Buzzflash on Schiavo
Terri Schiavo Was Just An Innocent Bystander To A Political, Elmer Gantry Circus Of GOP Political Opportunists And Religious HuckstersA BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Terri Schiavo deserves our sympathy and our Godspeed.
She was just an innocent bystander to a political, Elmer Gantry circus of GOP political opportunists and religious hucksters.
The origins of the travesty and moral crime of exploitation was a family feud of sorts. It was about a wrenching decision made thousands of times a year by Americans about loved ones who are in vegetative states or terminal conditions.
But with the help of the infamous Randall Terry and the GOP hypocrisy machine, a case long ago settled by the courts, was hijacked to advance Republican fortunes and fill the pocket books of celebrity fundamentalist preachers.
Terri Schiavo, like anyone in her situation, deserves our sympathy and our empathy. She didn't ask for a three ring circus, but the Bush brothers and Tom "the Exterminator DeLay" could care less about her dignity or her life. She's only of use to them if her parents' campaign can help them further consolidate power -- or, in the case of DeLay, cling onto it amidst a rash of ethical and legal problems.
We are always a bit baffled when the mainstream media and centrist Democrats "concede" that the Republicans have some sort of monopoly on the "values issue." The only value that the GOP leadership seems to consistently embrace is hypocrisy. Virtually, everything else is brazen showboating by hardened sinners and liars, immoral opportunists and slick river boat gamblers playing the role of saintly pious men.
Take Tom DeLay as the Los Angeles Times did this week -- and as BuzzFlash has over the past five years. DeLay decried judges and anyone who would remove a feeding tube from Terri Schiavo as barbaric (even though it is done in such cases thousands of times a year). And that was just the beginning of his self-righteous fire and brimstone invective.
But it turns out that Tom "Hypocrisy Central" DeLay approved of removing life support from his father some years back. And, as for DeLay casting judgment on Michael Schiavo (who sat at his wife's bedside for years), Tom hasn't, according to the Washington Post, talked to his mother or siblings for years. He didn't even invite his mother to his daughter's wedding. If there is anyone who DOESN'T practice family values, it's Tom DeLay.
And then you have the Bush brothers. George W. Bush, who couldn't be bothered to interrupt his 2001 Crawford Ranch photo-op vacation to try and prevent 9/11 after receiving red alert warnings, flew back from Crawford to sign an unprecedented violation of the separation of powers law that would move the Schiavo case to the Federal Courts. The rather glaring hypocrisy here was that George W. Bush had signed a radically different kind of law while Governor of Texas, one that not only declared the spouse the person to decide (along with the doctor) if life support should be removed; he also allowed an option for doctors to remove life support from patients whose families did not have the means to pay for their care! Now, that's some hypocrisy!
And of course, Bush loved it when he set the record for executing people in Texas, killing more than 100,000 Iraqis, avoiding funerals of the 1500 plus GIs killed in Iraq, reducing health services to Veterans, and cutting Medicaid, among other deathly actions. But save one clinically brain dead woman and Bush is a hero to the people who are only for life for "saved" white Christians and unborn fetuses. Everyone else can pretty much rot in Hell. Heck, an infant was allowed to die in a Texas hospital under Bush's Lone Star State law -- against his mother's wishes -- while the Schiavo case was gaining full steam among the Republicans. Pook kid, if God wanted to save him, he would have been born a White Christian!
As for Jeb, his not so discreet angling for the 2008 presidential nomination, led him to send law enforcement officials to seize Terry Schiavo, according to the Miami Herald. Fortunately for the rule of law, the local police turned Jeb's troops away since they were violating a judge's court order. The next day Jeb denied the whole thing, even though the Miami Herald claimed three sources. Oh, and why is Jeb so interested in keeping a woman in a 15-year vegetative state from being at peace with her maker when he has decimated his state's Medicaid budget that helps keep kids and seniors alive and run a scandal-ridden department of children and family services? It's the Bush hypocrisy stupid.
Of course, heart surgeon Dr. Bill Frist once fessed up to rounding up stray cats during his medical school days, euthanizing them, and then practicing dissection on them. That was just the beginning of strange medical practices for Dr. Frist. He was able to diagnose, he claims, Terry Schiavo's condition from a videotape, even though the doctor appointed by Jeb Bush and all her attending doctors disagree with his rosy prognosis. It wouldn't be that Dr. Frist was looking to tie up the support of the loony wing of the religious right as he seeks the presidency in 2008, would it? Guess, if he wins, we won't have cats running loose around the White House.
