Mar 26 2005
One week later
One week later, I’ve learned a lot; not just about the Terri Schiavo case, but about people.
I’ve been pigeonholed more times than I’d like to even discuss here, by people who should know better.
My favorite pigeonholing was by a repressed gay guy who’s so uncomfortable with his gayness he won’t even come out of the closet publicly, but makes me out to be some kind of Jesus freak in a mock quotation with another “friend.” The other friend, of course, who likes to cheer, “Go Darwin!!!” everytime someone who that person believes is clearing the way for the rest of the gene pool by eliminating themselves from it but at the same time passing children along for therapy in different places, getting whatever drugs they need to take, and getting treatment all over the place. Not exactly the way to let evolution run its course, is it?
Of course, this same person has numerous illnesses including a heart condition and insists on smoking. Should I just cheer, “Go Darwin!?”
Well I don’t. Because despite the blatant hypocrisy of a repressed homosexual making fun of what he thinks I am (noting, of course, that I’m completely honest and open about who I am and what I believe, while he hides it) and the other person constantly chanting “Go Darwin,” as if to say it’s okay for Terri to die because, as this person puts it, Terri was “too stupid” to have a living will, while she puffs a cigarette and complains about heart problems and asthma, I don’t work like that.
Terri does not deserve to die because simply because she doesn’t have a living will. No innocent person deserves to die. This is not some “right to life crap” as its been called by one of the aboved mentioned people. It’s not a bible-banger issue.
It’s just not.
We have an obligation as a society to protect the weakest among us. That means taking care of people who are ill. It means helping to give medication to families that can’t afford it. It means giving people an opportunity to better themselves. It means protecting those without the voice to protect themselves. People like Terri.
I’m amazed at how black and white some people can make this issue. It’s the Jesus-freaks versus the real contemplative smart folk, in their mind. Well, for the record, let me state emphatically who I am and what I believe so that the gay guy and the smoker can just relax with their perpetual bullshit.
I am a white male conservative/libertarian. I know what my beliefs are, and some of them I feel more strongly than others. I am open to change on some or all of my views if new evidence changes my way of thinking on something.
I believe in the sanctity of life for innocent people. That includes unborn babies, and adults. No one has an obligation to die for any reason if they have not committed a crime. I also believe that criminals do have an obligation to die if they kill someone else; their innocence lost the minute they do the deed.
I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I believe a married relationship is better for raising children and starting a family than a “committed one.” It’s not as easy to walk away from a real marriage, and to a degree it forces you to work harder if something is wrong. I believe gay people should be allowed to marry because two fathers are better than one, and I think we have to open our minds to the fact that children being raised by two parents are always going to be better off than children raised by one mom and an absentee dad.
I believe people should be able to kill themselves if they so desire, as long as those wishes are clearly defined. I think Jack Kevorkian’s efforts are heroic. Terminally ill patients should always have the option, if they choose, to end their lives quickly and painlessly. As should people in a state where they can’t survive without either artificial feeding or a respirator. But, absent specific instructions on their wishes written down on paper, no terminally ill or disabled patient should ever be sentenced to death. While everyone is worried about the precedents being set if she’s not killed, I worry more about the precedent it sets if she is. At this point, all husbands can now say their disabled wives wanted to die and we can just kill them. That’s scarier to me than saving one life.
I believe that the people who think I do anything on this site for hits are out of their fucking minds. In fact, despite the assertion of someone who christened me with a comment, and who should know what blogs are about, my traffic this month, despite my extraordinary efforts to bump it up by capitalizing on this sad case, is going to be just about where it was a month ago, and two months ago when I hardly wrote anything at all.
Now you know what I believe. As always, I have been 100% open and honest with my readers about who I am, what I believe, and my position on any issues. I never hold back when I post something because frankly I don’t care who it offends. I don’t care if you’re a “friend,” my best friend, my mother and father, or my worst enemy. You always get the straight dope when I write something.
Now ponder that for a second, and apply it to yourself. Do your readers know exactly what you think at all times? Do they know your background for thinking so? Do they know what you do despite the best efforts of Darwin? Do they know that you don’t want to become the “gay conservative blogger” so you hide it?
For all your mocking, shitslinging, pigeonholing bullshit, my readers know exactly who I am.
Do yours?
(Oh, and unlike some other people, comments will remain open on this post, as they are on every single post I write because I don’t fear what my readers have to say)
Choose life.
March 26th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
I have to call into question the method of “protecting inncoents” by watching your loved one shit and piss themselves in adult diapers and stare at ceilings for fifteen years with no end or hope in sight.
