We Have Spoken. Now It Is Time To Watch
- Posted by Beth on March 24th, 2005 filed in General, Guest Posts, Schiavo
Now that the courts have failed Terri, I’ll put up a quite timely and pertinent guest post that I was sent via email from my friend TWM, a previous guest-poster.
We Have Spoken. Now It Is Time To Watch
If those who want to starve Terri Schiavo to death have their way, so be it.
If that travesty occurs, let us videotape her last few days. Let see
how ‘unfeeling’ and how out of touch she is with pain and suffering.
Let America see those tapes of her, in agony. Let America watch as she
pleaded with her eyes and with the most basic of sounds, for food and
water.
Let America see Judge Greer and the Judiciary maintain their
‘professional demeanor’ and
distance as they too, watch the effects of the fruits of their labor.
Let us see how easy it is for America to watch this ‘vegetable’ die.
Finally, at the next election campaign, let those tapes be played as a
backdrop to ads asking viewers a simple question: If so and so
couldn’t be bothered to keep Terri Schiavo alive, how can you believe
he cares about you and those values you hold dear?
Those politicians who have turned their backs on Terri Schiavo ought
to ask themselves a question: If the tapes of a Terri Schivao being
starved to death were seen by their constituents, do those
politicians who stood idly by as Terri Schiavo was starved to death
really think they would be held in such high regard?
Do those politicians really believe they would be forgiven at the polls?
Thank you once again, TWM, for your insight!
Ogre says:
Unfortunately, the public’s memory is very, very, very short. The majority of voters will completely forget this by the time elections roll around.
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred says:
I guess now we can add the Supreme Court to the list of those that need to see what their decisions mean.
Sigmund, Carl, And Alfred says:
On The Matter of Terri Schiavo
The Supreme Court of The United States has ruled they will not intervene in the Terri Schiavo matter.
There will of course, be finger pointing and recriminations. Most importantly, there will be consequences.
Neil says:
Terri died of a heart attack and we, humanity, intervened and brought her back. She then could not eat food so we, put a feeding tube into her. God created her as she was. We’ve made her what she is now. Someone was cruel in the beginning to bring her back when her heart had stopped for so long. God can do anything. He can create life. But he is not in the business of physically saving us all on Earth, or He would do so. We have to pray for His will, not ours. God Bless Terri. May she find peace from all of us and our human failings.
John says:
I don’t think the polls is where these politicians need to worry about forgiveness.
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred says:
Neill, that is the most asinine remark.
So why have hospitals? Why not let em all die? If that is indeed God’s intention, why do extend our efforts?
Obviously, you don’t give a rats ass about your loved ones- and after listening to your drivel. I’m having a hard time accepting the fact that I should.
Then again, if I didn’t care about your loved ones, I’d be like you.
dingo says:
What the hell do you guys on the right want? Seriously. Do you want activist judges or conservative judges? I am tired of this double speak. If the courts would have intervened, they would have been activist judges. The irony of this whole thing is that these judges did exactly what conservatives have been calling for… following black letter law. Most of the rulings are from Republican appointees.
Just come out and say it. The anger at the courts has nothing to do with activism, just not ruling in the way you want.
GunTotingLib says:
Dingo, what we wanted was for the judges to review this case with the new developments in it. Why the hell is that asking too much???
dingo says:
Because the “new developments” is a red herring. You were calling for “judicial activism” before there were any “new developments” and you would be calling for “judicial activism” even if there weren’t any “new developments.”
It is fine with me if you want to want her to survive on moral grounds. There is nothing wrong with making this all about morality. I often wish courts took morality into more consideration. But be persistent and call a spade a spade… Don’t ask the courts to be activists on one hand and them deride their activism on the other. Do you want the courts to be activists or not?
Rightwingsparkle says:
It’s not about the politicians now. It is like we have made the judicial system the sole arbiter of what is right and wrong. That is not how it was meant to be.
Hennessy’s View » Last Word on Terri Schiavo? says:
[...] to Ashley Smith’s apartment, we must trust that He will do right by Terri Schiavo. Beth expresses some thought provoking ideas. It’s too [...]
dingo says:
“It is like we have made the judicial system the sole arbiter of what is right and wrong.”
In this case, it is exactly opposite. It was the law makers who determined right and wrong when they passed the bill giving the guardian the right to make these decisions. The courts are determining black and white (letter law), not right and wrong. If you lay blame at anyone’s feet, it is the legislators of Florida, not the judges. The fact that the people who are trying to save Terri cannot or will not see this is why they cannot win. If you want to stop this from happening again, you have to change the law, not the judges.
JackLewis.net says:
Terri Schiavo blogger roundup
Supreme Court: Volokh Conspiracy, Captain’s Quarters, Blogs for Bush, Argghhh!, WizBang, Michelle Malkin, Blogs for Terri, bLogicus, RW Conspiracy Politics:…
MaxedOutMama says:
I sort of agree with Dingo. I think the SC should act but I don’t think they have much authority to act. In Cruzan the SC said the state had a right to forbid starving people to death unless they had formally expressed such a wish before they became incapacitated, because a state had a valid interest in protecting life. Florida decided that was a most ineffective course.
I’ll tell you one thing though. CNN keeps reporting that people are filling out right-to-life docs at a record pace. How many understand that in half the states you must specify that you DO want food and water if you become incapacitated but are not dying? I doubt many of them understand the consequences of their living wills. I intend to do whatever I can to convey that understanding.
Sirena says:
It frickin’ floors me how the U.S. isn’t allowed to torture known terrorists, but we can torture an innocent disabled woman TO DEATH and it’s PERFECTLY LEGAL.
