Posted on 04/01/2005 9:47:04 PM PST by Bayou City
The news out of Pinellas Park, Florida breaks the hearts of all decent people. It should shake us to the core. Terri Schiavo is dead, intentionally deprived of food and water, with the force of the raw power of government holding the hands of the executioners. She was killed deliberately, by starvation and dehydration. No Court, Legislative body or Chief Executive had the courage to stop this killing. She was deprived of her substantive due process rights by every branch of government.
Terri was not dying. She was not receiving any “extraordinary medical treatment.” She was being fed and given water, as many disabled people are at this very moment, with assistance. She had trouble swallowing because she was disabled by damage to her brain. She would have lived for many, many years, bringing great joy to her family and changing the world. But now she is dead; killed by the complete abject failure of a system that has lost its soul.
The Greek word for “witness” is “martyrion”. In our use of the word over all these centuries of Christian history, we have emphasized those who shed their blood for the faith. However, there is also a tradition of “white martyrs”, those who live sacrificial lives that change the world. That is what Terri did. None of us will forget her smile. We all adopted her beautiful family. We now mourn her loss and share, at least a little, in their deep pain. We must also become outraged at the sheer evil of this killing and we must act.
Terri Schiavo is a martyr. She had her life taken away by the enforcers of a New Rome. Remember, the old Rome also had an elaborate system of courts and a highly developed legislative system. It prided itself on its culture, its arts and its claims to “civilization.” Yet, it legally sanctioned horrors such as the practice of exposure, where children, the disabled and other “unwanted” persons were left on rocks to die by exposure to the elements or to be killed by hostile passers by. We now do the same.
The killing of Terri Schindler must mark a turning point in American history. Terri was killed while “the law” was unwilling to intervene. Her death stripped away the veneer of civility painted on the face of the current culture of death. It was a diabolical event, plain and simple. The rejection of the inherent value of every human life as a foundation of our whole understanding of ordered liberty is a clear and present danger. We face a serious risk to both life and liberty when reference to the truth is removed as the measuring stick for our behavior. Authentic freedom has been replaced by a counterfeit. The very foundation of decency is shaken.
To honor Terri, we should dedicate ourselves to the long term work of building a new society, a culture of life and civilization of love, where the dignity of every human life will be the polestar of all public policy; marriage and family will be protected as the first mediating institution and defended against those who aim to replace and eradicate them; authentic freedom will be exercised in reference to truth and within a moral constitution, and our obligations in solidarity to one another, and most especially those who have no voice, will be upheld by elected and unelected public servants.
With all the talk of the “religious influence” in America, the martyrdom of Terri Schiavo reveals the lack of a national soul. Terri was killed in a manner reminiscent of past evil regimes. I am reminded of the old adage attributed to the English Philosopher Alisdair Macintyre who, commenting on the decay in English society, once said “The Creed of the English is that there is no God but it is proper to pray to him once in a while.” Without reference to the Source of unalienable rights, the One who placed the hunger for true justice within every human heart, we have become unmoored as a Nation.
Terrible injustices sometimes mark turning points in the political history of Nations. I pray that Terri’s death becomes such an event; an impetus for a new coalition for life, family, freedom and solidarity. If it does, Terri’s martyrdom will not have been in vain.
Deacon Keith Fournier is a member of the Catholic Clergy and a human rights lawyer
That is correct.
Beware of Hillary Care....we must never allow any elected, or non-elected person to legislate laws that order the killing of those considered 'useless' by the state.
We must strive to strike out the word "vegetable" when applied to human beings.
We must work to turn the treacherous course of dehumanizing the handicapped, diabled and infirm.
We must enforce upon our elected representatives that we abhor and despise the outright malicious cruel inhumane killing of innocent living human beings.
We must hold our elected and non-elected representatives accountable for failure to act when a life such as Terri's is at stake.
Your post is so wonderfully beautiful. It stirs my soul.
Excellent post! Zogby Poll, curiously a day too late for Terri.
Perhaps I am cynical, but I wouldn't trust ANYTHING that comes out of the Pinellas County system. I would suspect too much back scratching there. Too much who's who, what's what, who "knows" who, and who's got what either in power, influence and/or wealth.
I will be very surprised if the coroner examines ANYTHING more than her brain. . and Mikey making noises like he "ordered" an autopsy is laughable. His ordering days over Terri are just about over.
Whose brain wouldn't be in an atrophied and stressed state after the numerous attempts of days at this time and in the past to starve and dehydrate them? We will be "assured" that what happened to Terri was "proper". I'm just about 99.9% on that.
bump / ping!
I think she may have already....surived 15 years...went through hell and back...galvanized those dedicated to the preservation of life...and a few more that I can't think of right now.
I don't know if she was or was not bulimic but as far as I read the only thing that seemed to lead to this diagnose was a low postassium level.
By the way if bad eating habits lead to heart attacks how come jockeys aren't dropping of heart attacks every day.
I think there was a lot more to her original hospitalization that is being covered up by Geer and his cronies.
I have a couple of questions and might as well ask them here as on another thread:
Who had the most influence in getting this story into the national spotlight, and more importantly, who had the most influence in getting that first law passed in Florida that spared her for a little longer and made the most noises in the final losing battle? What other activists were as vociferous as Free Republic? Jesse Jackson arrived several days late and several dollars short, but I do appreciate it that he finally did show up and speak out.
Even Free Republicans (here and out there) couldn't agree in this case.
I have one more question: What if both the parents and Michael had agreed it was appropriate to pull the feeding tube and went to court together to have it done? Would that have made it any less wrong? Would there have been a quieter outcome?
It's the young people that are a worry. All my granddaughter's friends think it was the right thing to do. She is an atheist (claims to be) Democrat (worked for them), but has stood firm that they shouldn't have done this to Terri. I would like to think that it wasn't because she saw how much it upset me. She has a good heart for people and animals.
I think you nailed it. Funny how the husband is drawn to catholics.
How many saints practically starved themselves to death for their cause? I know it's apples and oranges, but I think she deserves to become a saint anyway if their is a legal way to make her one. Here we go. First the law of the state and now the law of the church.
Terri's religious leader said that feeding tubes were not considered extraordinary. It carried some force definitely, but was not ex cathedra. Trying to tie up loose ends here.
Well, Karl Rove must have made the greatest miscalculation in polling history. Too bad an innocent one died needlessly so Karl could interpret events that way.
Yes, No, and yes, no one would have ever known but God. Supposedly what you mentioned happens thousands of times a year. The American people have a "morality gap" if Karl Rove et al are right.
I would say Free Republic, who had the full story well before the summer of 2003, when I first read about the case.
And more importantly, who had the most influence in getting that first law passed in Florida that spared her for a little longer
Then Speaker Johnnie Byrd, State Senator Daniel Webster, and Governor Bush, but it was not widely mentioned at the time that Bush had signed the 1999 law making dehydration and starvation an option in cases such as that of Terri
and made the most noises in the final losing battle?
You must mean Randall Terry, but he was really very subdued and did all he could. The deck was stacked against the Schindler from the start because the elites in both parties actually believe in judicial supremacy.
What other activists were as vociferous as Free Republic?
That Empire-Journal in NY that hardly anyone had before Terri's final battle
I was referring to the evident flood of emails and phone calls that Florida and Washington evidently could not ignore. Who was responsible for most of those?
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