That is not compassion, that’s deranged love.
This is all incredibly unnatural.
I do though agree that the manner they chose, starvation, is particuarly offensive. Certainly there are better routes. At the least, her two weeks of hell are nothing compared to the fifteen years her family has made her endure thus far.
March 26th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
IF, and I mean IF, she is in the state a lot of you think she is in–how does this statement hold water? “At the least, her two weeks of hell are nothing compared to the fifteen years her family has made her endure thus far.” IF she doesn’t feel and has no idea of time then 15 years is nothing to her, right? IF her parents and family want to be there while she shits and pisses in Depends, so be it! At least she is alive and I DO believe she is alive. Too bad some really rich man hmmmm (Mr Donald Trump for example) doesn’t offer Mr. Michael about $500,000 to $1,000,000 and I bet you would see how fast the feeding tube will be reinsurted and she will make it. The option of receiving the money would be a quickie divorce from Terri which would put her over to the care of her parents. I know I am way out there on this but damn something has to be done and fast,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
March 26th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
Oh and Vinny, I know of who you speak!!!!!
March 26th, 2005 at 1:24 pm
“IF, and I mean IF, she is in the state a lot of you think she is in…”
No if’s about it, Kathy. It’s not good to discuss an issue when you’re not informed. Googles a good place to start for your researh. Just a suggestion.
how does this statement hold water “At the least, her two weeks of hell are nothing compared to the fifteen years her family has made her endure thus far.
Do the math, would you? 15 years = 15 days?
IF she doesn’t feel and has no idea of time then 15 years is nothing to her, right?
And at what point would you finally pull the plug? When she experiences a natural death? That’s got to be the weakest defense I’ve heard yet. She doesn’t understand time so fuck her.
IF her parents and family want to be there while she shits and pisses in Depends, so be it!
Ahhhhhhhh. So now you reveal the selfish logic behind how you think. It’s about what her family and you think, not what she “thinks” or would want. So if Terry spends the rest of her “natural life” shitting herself in adult diapers - who cares right? Fuck her.
At least she is alive and I DO believe she is alive.
I don’t recall saying she was dead, do you? But if you think that’s “living“, you have issues. Any sane person that led her life over the last 15 years would have gone mad by now. The poor woman’s a vegetable.
March 26th, 2005 at 1:31 pm
Too bad some really rich man hmmmm (Mr Donald Trump for example) doesn’t offer Mr. Michael about $500,000 to $1,000,000 and I bet you would see how fast the feeding tube will be reinsurted.
More conjecture? Speaking of not holding water, this fantastical story is just you reaching for straws. I expect you can bring something better to the table than this.
and she will make it
Make what? Make a fruitful likfe with family and children and the rich pagentry of a full life? Or just continue to shit and piss in adult diapers and stare at the ceiling? The latter is the logical, not emotional, answer.
You people think you’re choosing life, but you’re not. Like I said the other day - your choosing mad science and playing politics with someone’s life, that’s all.
March 26th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
You missed the point.. if she has no brain activity then what difference is 15 days or 15 yrs or 150 yrs? Yes, the thing about Mr Trump was just a fantastical story. If you really think that I think that would be possible then you are more messed up than I could even imagine. As Vinny has said NO one deserved to go through being starved to death. There was nothing in paper to show her wishes so why does the adulterous hubby have the right to anything about her. They are married in name only, in paper, He moved on ,has his little mistress and 2 children. If that is the life he wanted then he should have divorced Terri years ago when he had his first affair. Then none of this name calling and fighting back and forth would be going on right now. There are people here who have been friends for years here and now are about ready to cut each others throats. Does that really make any sense when in reality we have our hands tied on what we can really do for Terri but pray for her and her family? It breaks my heart what is going on in FL with Terri and her family but it is heartbreaking too to see friends at each other as I see here and it gets worse and worse each day. How will all heal after the end comes for Terri?
March 26th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
Michael Schiavo rejected an offer of $1 million to give up guardianship of his brain-damaged wife – an attempt by a California businessman to save her from court-ordered starvation set to begin next Friday.
George Felos, attorney for the estranged husband, called the offer “offensive,” and said other offers, including one for $10 million, already had been made and rejected.
“Michael has said over and over again that this case is not about money for him,” Felos said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s about carrying out his wife’s wishes. There is no amount of money anyone can offer that will cause him to turn his back on his wife.”
