Posted on 04/05/2005 7:36:01 AM PDT by leepbutler
Today, millions of Americans can sleep well knowing that seventeen year old mass murders have the luxury of not facing the death penalty because that would be regarded by foreign countries as inhumane.
Today, millions of Americans can rest easy with the knowledge that terrorists who have planned, conspired, or even tried to slaughter innocent human beings will not have to endure even one night of sleep deprivation for interrogation as that would be considered torture.
Today, millions of Americans can take solace in the fact that an innocent woman lay in a hospital bed dying through starvation while her body fed on itself and her family got to watch their daughter experience ‘euphoria’; as media elitists repeatedly reported would happen, created during her decline towards death from dehydration.
Editorial boards and elitist columnists from across the country have decided that the death of a young woman was justified because her adulterous husband wanted her dead for his own obvious egotistical machinations and was an opportune moment to turn the tragedy into flagrant political opportunism to attack Republicans.
These media pundits openly castigated Republicans for ‘rushing’ legislation through Congress that moved Terri Shiavo’s case into the federal court system; which under Article III of the U.S. Constitution it has complete authority to do, effectively giving her parents another opportunity to try and save the life of their daughter. They even referred to a circulated memo that has now been debunked as being a fake... sound familiar?
According to these elitists, Republicans should stand on the courthouse steps and hold their heads in disgrace over a moment in time where their compassion overwhelmed them into trying to help a grieving family with two desperate parents.
It's completely amazing how liberals in this country can so swiftly change the gears of their campaign of public relations deception where they instantly go on the attack using arguments that they once fought against.
Liberals attacked Republicans because of what they purported to be hypocrisy on the Right concerning Republicans fight against 'Federalism' when Congress; which happened to include Democrats, wrote and passed Terri's legislation.
Yet in the state of North Carolina, as an example, liberals passed anti-business environmental legislation that was much more stringent than the EPA's own standards and now expects the Federal government to force surrounding states to match North Carolina's standard.
If state's rights is the mandate, and according to liberal arguments for the death of Terri Schiavo, that was their argument, then how could Congress on the one hand be acting 'imperialistic' when trying to save the young woman's life, but on the other be expected to step in to force several states to comply with environmental standards created by another state?
Of course the reality is that Congress has full authority to step into a 'judicial' matter even on the state level because the Constitution gives them that power. Liberals fight ardently for imperialistic powers of the Federal government over our daily lives in every aspect. Only they can explain why they wanted so desperately to see Terri die a horrendous death by fighting against the one ideology they have always embraced.
The truth about the legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Bush is that it only gave the Schindlers a legal avenue to move the case to the federal court level for a 'due process' review and nothing more. It wasn't intended to intercede a 'family conflict', but to make sure that every legal aspect had been given a hearing.
The biggest miscarriage of judgment in this matter was the manipulation of information that was reported by media elitists as they followed in lock step with liberal deception. Fallaciously attacking Republicans was the least of that agenda.
First on the list was that somehow members of the media knew without a doubt that Terri was 'brain dead'. This is something they repeatedly reported, yet there never was a full and comprehensive battery of tests to prove that point. When they constantly referred to her as a 'vegetable', they didn't really know and didn't really care, they were doing little more than trying to sway public opinion.
Which is exactly what they did. Next on the list is the fact that they used public opinion to differentiate a familial division. It is extraordinary how they attacked Republicans in Congress for 'stepping into a family dispute', yet they did that very thing by using mendacious polling data to 'verify' their own attitude to kill Terri.
What difference does it make what some upscale elitist from Manhattan thinks when it comes to deciding the life or death fate of an innocent young woman?
Then came the issue of 'life support'. Terri Schiavo wasn't on life support, but that didn't stop media elitists and liberals from maintaining a steady drumbeat of misinformation that her feeding tube was essentially life support. Christopher Reeve couldn't feed himself and needed a respirator to breathe, yet liberals weren't clamoring for him to be starved to death.
But to make their point, they found what they thought was the smoking gun when they discovered that Tom Delay and his family had made the decision years earlier to remove his father from life support.
They didn't care that equating the two was a total lie because they were intentionally creating an opportunistic perception of hypocrisy where none existed. Delay's father was actually on 'life support', removing that machinery meant a sudden cessation of life. Terri starved to death, not because she needed machinery to sustain her life, but because she couldn't feed herself.
Some editorialists even went so far as to utilize race baiting to make their point. They asserted that if Terri Schiavo had been African-American, no one; especially Republicans in Congress, would have cared. Did Jesse Jackson think it was a 'race issue' when he went to Florida to speak on Terri's behalf? Bringing race into this tragedy was little more than hate mongering!
The same media and their liberal cohorts seemed to not even blink a questioning eye when Terri's adulterous husband; who should have lost all marital rights when he fathered a child with another woman, wouldn't allow her family to be in the room when she died or forced a cremation or buried her remains away from her family.
No, his only concern was that she not live with a feeding tube. Yeah, right. But Michael and his liberal supporters got their wish as they watched the fragile body of Terri Schiavo waste away from starvation for fourteen long days. It still hasn't been explained exactly why she would need morphine if the act of starvation was supposed to produce 'euphoria'?
Today, think about the millions of mourners who have held candle light vigils outside the cold dark walls of an institution designed to end the life of a psychopathic serial rapist/killer, shedding tears for his plight while media elitists write about the sad dilemma of how after consuming his last meal, he would most likely be given a quick, painless death.
Realizing how those same people opined and argued for the death of an innocent woman whose family fought diligently to save her life.
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Lee P Butler has worked in environmental management for twenty years while honing his writing skills in poetry, fiction, and opinion. He is the Vice Chairman of the Richmond County Republican Party where he resides with his wife and three children and has been published in several outlets including The Richmond County Daily Journal, OpinionEditorials.com, The North Carolina Conservative, The Lasting Joy, and is the owner/publisher of leepbutler.com.
lee@leepbutler.com http://www.leepbutler.com
Thanks Lee.
BTTT
Very nice. Thank you.
Amen. May Terri, with her beautiful smile, all the Brighter when Mom came, rest in peace.
May God forgive me, forgive us all, for not doing more to intercede.
There are two constants for democrats/liberals.....If Republicans are for it they're against it and the ends justify the means. A dead body here and there, no problem, as long as we win.
Thanks for the post.
bttt
ZING! Knocked that one out of the park. :-)
Yup, I can't understand how Dems get away w/the alleged mantra of "keep the gov out of our lives". The only time that applies is when they want DEATH, in truth.
Not only is it Dems who want welfare and nit-picky rules over corporations, they are also the 1s who insist:
-wear safety belts - OR ELSE
-BUY and use "safety" equipment for all your kids - and you, too!
...amongst other things.
The Bushes bear a GREAT deal of responsibility for REFUSING to rescue her.
Read later
I have been wanting to tell you, when you sad that Terri would NEVER get her feeding tube reinserted the day it was removed, you couldn't have been more RIGHT!
Precisely!
That's "said."
An excellent essay. I agree completely.
Given that, I had to stop reading and go back to make sure I wasn't reading Mark Steyn, whose writing I really admire...it has the same bite and clarity I associate with Steyn.
I am so glad you posted this, and that you are here.
Thank you, everyone. What was truly disturbing was how the media, instead of just reporting the facts, decided to turn her death into a forum for pushing their liberal agenda. And gave Michael a pass on everything.
Excellent.
Ping
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