We are going to hell in a handbasket and Mikey “he likes it” Schiavo, Curious George Felos, and Judge-mental Greer are leading the way, and Hitler will be there to greet them…
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred says:
I think Dingo is on the money too- the reality is that judges can only work with what they have. Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that somewhere, somehow, there has to be an emergency cutoff valve.
Right now, as Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice put it, the media has ensured that no one knows what the hell is going on.
That said, a bit of time to ensure every t was crossed and every i was dotted can’t hurt.
TJ says:
Ogre - that is where we come in!
Neil - so if a doctor defribulates you can he come back a year later and revoke that? I think not. How she got to where she is now is irrelevant, the fact that she is alive is the important part.
Dingo - Greer is (intentionally?) ignoring state laws.
/TJ
NIF says:
Day 6
Today’s dose of NIF - daily News, Interesting & Funny … pray for Terri!
warspite says:
First, please allow me to thank you for all the work you did, perosnally, in this case. I am a great fan of your blog and read it daily but, alas, my writing skills are less than they should be and I feel uncomfortable in the medium.
I am, and have been for years, a right wing Reagan-Bush Republican and a guess you could call me a “true believer”. I am, however, rather something of a skeptic in matters of religion and, although I admire and sometimes am green with envy for those who’s hearts and minds will let them believe in God, I, sadly, can not seem to do so-although I have tried and tried again-I can not seem to come to grips with a belief in God. But I do believen the USA and it’s future role as the “bright shining city on the hill” and the “beacon of the world”. The world looks to us, and we have let them all, everybody, down. It is a sad day to be an American.
“Humanity with all it’s fears, with all the hopes of future years, hangs breathless on thy fate”. Longfellow, writing in times of peril, was right. The world looks to us-and we have fallen down on the job.
Our leaders-the people I worked for and gave money to and endured the long years in the wilderness with have let me down. Oh my brethren, we are, for all our recent success, a sad and misbegotten lot. We have failed and failed again when, as was obvious to all, we had no choice to succeed. I bow my head in non-theistic grief.
I may not believe in God as I would like to understand him but I believe strongly in the culture of life-human life. We have just taken a long, tragic step backwards as a nation, back to the darkest period of the European intellectual movements of the 1930ies which discussed the relative importance of life versus the interests of the State. I will not break Godwin’s Law here because I have more to say, but morals and ethics and any sense of common decency have been shredded and now lie fallen at own feet. I feel like a co-conspiritor, an accessory to murder.
This was never about the “Christian or Religious Right”. It was not about the legel structure-although it demonstrates loudly and for all to see the many issues that will need to be addressed about the immense power of the judicial branch which is so out of touch with the will of the people, as expressed by votes in both Houses and Congress and by the Leadership of the Executive Branch who have, with courage, called upon the third branch of our Government to get busy and made this all come out different. Both the branches of government responsible to the poeple directly have let their message to the Judges that, it would seem, are appointed for life, unelected and unaccountable rulers of this nation. How did we become lost in such a soul-less mess? I groan in fear for our collective future.
For we have allowed this women to be starved to death. I find it so appalling and shocking as to defy common sense. The system, now that we write and passs the laws, will have to be changed to reflect our world view and not theirs. I will no longer give away my counrty to the cult-culture of death. I will no longer sit by and watch my fellow citizens be murdered by judical fiat. Never again, my Comrades, never again.
As to our Leadership, those men and women in positions of power who we voted for and financied and have supported, they have much to atone for. They have, to their credit I believe, understond this situation exactly for what is it, but they have still failed. Why? because they have not gone the difficult and perhaps undignified route now right now, necessary.
With hubris likeaGreek tragedy, they failed to listen. The system must now be substantially revised as it no longer has accountability among the judical Branch-this, my brothers and sisters and Comrades of Conservative movement, this must be made to change.
Something broke, so obviously, must be fixed. Perhaps I may be a “radical Republican” a true revolutionary of the right, a populist too, it would seem, because I want, I demand, great changes: I want democractic institutions that listen to the will of the people expressed through their elected representitives to mean something.
Sorry I am using VIAVOICE as I no longer see very well, and I am overwhelming my poor machine.
This is what our people must do. They must go to Florida and get arrested bringing her food and water. They must, for now, make speeches and recieve the bounty of their office-the money that floats the system-they must-all who will go-take to the streets like in the civil rights era. After all, what is a great civil right? A place on a bus or a lunch counter-or the right not to be slowly starved to death. We all must be seen to act and act again for the good of our collective national goals the the future of our Party. if not, we risk all and we risk it right here in this test. This will tell us how much we really are willing to give up, what we, in the end, really stand for. If we, my Party, is the party of the people(and of this I have no doubt), we are frumpy, work hard, not very cool, but we are honest and plain and representitive of all good and normal and clean in this country. We must prove ourselves now, it would sem, by acts of civil disobedience and take to the streets. So, all our overfed and pompous speechmaking politicians must-and I mean right now-get out there and meet this test. It is time to remember where we came from, many of us, if we are to reclaim what we have just lost, not for the only for the party, not only for the country-the eyes of the world are upon us, and we must act.
Save teri, save the Party, save the world-and save one very unhappy person, disillusioned with the stand of so many of her countrymen who have voted for the culture of death of it’s acceptence.
Anonymous says:
Please can someone explain why Terri’s lawyers keep having to appear in front of Judge Greer? Aren’t there any other freaking judges in Florida? We already know that this man is dead set against saving Terri and yet they appeared before him today with two new motions…..and he ruled against them. WTF is going on?
Hugh Jorgan says:
Hugh, BULLCRAP.
None of us consider this a reflexive political response–we HAVE SEEN ALL SIDES. Maybe you should too.
Please also read the comment policy posted immediately preceding this post. Now GET LOST.
–Beth