Fallacies About the Schiavo Case

The New American ^ | April 18, 2005 issue | Thomas R. Eddlem

[OkieAcres]

If these Barney Fifes as you call them are such an easily defeated force, why didn't you grab up a couple of friends and get r' done. You could have been the modern day "Sons of Liberty".
People want to label Jeb a craven coward for his inaction in the end game. Truthfully, my wife, sisters, and mother would scratch the eyes out of a pack of grizzly bears if they tried to injure my son. That is just the women folk in my family. I have to question the men in the Schindler family for cowardice. If they really believed Teri's life worth continuing, where is the self sacrifice? I never saw the brother, father, cousins in a patty wagon. I did see a lot of face time on the tube however.

[Walkure]

1. The first sentence/paragraph is preposterous. Why should a middle-aged man with bad eyesight (me) and a family go up against even poorly-trained town kapos (oops, I mean cops) to save a woman I have never met--and may not even realize she is being rescued--to do the job of a duly elected governor with all the power in the world. In other words, why should I risk life and limb to clean up Jebs mess, when he had the power (national guard, state troopers) to clean it up in 5 minutes! Besides, there are plenty of strong young bucks in our conservative movement, and real militias too. I am not exempting them from blame. A lot of us dropped the ball here.

2. Jeb behaved like Gulliver tied down by Lilliputians. If that is not cowardice, it is a darn good imitation. But the bulk of your second paragraph I fully agree with (and as fellow FREEPers we should accentuate the positive here):

You are quite right in your assessment of the Schindler men, sadly. I have to be careful--indeed downright clintonian--in how I parse these words. I do not want to sound like I am endorsing violence. Let us say that had Michael Schiavo not existed, then guardianship of TS would have gone to the Schindlers by default. Terris dad was elderly and lived his life. If it were me (God forbid) in his shoes, I might be in jail or dead, but Terri would be in her mothers care at least. Again, this is all hypothetical.