The Kiss of Death
Posted on 03/14/2006 11:28:51 AM PST by KevinNuPac
Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify
Kevin Fobbs
March 13, 2006
Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives?
And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can bring to our lives and to the celebration of the Culture of Life.
On March 18th, we as a nation will begin to grieve again, to reach into our hearts and feel with our collective national spirit what the Schindler family felt last year at this time as each moment since Terri was disconnected from the feeding lifeline, the moments crept by like hours and hours like days.
All of us have felt in some way that pain — even if it were only in the privacy of our loved one's home, hospital room, hospice or perhaps talking with an attorney and doctor attempting to make sense out of some fleeting comments made in a conversation perhaps voiced ten, twelve or even two decades earlier — not necessarily an expression of her true feeling about an end-of-life decision but merely an incidental musing in a long-forgotten side conversation.
For at least one million Americans, and quite possibly a whole lot more, this is an opportunity to voice an opinion through a pledge supporting a resolution in each state called "Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life." Each and every person who cares that your family, your spouse, your mother, your father, your sister or brother understands with clarity what you wish the end of life for you to be, with dignity and certainty should sign the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com and take the additional step to sign a Living Will — or as they call it at www.terrisfight.org, the Will to Live.
Some have asked why Americans should care about an annual Terri's Day. It is quite simple, we tend to keep turning the page on the Culture of Life because we feel it does not affect us. We tend to believe that seemingly universal belief that those who are handicapped, those who are not quite living a "perfect" life or by contemporary notion "ideal" then those lives are possibly disposable, marginal, not relevant, and part of the Culture of Death which embraces a "disposable society."
But life and our values for the Culture of Life are not disposable. Think about the young people today who would rather hurt themselves or even take their own lives rather than feel "imperfect" or the elderly person whose family is told by an insensitive health care professional while the stricken person struggles to cling to life, "she would be better off in another place," — just let her die, disconnect her from life, because her quality of life is not up to "contemporary standards. "
Why does celebrating the Culture of Life in Michigan become so essential for all of us in America? It is important for several reasons. Dr. Jack Kervorkian, also known as "Doctor Death" helped launch first in Michigan and then the nation the notion of the death culture. Secondly, and equally as important, at the May 12 event — just two days before Mother's Day — there will also be a "Mary's Moms" celebration of those women and mothers who have met challenges in standing up for some aspect of the Culture of Life.
This past weekend I sat at my cousin's funeral — or going home celebration, which more accurately describes it — thinking about the dearly departed and how she packed so much caring for others into her life even as she struggled with illness and advancing age. She was a wonderful woman who had lived through many, many challenges in her life, but in her 73 years she had met these challenges with dignity and had conveyed to her family when would be the right time to allow her to pass away.
Her daughter, who is a minister, spoke to the packed church about the times when, with all of her pain and then a stroke, the doctors had informed them that perhaps it was better to let her go. Yet that was three years ago that that occurred, and if the family had listened to the doctors and refused to see how she fought back and not only recovered but went back to volunteering at the church to feed and clothe the homeless. The medical professionals didn't care about an elderly lady who was on dialysis, but the family did and they knew better. Patricia lived three more years — years her extensive extended family considered "a gift from God."
So isn't part of the lesson of Terri's legacy and Terri's Day for families and loved ones to have a meaningful conversation with their family and to have the written document on hand as well that conveys the wishes clearly and concisely? You betcha.
As I sat in the church I thought of all of the families across the nation and the world who were sitting at their loved one's bedsides — or even standing outside of a hospital emergency room — overwhelmed with emotion, torn by what may be days of conflicting anguished decisions. I thought again of how out of death we may have the certainty of life. Terri's death reminded the nation that yes a state can and will starve you to death, and your family may be rendered helpless as you watch your loved one's precious life forces drain slowly away.
By signing the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com or going to www.terrisfight.org, you can learn about how to encourage your state legislature to establish March 31st as an official Terri's Day. Hold a Culture of Life Home Party or meet-and-greet to sign pledges, share ideas and support The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation as well as Culture of Life activities and events in your community or around the nation. Between now and March 31st you can make a dramatic difference for yourself, your family and for the nation. Stand up for the Culture of Life because one person, one life, one family can and does make a difference in America. Make the difference and be the difference today. America...The countdown for the Culture of Life has begun.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist for the Detroit News. He is also the daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show online at www.wdtkam.com daily 2-3 p.m., and call in toll-free nationwide to make your opinion count at 800-923-WDTK(9385) © Copyright 2006 by Kevin Fobbs http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fobbs/060313
I thought that they listed it that way so an autopsy wouldn't be performed. Wouldn't look good if all the patients were dying from drug overdoses!
Very true! They could just use the M&M report as justification for listing it as a result of cancer. The hospice could still be up to no good. Seeing how the Dept. of Health in Florida had "accidentally" lost all those complaints on file from 1992 to 2005, you'd see why it's so easy to be skeptical in a situation like this.
I get so frustrated sometimes. Why can't people just do the jobs they're paid to do, and do them well? Do you think there's a way we could just get rid of all the unethical people in the world?
