Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify

Renew America ^ | March 13, 2006 | Kevin Fobbs

[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.

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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

[T'wit]

>> Andrea passed away?

Yes, a week ago today. But she died peacefully with her family at her side -- not by having the "ethics" committee unplug her respirator. She died naturally. That made all the difference to her family, to us, to herself.

[T'wit]

>> Poor kid's birthday is same as my wife's.

But she's eleven years older.

[Wampus SC]

"A collection of conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, Texas Right to Life members and disability rights advocates — all members of the Texas Advance Directives Act Coalition, which helped craft end-of-life legislation in Texas a decade ago and is considering changes to the medical futility provision — are largely in agreement that the deadlines imposed on families are too burdensome. But so far they haven't been able to persuade many of the doctor and hospital representatives in the coalition of the need to extend the deadlines."

I hope they don't fall for it again. It's an old trick - falsely framing the debate to divert attention away from the real issue. I read the article, and the main concern is where to set the deadline to kill. Originally it was 3 days, then in a "compromise" was set at 10 days. Now they're acting like giving more days solves the problem of ethics committees killing at will.

So, would killing after 21 days be so much better than killing after 10 days? It wouldn't. Why are we being asked to believe that this would solve the problem? We're not that stupid, and this isn't even the real issue.

The real issue is whether or not this kind of killing should be allowed at all. The real issue is whether or not we'll allow doctors and ethics committees the unchecked, unilateral power to kill at will.

[Wampus SC]

Amen.

[Wampus SC]

"And thanks to our Lord for allowing her return to Him to be at a time of His choosing rather than the culture of death."

Double Amen to that.

[Wampus SC]

"The Magical Mystery Death Tour of Judge Greer goes to Pensacola (my title) all of this is against the Judicial Canons of Florida but he killed Terri so what's a few illegal speaking engagements after you actually publicly kill someone?"

It's the times we live in, FV. "No one is above the law, but the law doesn't apply to me", is the motto of the New Amerika.

[Wampus SC]

I've been out of the loop this week due to some family funerals to attend. They were expected, and they were right with God. I gave silent thanks that they went on His timetable and were not bioethicked.

Today I pray that we'll never have have to look back and say, "Remember the good old days when people died when God was ready, not when some moneygrubbing committee was ready?"

[T'wit]

Welcome back!

[Wampus SC]

"...We hope that the battle that we fought for our sister will bring to light and bear witness to the horrible acts committed in the name of ethics in hospitals across the state of Texas. " I think it will shed more light on the bio"ethics".

It certainly has. It's also made public and somewhat vindicated ideas that we've been discussing on these threads for a long time. 1) That that the living wills and advance directives the death culture has been pushing mean nothing. They don't mean a thing when an ethics committee can override them and kill whenever they feel like it. 2.) That the health insurance industry plays a big part in this. Maybe the major part.
Þ

[Wampus SC]

There it is -- the predicted escalation. Now they really are saying, "killing them slowly is wrong, so let's kill them quickly. (So they'll be dead before anyone has a chance to stop us....)"

"Moreover, passive euthanasia allows us to evade personal responsibility for the patient's death. In active euthanasia, the relationship between the act (of administering a lethal medication, for instance) and its consequences is direct and unambiguous."

Well that sure is a twisted lie. The death culture has to use twisted lies because of who its boss is. If they think killing by starvation/dehydration evades personal responsibility they're wrong. One day they'll stand before the Big Judge who'll explain it to them. Unluckily for them, it won't be Judge Greer.

Idiots like this author should try a thought experiment. Explain what would happen if you lock someone in a room and give them no food or water until they die. Then call the cops and tell them what you did. Then say that because of the way they died you have no responsibility for their death. What do you think the cops would say?

[floriduh voter]

Thank you for your updates on Martin Anderson. A coverup by a guy named Cruel - only in Florida.

[floriduh voter]

Mikey's blogging about the worst decisions he ever made in his life. If he was right, why is he blogging about it? Why isn't he spending valuable time with his two children by Jodi instead of trying to rationalize away that he got a judge to kill his wife for him in a most barbaric, inhumane, immoral, vile way?

Forwarded to me:

Disgusting Michael Schiavo on forums.catholic.com:

Michael Schaivo posts on DailyKos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/12/14936/0858

Nearly half of Americans (49%) approved of George Bush's job performance before he and other right-wing politicians tried to score political points from my deeply personal family tragedy.

