I have become ashamed of being a registered Republican. I am probably more accurately a Libertarian in my heart. But as a woman who loves God but does not presume to know the direct will of God for a personal fact, I am stunned how much hatred is spewed in God's name. Terri...suffered from an eating disorder. It was truly the cause of her loss of life 15 years ago. Her body lives, but her cortical function is gone...and why? This should be a lesson to us that a vital, vibrant woman would literally kill herself by bulimia to look better. Everyone loses sight of the true tragedy of the case. What is more tragic is that the family has become so totally caught up in this...that they have lost sight of the fact that she loved Michael and they always believed he loved her...until they lost sight of reality. She is never coming back. They need to let go for their own sake and hers. She lost her battle for life years ago when she allowed herself to become critical ill from an eating disorder. Perhaps no one sees the irony in that. However, the Republicans who say that those of us who think she should be let go are part of a "culture of death"...do not know what is in our hearts. I cry for the sadness of what is going on...I sympathize with all involved including her husband who has been vilified without merit. Let her go to God and have the joy that left her years ago. Did her husband start another relationship...many years after her death as a person...yes, but how many of us would not do the same. She is gone and he knows it, stop making him the devil and see him as a person doing the best he can...not perfect, but not evil either.
I can no longer watch or listen to conservative commentators whom I feel have betrayed me, her, and all Republicans who don't think that dying with dignity when the brain has ceased is cruel or immoral.
Goodnight and God bless.
Posted by Virginia at March 25, 2005 11:05 PM
Thank you Virginia. I salute your forthrightness, perception and clarity.
posted by Jo Fish on 03.27.05 at 04:45 PM
Comments:
a GREAT comment. I know there are others out there who feel the same way. I only hope they are brave enough to speak out as well.
Excellent comment. However, I wish Virginia weren't ashamed of being a Republican. We have a two (or more) party system for a reason, and the Republicans need more people of conscience like her.
It will take many republicans like Virginia, honorable, ethical, moral republicans, to save their party and together with democrats save the nation from these fascists.
Interesting that "Virginia" states in her first sentence her political affiliation, and how that has become a litmus test of sincerity in this case. I don't view this in political terms, which is why I'm able to stand, for the probably the first and only time in my life, with the bible-thumpers outside the hospital. If you parse Michael Schiavo's language carefully, and follow the timeline (which noone disputes), and give at least a little credence to the parents' version of events, then you can easily draw the conculsion that Michael is a classic, textbook pathological narcissist, a liar who "gaslighted" his wife and tried pulling the plug, not when the money ran out, but when he GOT it. He also didn't mention her "desire" to die unti 7 years later.
What about the claim that she hasn't had physical therapy in 10 years, but that she responded well to it before?
My best friend was brain dead, and that means that...no movement, no ability to breate, not even any "involuntary" motor function. He was truly an animated corpse. Anybody who says that of Terry S. is delusional.
posted by: OTB on 03.28.05 at 07:42 AM [permalink]
just some bits and pieces, Terri," responds reflexively to some stimulus, but there is NO willful, deliberate or conscious actions."
"The cerebral cortex of Mrs. Schiavo's brains was destroyed 15 years ago due to anoxia (oxygen starvation) brought about when heart stopped beating due to a potassium imbalance. The cerebral cortex is responsible for all higher brain functions."-This is why she's on a feeding tube, her brain cannot tell her mouth to chew or her throat to swallow. For all practical purposes Terri has been dead for fifteen years.
Michael wants his wife dead so he can collect the money from her settlement?
1) The fund was exhausted years ago. This charge was made back in 1998 and was found without merit by the court. Michael had at the time formally offered to surrender his wife's trust fund to independent administration. He would in no way benefit from the money."
"Michael Schiavo petitioned the court to kill his wife?
No, he asked the court to step in (in accordance with Florida law) and determine whether life support should be stopped. The court, acting as a proxy, ruled that Mrs. Schiavo was in a "persistive vegetative state", had no hope of getting better, and had told people at various times (funerals) before her accident that she had no desire to be kept alive in such a state.
The court found all the evidence "clear and convincing" and order her feeding tube removed. The COURT did this, not Michael Schiavo.
A feeding tube is nourishment, not life support?
Not according to Florida law:
Life-prolonging procedure" means any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention, including artificially provided sustenance and hydration, which sustains, restores, or supplants a spontaneous vital function."
You can read more in great detail, not rumor, gossip, or accusation about the legal timline-events in Terri's case here:
http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html
posted by: Tony Goins on 03.28.05 at 12:18 PM [permalink]
Yes Virginia, there is a santa claus. And an easter bunny. Oh yes, and let's not forget the tooth fairy.
posted by: Pechorin on 03.28.05 at 05:33 PM [permalink]
I think Virginia makes some excellent points. I've been a republican my entire life - but the simple fact is that this group preying on divisions and making money for certain groups just aren't a healthy mix. I don't view them as republicans - liars, certainly. Thieves, absolutely. And rapists.