I will NEVER forget what happened to Terri and how MS was allowed to let her die. I have had people say to me "I wouldn't want to live that way". How do they know, they aren't "that way" yet. I have told my family that I want to live any way God wants me to live. They also know NOT TO STARVE AND DEHYDRATE ME.
CORRECTION- Let her die meant to say killed her.
I'm so sorry pyp. Please contact Congressman Dave Weldon. I think he's tired of hearing from me but we have a real problem on our hands with these forced exits of our loved ones. The toll free to congress is at my tag line. You need to specify Dave Weldon from Florida because there are a few Weldons in DC as you know. Dr. Dave is my hero. We aren't just whistling Dixie. This is really happening. I'm so sorry for your loss, PYP.
St. Patrick's looking out for Terri. This isn't over, 8mmmauser. And did you read what happened to PYP's brother at a hospice? Calling Dr. Dave Weldon, Florida Congressman. Calling Dr. Dave.
Felos should be disbarred. He is not a legit attorney. He's smart but he's not legit. I say he's long overdue for a competency exam. This is based upon his book and he's got another coming out called "Beyond Schiavo". How vile is that title?
You and I think the same way! LOL - we must have had the same conversations with our families. Fortunately, my family has seen for themselves what a "good" way to die is when my father passed away three years ago. We all took care of him in his last days. We all took turns so as to get our rest and nourishment, but he was never left by himself for one second, in case he had something he wanted to say, or in case he wanted anything (which was almost always a sip of water or a cool washcloth on his forehead). We surrounded him with prayer several times a day, and he got to spend precious time with his friends who were able to visit. We were truly blessed! It was a perfect model to follow for future health difficulties, especially those that might end in death.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of when Terri's feeding tube was removed. I cannot forget!
Felos does need a competency exam, pretty much the same as Tom Cruise. They're both looney tunes! People who are that far removed from reality scare me.
Outside of Hospice we were waiting for a hero but all we got was one coward after another who could have saved Terri but made false promises one day and then slammed everyone the next!
Judge Greer had plenty of time to stop any rescue because Jebbie telegraphed to Greer through the media that he was coming round the mountain.
All a ruse. Nobody was coming. Terri was suffering and died.
On Jeb's watch and on his big brother's watch.
Remember that Judge James Whittemore in Tampa REFUSED the Pres and the US Congress. He refused to rehydrate Terri and yanked the Schindlers around hour upon hour. Both Greer and Whittemore are criminally liable. They should not have any immunity. This was MURDER.
1. Senator Jim King (the ringleader) 2. Nancy Argenziano 3. Mike Bennett 4. Dennis Jones (from Terri's area). The others: (I'll need to bring up the jpeg which id's all the Terri cowards who voted against her - name & photo).
Nancy A. didn't like being called a murderer but, that is exactly what she is.
Can you post some jpegs for me later this week on this thread if I email them to you? My pc is acting up lately.
Any monies ponied up were likely given by George Soros. Of course, I can't back that up with any real evidence, it's a gut feeling. However, I was looking into college scholarships for my daughter, and I was surprised to see how many were funded by George Soros. That guy has his money all over the place, and I am confident that some of that trickled into Pinellas county somewhere.
I knew Florida discriminated against people but I had no idea how bad it was until I learned of Terri in August of 2003. Murdering disabled people had never crossed my mind until I found out about the jihad against Terri Schiavo. It was a war against Terri. It was not just a skirmish but a real war (with torture and weaponry). When your govt points weapons right at you, you know at that moment if at no other that the country's on the wrong track.
I'd call my mom before I'd go down to Hospice Woodside and each day was more intense there. Right after Easter, I remember mom telling me on the phone to duck if there were any bullets flying. That was based upon what she saw on the news, not based upon anything I told her.
What a wonderful, inspiring story. Thanks for posting it. I only wish The Schindler's had the same opportunity with their daughter. Not that she was dying, but you know what I mean.
The Kiss of Death
I was kind of hoping he'd experience a mysterious collapse, suffer severe brain damage, lose his voice and 91% of his intelligence, develop a rectal itch that he can't reach, have all his surplus organs sold for transplants, have his arms and legs ground up as cat food, and then have a judge REFUSE to take him off a ventilator or a feeding tube for the next 79 years, and make him sit upright the whole time facing a TV that plays "Days of our Lives" reruns 24/7/365.
As we know, Judge Greer threw out her testimony and all of the other Terri caregivers testimonies as well. "Incredible" was his decree with Carla. He also did the same thing with a Mayo Clinic neurologist as well. The following is part of his observations when Terri was already in her 5th day of dehydration and starvation.
William Cheshire Jr. - Mayo Clinic neurologist
"As I looked at Terri, and she gazed directly back at me, I asked myself whether, if I were her attending physician, I could in good conscience withdraw her feeding and hydration," he wrote. "No, I could not. I could not withdraw life support if I were asked. I could not withhold life-sustaining nutrition and hydration from this beautiful lady whose face brightens in the presence of others."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.