And of course, unknown to most of the public, the Schiavo parents were being assisted by an army of PR luminaries from the so-called pro-life fanatics, including the infamous Randall Terry. A group of friars from Minnesota became one of the main visual images of the Schiavo parents' "religiosity." But, strangely enough, one of the friars admitted that they "pulled the plug" on the founder of their small group when he became seriously ill. Brother John Kaspari told the Tampa Bay Tribune, "He would have required intubation to keep him alive," Kaspari said. "We chose not to go that route. His lungs were full of fluid."
Are any of these religious right fanatics NOT hypocrites? Are they clinically delusional? Are they dangerous?
Perhaps, all of the above.
Judge Greer, who allowed the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, has received death threats and is under armed guard, even though he is a loyal Republican and observant Baptist. "Kill for Life," we guess. Just like the anti-choice terrorists who claim they are preserving the sanctity of life by killing doctors who perform abortions.
In a farcical side note on "the shooters for life" contingent of the GOP, one man was arrested after trying to hold up a gun store with a box cutter. He wanted a gun to shoot his way into "rescuing" Terri Schiavo. The gun store owner, with plenty of guns to spare, pointed a handgun at "Terri's savior" and told the guy to lie down like a good puppy.
We are a nation gone mad, aren't we?
After all, the man who pulled the plug on democracy in 2000, Antonin Scalia, is running around the country campaigning to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Even many Democrats praise his alleged "brilliance."
But we aren't impressed. First of all, he stole the presidency for George W. Bush. That's the work of a thug, not a genius.
Second of all, he thinks America lives under divine law. If so, he should be a Priest or legal counsel at his beloved Opus Dei, not a Supreme Court Chief Justice. This country is a democracy not a church.
Finally, he recently told a synagogue audience that Jews would be safer under a Christian nation. Uh, Antonin, didn't Hitler build up the Nazi era in Germany in the name of Christ? Just a lesson to you, Nino, the Jews didn't fare too well in that Christian nation. God, the guy ought to read a history book, instead of "Rapture."
And people think this guy is bright.
He's just another muscle guy for the GOP.
Terry Schiavo, you deserved better.
But when you have a nation run by a party whose ONLY real value is hypocrisy in pursuit of the maintenance of power, that's the Barnum and Bailey environment you get.
No one blames you for a thing. We just wish you final peace.
It's the rest of us who are daily at risk from this freak sideshow run amuck, with the carnival barkers operating out of the White House.
9 Comments:
This is a difficult situation but I am leaning toward the opinion of a preacher I heard on T.V. He said, "I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnesessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," "This is a moral issue and it trancends politics and family disputes." Don't you think he has a point?
Friend,
A lead pencil has a point. That doesn't make it "write"..... or correct, in this instance. The Wrong Wing has foisted the myth that they are "party of family values". Well, here we have a case of a husband fullfilling the wishes of his wife, and the Wrong Wing trying to deny her wishes. All this, mind you after 13 courts and 34 Judges have supported the husband. These yahoos are so low they'd have to stand on a ladder to kiss a snake's belly. I don't know how anyone can support these people or this party ever again.
Oh, I forgot to mention that this quote was from Reverend Jesse Jackson. Isn't he a democrat? Are you saying he is a person who is so low that he has to get on a ladder to kiss a snakes belly? Are you saying that no one should support the democratic party again? I guess I did ask for your insight. You heard it here first, Stash says we should never support the democrats again.
One never really knows where Jesse Jackson falls these days, except close to a camera. But, I still say, The Wrong Wing should not be supported again.
I agree that no one can claim all of the family value wisdom. The issue of what is or isn't a true family value is very much up in the air as 'progressive' thinkers reexamine long help believe systems. But isn't Terry's mother family also. I want to be a 'progressive' thinker like you Stash but if it means I can't let a mother give water to her dying child to moisten her lips I don't feel comfortable going there yet. Maybe in time I can learn to see things from you point of view but right now you'll have to count me out.
This comment by Martin Katz got my attention and slowed me down on thinking that a victory for the progressive side is taking place.
Martin Katz on Terri Schiavo
"The essence of the Terri Schiavo case is simple, all ink and hot air to the contrary. We, as a society, the government and people of the United States of America, have not managed, for whatever reasons, to permit a mother, deluded or not, to put water onto the lips of her dying child, brain dead or not.
Everything else, every legal, moral, theological,constitutional, or philosophical argument, is a sideshow, diverting attention from the essential issue of this case.
We have wounded our national character. By our actions, or inactions, we have placed ourselves one notch less, above the Nazis.
We, as a people, have so shamed ourselves, that we cannot look Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo's mother, in the eye, and give her one good reason why WE did not allow her to give water to her dying child.
How we came to this shameful point in our national existence is a question that demands examination, and rectification. For our sake.