I find it amazingly unacceptable that the elected leadership failed so completely to educate, to inspire and to rise to the occasion to guide. It is a failure of such astonishing proportions - to cater to the dogmatic horseshit of the clueless - that it makes me wonder if there is anyone in that group of sufficient integrity to warrant my trust again.
I arrived at that answer during the last election. I voted independent.
And during Terri's horrible situation, I sided with the husband and the Florida courts for courage and substance are things that I will value. Magical sky god stories have never been acceptable to me as solutions where people must come first.
Everybody needs to eat like everybody needs to breathe, ask questions, learn and grow. And to let go.
I will honor Terri through the commitment of her husband and the Florida courts. I will honor myself through the outright dismissal of the ridiculous claims of those supporting magical stories. And I will honor Virginia by telling her she is not alone in her plight, her confusion and her desparate, silent wish that our leadership LEAD in a manner respectable by those based in reality.
posted by: PirateRo on 03.28.05 at 07:59 PM [permalink]
It has been incredible to watch the 'news' shows this past week.
When did reporting and journalism suddenly become equal to bias, opinion, and inciting people to riot?
I ask because in my opinion thats what Faux News and MSNBC seem to be doing with this whole mess.
I'm glad that it's obvious to others such as Virginia.
If you wish to believe that Michael Schiavo is a villain, then apparently there is no accusation you can't level. But, if you will accept that he is a person of principle, and a person who loved his wife, then there is no grounds to vilify his actions. He has done precisely what I would have done in the same circumstances, waited beyond the end of hope and kept a promise. A one man conspiracy theory is not a better explanation, just a more entertaining one.
posted by: MikeBravo on 03.29.05 at 09:55 PM [permalink]
I am a member of a debate forum. People there have a mix of political views. On this issue as no other, there is actually some agreement between the left and the right. Usually, it's the Republicans who have health care backgrounds and know whereof they speak who agree with focusing on Terri, and her wishes. Likewise, if they have had to deal with this in their own families.
Republicans who have no such background and no family experience of this kind of traumatic ordeal seem to believe the Randall Terry spiel.
Most Democrats agree with the courts' decisions, as do most Libertarians.
I know this is just a very small sample, but it has been interesting to see.
posted by: Margot on 03.30.05 at 12:51 AM [permalink]
My family made this decision when an Aunt had a massive hemorrhage. She was already on a donors' list for her sister, whose diabetes was causing kidney failure.
Since her sister and the operation were scheduled so close, the decision to donate all functioning organs was made.
A veteran recieved a liver transplant, another lady recieved a kidney, and her sister.
She told me the week before, whilst making arrangements for the operation, that she would never be comfortable with being less than of full mind and become a burden upon others.
It was just something that happens. She worked with preneeds and living wills and estates claims as a bank VP. It was half a week later her same wishes could be upheld. Four days later she made others live longer. People of sound mind, their love and life are in essence hers.
From what I've been told , my state outlaws euthenasia, which would include painkiller used to accompany supervised termination of life. That is just from a relative who works in health care with a local Hospital chain.
Finally the name change Theresa Schiavo underwent evidenced the manipulation of her condition for partisan gain.
Just about the time people started to gain a sympathetic attachment to her formal first name, Senator Kerry's wife of the same first name was becoming a household name.
Terri Schiavo then was the new way to address her being. Theresa her given birth name, as mother's daughter. Terri was her young adult uptempo personality that would have abhorred bedridden existence.
The parents were in a denial phase. The one hope for this would be brain stem cell research which Bush denies adequate funding for.
And the circuis freakshow which included a registered sex offender who pimped their kids for civil disobedience, reich wing loons who tried to buy guns and be vigilantes, issue death threats, and sanction violence and bombings on the hospice, judge, and familes. State militia goons who planned to rush the police who upheld a court order.
The issue is an adult's sovereignty. Procedure was observed and numerous appeals.
The pics of someone who couldn't sit up straight or sit up at all do no justice to an active, over-the-counter lifestyle she once embodied.
posted by: Mr. Murder on 03.31.05 at 01:57 PM [permalink]
Mr. Murder,
The worst part about the pictures and video was that they took place over approximately 8½ hours just to get about 15 seconds of footage. Whoever posted the link above to Abstract Appeal was dead on. That's where I got the majority of my information. Another thing that burns my ass is that the fight between the Schindlers and Michael never started until AFTER Michael received the settlement and Bob Schindler demanded his "share" of the settlement for what he and Mary Schindler doled out to help Michael and Terri.