(from WorldNetDaily)
March 26th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
SO they say, but it is a bit hard to think of a man who takes marriage vows so slightly would say money means nothing to him.A cheat is a cheat is a cheat. Adultery or money…now come on, give me a break. Sure it looks good on paper that he isn’t in it for the bucks. He wants to be the saint here, the one that will cry and sob at her funeral, that is if there is one. You can read and read yourself sick and there are claims he tried to kill her, strangle her and on and on. (Insulin injected to drop her sugar to danerous levels) I am just stating what would have been the easiest thing for him to do all the way around. It totally made me ill to see him on Good Morning America last week saying to Barbara Walters when she asked why he didn’t make it easy and just divorce Terri and his reply was “I LOVE HER, She is my family” Well, a man in love doesn’t have affairs (plural) and love children by a woman that isn’t his wife that HE LOVES.
March 26th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Gordon, I don’t necessarily think she’s living the high life right now, but I don’t think that automatically means she wants to die either.
I don’t even mind being in the minority of opinion on that one. I’m used to it.
March 26th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
Kathy,
My post was in direct response to this statement.
Emphasis mine. So he has been offered money, repeatedly, and has turned it down. Does this mean that you’re wrong about him?
Apparently not.
You don’t know him. You don’t know anything about their life other than what you read on various web sites, that probably have an axe to grind. Even when he turns down money that you say he’d gobble up in a heartbeat, you find more reasons to slander his character.
He takes the money, it’s proof that he’s an evil man, motivated only by money. He DOESN’T take the money, and it’s proof that he’s a lying cheating liar.
Amazing.
March 26th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Do you know him? Seems like you would like us to believe you do. Sure, I wanted to see Terri have her feeding tube back, I believe in life. What do you want to bet that after she is gone he or he will use a ghost writer to write a book and heck why not go as far as a movie? Give him a few months and it will be all over the media. This of course is just something made up in my mind, I didn’t read it anywhere or whatever.
He takes the money, it’s proof that he’s an evil man, motivated only by money. He DOESN’T take the money, and it’s proof that he’s a lying cheating liar. So he didn’t take the money so that makes him the lying cheating liar for sure!
March 26th, 2005 at 5:17 pm
Kathy,
You seemed overcharged with your own emotions and private baises against a person that you clearly know nothing about, as RKB has illustrated.
Vinny,
Actually It’s me that’s the minority from our crowd on this topic.
March 26th, 2005 at 5:21 pm
Perhaps Kathy, like RKB, you would take the time to provide links and facts to support your mealy mouthed opinions.
Do you know him? Seems like you would like us to believe you do.
Actually Kathy it was you that presented yourself to be well acquited with the man’s wife. With LINKS, FACTS, and QUOTES - he proved you to be either misguided or a liar.
March 26th, 2005 at 6:37 pm
I think “our crowd,” or at least the people You, Geoff and I would call “our crowd” would beg to differ with you on that remark.
March 26th, 2005 at 7:02 pm
Okay. Let me continue to add some context. Here’s a great big “for example:”
Again, see, you do not know him. How the hell do you know what he feels? If you’d stuck the sanctity of marriage aspect, you’d get no argument from me (although you still have no idea about how lightly he takes his vows). But you’re “getting ill” because you KNOW he doesn’t love Terri. Do you not think it possible for somebody to love more than one person?
For example: my stepfather died several years ago. It was at least a year that a conversation with my mom didn’t end with her breaking down in tears. This was the man she’d planned on spending the rest of her life with. Recently, though, she has started to try to date again. She knows that she will ALWAYS love Paul, will always hold him close to her heart. But she wants to feel something other than sadness all the time.
Check the timeline, Kathy. Eight years after she collapsed, Michael filed a petition to have the feeding tube removed. Of course I don’t know anything about him, but I’d imagine that it’s at least possible that, after eight years of showing no signs of improvement, he felt that his wife was already gone.
I actually find it more than a little ridiculous that I’m in a position to “defend” somebody I know nothing about. But I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of the venomous attacks he’s been getting, from people he’s never met, who presume to know how he feels.
One last thing:
And you don’t think any other family members will have books? Will you heap equal amounts of scorn on the Schindlers when their books hit the stores?
March 26th, 2005 at 7:04 pm
I appreciate the support, Gordon.
March 26th, 2005 at 7:11 pm
At least we’re agreeing on something for a change, RKB.
How do you guys put the quotes in the block?
March 26th, 2005 at 7:21 pm
Greaterthan Blockquote Less than
and then to close it:
greaterthan /blockquote less than
Happy quoting!
March 26th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
I’d strongly recommend reading the entire Wolfson Report (PDF), but here are some relevant facts:
And from a footnote near the report’s conclusion: