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Thanks for the clarification, but I wasn't aiming at you per se. I was making more a general observation of the bulk of the posts related to the whole matter.

I agree with your view. I simply have been very disappointed in the way many conservatives have behaved and reacted in the whole unfortunate situation. So much played straight into the misconception of what our views are and how we handle things. It played right into the liberals' steroetyping of us, and it made great hay for their media to show their view off. To my mind, it was two steps back for us in terms of message. We as a group could have done so much better, if not for some of the media whores and desperate-for-martyrdom types in our midst.

I believe Mr. Schiavo made many monumentally bad decisions, but being in a marriage where there have been some catastrophes similar to those of the Schiavos, only without the seeming permanence of Terri's infirmity, I can certainly understand how he might go astray. That's not to excuse it, but it makes it more difficult for me to come down so hard on him as so many others have.

And just to clarify, *I* am the one in my marriage who was comatose for several months, ill for many more and am still disabled from the ordeals. I am the husband of a wife who went through several years of having to do and be *everything* major in our family, and the chips were down for a long, long time. And she made some really *bad* moves in that time, and it cost us dearly, strained relationships and wrecked our lives and families for a time.

She left me -- and our three children -- in 2003. As opposed to playing the victim or being judgmental, as many in my family did, I approached our situation with understanding of what *she* was going through as well as things going on with me and the children. She will be coming back home next month.

It's really hard to imagine what Michael Schiavo was going through without having done so yourself. That doesn't mean you can't have an opinion, of course, but it should temper judgment.

And you're right, God will sort all this out when the time comes, and God sorted things out with my wife. I was fortunate. I think, in a way, terri was fortunate. She *is* in a better place now. *We* will never know what happened, and it isn't necessarily important that we do. We just need to repair our laws to the point where such a tragedy won't happen again.

Thanks for the time. I know I took up a lot of space here.