For Mary Schindler, and her severely impaired child, Terri Schiavo, it is too late. We did not find it in our collective hearts and souls, in our actions, to have mercy on them.
May We, and G_d, forgive us."
I agree that no one can claim all of the family value wisdom. The issue of what is or isn't a true family value is very much up in the air as 'progressive' thinkers reexamine long held believe systems. But isn't Terry's mother family also. I want to be a 'progressive' thinker like you Stash but if it means I can't let a mother give water to her dying child to moisten her lips I don't feel comfortable going there yet. Maybe in time I can learn to see things from you point of view but right now you'll have to count me out.
This comment by Martin Katz got my attention and slowed me down on thinking that a victory for the progressive side is taking place.
Martin Katz on Terri Schiavo
"The essence of the Terri Schiavo case is simple, all ink and hot air to the contrary. We, as a society, the government and people of the United States of America, have not managed, for whatever reasons, to permit a mother, deluded or not, to put water onto the lips of her dying child, brain dead or not.
Everything else, every legal, moral, theological,constitutional, or philosophical argument, is a sideshow, diverting attention from the essential issue of this case.
We have wounded our national character. By our actions, or inactions, we have placed ourselves one notch less, above the Nazis.
We, as a people, have so shamed ourselves, that we cannot look Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo's mother, in the eye, and give her one good reason why WE did not allow her to give water to her dying child.
How we came to this shameful point in our national existence is a question that demands examination, and rectification. For our sake.
For Mary Schindler, and her severely impaired child, Terri Schiavo, it is too late. We did not find it in our collective hearts and souls, in our actions, to have mercy on them.
May We, and G_d, forgive us."
Sorry about repeating the comments. I saw that I put the word 'help' instead of the word 'held' and tried to fix it.
Had the Schindler's been supportive of the husband rather than painting him as a vile murderer and taking him to, now 14 courts, he would probably have them in there with her. They could and should be part of honoring her wishes. Too bad they chose to fight her wishes. He had to stand up for the wishes made known to him by his wife. If that means fighting the parents, then so be it.
If Mrs. Friend wanted something and Mrs. Friend's parents were fighting you on delivering it to her, you and they would become necessary adversaries. You both would feel justified in your pursuits, but you, as Mrs. Friend's spouse, would have the right and in this case, the responsibility to deliver.... even if it is hard..... even if Mrs. Friend's parents are painting you with vile lies.... even though the easy thing to do would be to just give up and let her parents go against her wishes.
But, you would have the strength to carry on. Even if Jessie is on the stump against you.
I do agree with you that it is the husband's responsibility to fulfill the wifes wishes. I am just not fully confident in the husbands character and some of the parents concern about him make it hard for me to consider him the hero of this situation.
Even though my desire is to be progressive like you Slash, the following portions of an article make me pause.
March 30, 2005, 8:01 a.m.
It is easy for those who believe Terri Schiavo should be "allowed to die" to dismiss their opponents as religious zealots who are inflicting their Biblical viewpoint on a defenseless woman. ...
One need not belong to the Religious Right or the Religious Left to think Terri Schiavo should be renourished, rehydrated, and allowed to live....
The key issue is consent. If it were clear that Terri Schiavo truly wanted to perish, her right to die should be inviolable, in my opinion. But absent consent, an individual's right to die swiftly devolves into another person's right to kill.
The notion that Terri's slow dehydration and starvation are what she wants rests on hearsay evidence, at best.
"She never expressed anything like that to our family or friends," Terri's mother said last May. "The only people who heard that were her husband, and his brother, and sister-in-law."
"First of all, it was a series of casual remarks that her husband and her husband's siblings alleged they heard — so they are parties and interested," attorney, consumer activist, and Green-party presidential nominee Ralph Nader recently said. "We have no way of knowing that she wants this done at all, or might have changed her mind from the position that she may — or may not — have articulated as a young woman."
Nader adds: "It's one thing to have consent when the patient is overwhelmed with ventilators, and dialysis, and heart pumps, but it's quite another when there are non-heroic ministrations — in this case simply a feeding and water tube — and not having explicit consent or even credible consent — in ending her life." ...
Second, it is a travesty that Michael Schiavo remains Terri's guardian. Unlike, say, Nancy Reagan who faithfully and lovingly stood beside Ronald Reagan as he plunged deeper into the abyss of Alzheimer's Syndrome before dying last June 5, Michael Schiavo found another woman. He adulterously moved in and fathered two children with her. He now is in a common-law marriage with her. In essense, he's a bigamist. This is a four-alarm conflict of interest. Schiavo should have lost his legal standing in this case the second his common-law marriage commenced.