If you believe in polls, the President has never recovered. The President's respect and popularity took a fatal hit from their illegal and unprecedented attempts to use politics to block me from fulfilling Terri's wishes. For the first time, Americans saw leaders in our government selling our individual rights and ignoring the law just because they thought they knew better.

FV SAYS: The POTUS never recovered from abandoning Terri, lock, stock and barrel and sending Laura to Afghanistan to champion women's rights on the very day that Terri breathed her last breath. Because he's the leader of the country, Bush gets blamed for everything. The GOP definitely abandoned Terri, was probably Karl Rove's idea. US AG Al Gonzalez decidedly dropped the ball even though he's the guy who said there is a "no torture policy" in these United States.

Later last year, KATRINA happened which was a larger scenario but the same cause and effect as with Terri. WRONGFUL DEATH/MURDERS? Mikey has it all backwards. The real conservative base believes to this day that the republican party should have pulled out all stops to rescue TERRI SCHIAVO and they didn't do it. Besides President Bush has outspent all prior administrations which has really disgusted many republicans. It's not just about Terri re: his ratings but largely, that was when Bush's numbers started dropping, right after Terri's wrongful, malicious, felonious death.

Even Al Gore's 2000 lawyer David Boies said it was wrong to kill Terri and Ralph Nader and many more.

Terri's starvation was not a republican or democrat issue. IT WAS JUDICIAL TYRANNY, A MURDER. When someone is a victim of a crime, law enforcement doesn't check to see if the victim was a republican or a democrat.

Mikey's living in a dream world. How does he supervise all those people at the Sheriff's Jail when he's still obsessed with Terri's murder? The book must not be selling if he has to blog away the hours getting "the truth" out. LOL

Perjurers speak of truth but they cannot tell it.

[floriduh voter]

Re: Martin Anderson's Federal Probe. Remember that there's a Federal Probe right now re: Terri Schiavo's civil rights. Remember a schoolteacher filed a complaint but alas, the USDOJ didn't review that complaint until Terri was already deceased. Such bad luck for the USDOJ. (sarcasm)

Watch Martin's federal probe be as phony as Terri Schiavo's.

We used to have civil rights but now they are expressly reserved for illegals.

[Wampus SC]

"One provision of House Bill 656 would allow a patient to be declared "near death" or "permanently unconscious" by "two physicians or a physician and an ARNP." Nowhere does it say that the physician or advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP) has to be one who has attended or treated the patient."

That'll make it easier for the decision making to be outsourced to bioethics call centers in India. Think I'm kidding? I'm not. There's a pattern: the most cynical and outlandish sounding predictions about the death culture's next moves are scoffed at initially, then proved correct six months to a year later.

"The bill also allows the attending ARNP alone to determine whether the patient "lacks the capacity to make health care decisions."

When more people have the power to declare someone to be a useless eater, more useless eaters will be found. As will more insurance profits and salable organs. It's a neocon's delight in the land of fascism on the march. Of course, Americans will figure that unless they see literal goosestepping, everything is fine. It must be a case of PVS of the collective consciousness.

"If this bill were to become law, a husband could legally pull the plug on his wife without a doctor who has examined her ever being involved in the decision."

With this bill the plug could be pulled whether the husband wants to or not.

[floriduh voter]

3117. Judge Greer WAS NOT PERMITTED BY LAW TO BE TERRI SCHIAVO'S GUARDIAN because he was not related to her. That is the only exception for judges being anybody's guardian.

THAT IS ANOTHER LAW THAT JUDGE GREER BROKE and nobody ever held him to account! Judge Greer is lawless.

[floriduh voter]

Mikey was just in VEGAS for his big honeymoon. Now he's going back there? Is there a gambling addiction in his future since he cannot kill Terri but once?

[floriduh voter]

kos = kooks of satan?

[Wampus SC]

"When they try to run him for president, please stick with me and say "no, he's not proven to be a leader of all the people." He's proven to be a loyal party boy, not a leader with merit who is compassionate."

Maybe Dubya figures he can count on his brother to issue pardons. :)

I'll say no to Jeb. No more Bushes. We're in bad enough shape from this one. We might not survive another one.

[floriduh voter]

was going for Old McDonald e i e i o, the pregnant pig in Florida's Constitution but the law of the case was that "she must die."

Judge Greer is destroying the GOP all by his little bald self.

[floriduh voter]

And, we are not alone. I won't be fooled again. Boy genius isn't such a genius after all. I'd like to sue him for his mishandling of this administration but he's probably got boy genius-munity.