being in a 'persistant vegetative state,' 'PVS' or 'coma' -- when she is NONE of these, but is, rather, profoundly brain-damaged -- is dishonest reporting.
Continuing to refer to a lascivious and adulterous 'man' with a formidable temper as Terri's 'husband' -- when he has proved by his living arrangements with Jodi Centonze and the TWO children he has sired out of wedlock with his concubine -- is dishonest and misleading reporting.
Continuing the openly biased reporting that paints Michael Schiavo as a 'loving husband' is FALSE reporting.
FAILING to report that Terri is being held hostage -- and has been held hostage for over THREE YEARS -- in a hospice, when she is not terminally ill, is FALSE reporting.
The FACT that Michael's live-in lover's mother was deemed fit to guard Terri to keep her own REAL FAMILY away during one of the times he and his cohorts sought to starve Terri to death is CRIMINALLY CRUEL, sir.
It is illegal to treat a dog or cat the way that Terri is being 'treated' -- or NOT treated. She has recently had FIVE TEETH REMOVED. This is directly due to the FAILURE of Michael Schiavo -- the 'loving husband' -- to provide any LOVING and REHABILITATIVE CARE WHATSOEVER for Terri.
Has the Saint Petersburg Times reporting and editorial staff followed Alice through the looking-glass?
One would certainly think so.
Julie Kay Smithson
London, Ohio
propertyrights@earthlink.net ----- Original Message -----
From:
Dyckman@sptimes.com To: (name redacted)
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: Terri Schiavo Coverage
Dear (name redacted):
I empathize with your situation. You have made the choices that are right
for you. That is all that Mr. Schiavo wanted for himself and his wife until
the governor and legislature intervened in violation of the Florida
Constitution.
However, I must tell you that as a person who knows the names of distant kin
murdered by the Nazis, I am insulted whenever anyone attempts to equate the
issue of Ms. Schiavo being allowed to die a natural death with the
deliberate genocide they practiced.
No reply is necessary.
Martin Dyckman
Associate editor and columnist
St. Petersburg Times
336 East College Avenue
Tallahassee, FL 32301
850-224-6394
______________________________________________________________________
THIS IS THE LETTER SENT TO MR. DYCKMAN FROM A FIGHT4TERRI ACTION GROUP VOLUNTEER REQUESTING FAIR AND EQUAL COVERAGE OF TERRI.
I am writing to you to express my disappointment with the manner in which
your newspaper covers Terry Schiavo. As a mother of a child who would be
described as being in a persistent vegetative state and is also fed by
feeding tube, I am fully aware of the needs a person like Terry has.
I think it would be a good idea for your paper to educate its readers on
exactly what caring for someone diagnosed as PVS is like. From your
reportage PVS could be misconstrued by your readers to be a coma-like state,
when in fact nothing could be further from the truth, and particularly in
Terri's case. Perhaps you could interview parents of a child with PVS to
learn exactly what kind of quality of life such a child has. I would be
happy to be interviewed for such a story.
In my case, my child who is 8 would be described as being in a PVS. She was
vaccine-damaged at the age of 4 months and her development was arrested.
She lost her swallowing reflex and has been unable to eat adequate amounts
of solids and so is dependant upon a feeding tube for her nourishment. The
past 8 years have been the most intense I have ever experienced; filled with
joy, laughter and sadness. The idea that a judge could decide whether my
child live or die is just abhorrent to me. My daughters contribution to her
family, friends and neighbours, in terms of the love and happiness she
brings could never be measured and is priceless.
Like Terri, my child does not communicate verbally, but there is an unspoken
communication between us, it is usually easy to determine what she needs or
why she might be unhappy. Likewise, it is very easy to know exactly what
makes her happy. With therapy my daughters condition has improved and I
believe that anything is possible with the right care and attention.
Reading Terri's parents testimony to her present condition, one gets the
impression that Terri is a very upbeat woman who is cognitive and
responsive. I find it incredibly cruel that her life could be used in the
way that it is being done so in the state of Florida to encroach on the
sanctity of life. It is ironic that we try to preserve the rights of unborn
embryos and yet in the case of Terri, we encourage the practise of
euthanasia. Is this because her life has no utilitarian function deemed
worthy of preserving? And who is entitled to make that decision?
It reminds me of the nazi euthanasia programme that saw the disabled killed
because they were not considered useful to society, this was accepted by
German society at the time. Unfortunately, this notion of utility did not
stop with the disabled but over time grew to include able-bodied humans that
society felt were of no value; the chronically sick and elderly, those
considered parasites, political dissidents and finally culminating in the
holocaust in which millions of jews were incinerated. The holocaust could
never have occurred without first convincing society that it was
compassionate to kill the disabled because they had no "quality of life".
Admittedly, caring for Terri is going to be expensive, Terri's parents are
fully aware of this but they love their child dearly and are battling to
protect her from harm because she is very precious to them. If we are
prepared to commit euthanasia despite the wishes of her parents, where
precisely do we draw the line and say, this life is worth preserving and
that one is not?
It is really important that your paper address these issues. Your readers
need to understand that Terri does feel. Removing Terri's feeding tube and
allowing her to starve to death, when she is in such a vulnerable state, is
the cruelest idea imaginable. It has been suggested that she is incapable
of feeling and yet she is clearly delighted by the presence of her parents
when they visit her in hospital. Michael Schiavo says that removing her
feeding tube would allow Terri to die with dignity. However, starving to
death would cause her enormous pain, physically and emotionally.
It is said that a society can be judged by how it treats its weakest
members. Allowing Terri to die in this way would not reflect well on the
state of Florida. I have always found that a good rule of thumb is "what if
the shoe were on the other foot". It has been claimed by Michael Schiavo
that Terri would wish for the "plug to be pulled". Is it not strange that
she would never have expressed this opinion to her parents and best friends?
I really do not think that removing Terri's feeding tube is a line that we
who are presently able-bodied, should be ready to cross.
Please endeavour to show the human side of the plight of Terri and her
parents. It is extremely sad and troubling that some 60 years after the
holocaust that we are ready to embark once more with a euthanasia programme
on the very same platform that was used by the nazis - i.e. compassion - and
when we know so well the experiment ended in the gas chambers.
I look forward to seeing more positive and humane coverage of Terri in the
future.
Yours sincerely
(name redacted)