Despite his wedding vows to stay with Terri "in sickness and in health," as couples routinely promise, it is not shocking that he eventually grew lonely and sought the companionship of another able-bodied human being. What is unforgivable is that Michael Schiavo did not release his grip on Terri's life and let her parents assume her care, something for which they have begged for over a decade.
Third, this raises the question of why Michael Schiavo so vigorously insists on putting his wife down like a dog at the pound. He claims, of course, that this is what she wants. His detractors suspect, however, that he may bear at least some responsibility for her current condition. Perhaps to dispel those thoughts, Mr. Schiavo agreed Monday to allow an autopsy on Terri whenever she passes away.
Terri Schiavo's friends lately have detailed what they call Michael Schiavo's abuse of her while they lived together. The day before the February 25, 1990, collapse that prompted her present state, one friend recalls speaking with what she described as a very worried Terri who, in turn, became terrified when Michael exploded after she spent $80 on hair treatment.
In a September 2003 deposition, Carla Iyer, one of Terri's nurses, claims she heard Michael Schiavo ask: "Can't you do anything to accelerate her death?" and "When is that bitch gonna die?" After Terri's health waned, Iyer said that he exclaimed, "I'm going to be rich!" then discussed plans to buy a car, boat, and a European vacation with a trust fund dedicated to her medical care. Much of that money never went to Terri's care. Denied proper dental attention by Michael, for instance, she has had to have several decayed teeth extracted.
Then there is the troubling matter of a bone scan Dr. W. Campbell Walker conducted on Terri on March 5, 1991. Dr. Michael Baden, former New York City medical examiner, reviewed it and discussed it with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Sustern on October 24, 2003. As Dr. Baden said, "the bone scan describes her having a head injury...and head injury can lead to the 'vegetative state' that Mrs. Schiavo is in now." The 1991 scan "does show evidence that there are other injuries, other bone fractures that are in a healing stage [in 1991]." Baden believed those wounds could have resulted from "some kind of trauma. The trauma could be from an auto accident, the trauma could be from a fall, or the trauma could be from some kind of beating that she obtained from somebody somewhere." He added: "It's something that should have been investigated in 1991."
"This whole claim that Michael somehow abused Terri is totally false," Mr. Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said last May. "It was considered by the court at a hearing and rejected."
So who tells the truth here? If federal judges had obeyed the law Congress passed and President Bush signed on March 21, a de novo review might have explored these allegations, as well as medical questions, such as the fact that Terri never was given an MRI and has not been re-diagnosed with modern equipment. (Michael Schiavo repeatedly has blocked this, too). Instead, in an institutional Bronx cheer, federal courts from Tampa to Washington, D.C. defied the explicit intent of the legislative and executive branches, refused to examine these matters, and green-lighted Terri's ongoing starvation.
"We have watched as this woman, whose only crime is that she is disabled, is tortured to death by judges, all the way to the Supreme Court," columnist Nat Hentoff complains in the March 29 Village Voice. Hentoff, who calls himself "an atheist," clearly is sickened by Terri's mistreatment, which he calls "the longest public execution in American history."
Fourth, even if Terri could not improve to the point where she could speak intelligently with her loved ones, is that so wrong? The reasonable possibility exists that she could be rehabilitated to the stage where she could be as "viable" as a child with Downs Syndrome. Such children are not especially glib, but no one says we should kill them...yet. Even if Terri only could stare at a TV or listen to music for hours, she would be no less "viable" than tens of millions of Americans who do this every night, to Madison Avenue's delight.
Finally, if it were true that Terri must die, wouldn't it be more humane to give her a huge shot of cyanide to accelerate her death rather than prolong this for everyone, especially her, over 12 days or more? Those who speed Terri's demise also should explain how it is that she feels "stable, peaceful, and calm," as attorney George Felos assures us, yet she is being injected with morphine.
Perhaps grasping the disposability with which Terri is being treated, Eleanor Smith — a self-professed agnostic, liberal, lesbian — held a "Feed Terri" sign while she told Reuters from her wheelchair: "At this point I would rather have a right-wing Christian decide my fate than an ACLU member."
"There are issues in this case that well-meaning and intelligent people on both sides can disagree with and have to think seriously about," says Ed Hudgins, executive director of the Objectivist Center. He describes himself as "an atheist and a humanist in the Aristotelian tradition." He adds: "I hope this case focuses people's attention on the importance of living life and flourishing while you have it, and on getting everything you can out of this wonderful condition we call conscious life."
For non-believers, this case has little to do with God. One need not be religious to side with Mr. and Mrs. Schindler. — Deroy Murdock
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