Time For Something Schiavo-versial

I'm going to be open and honest with my audience (what little audience I have, granted, but that'll change). The Terri Schiavo situation gets to me. Today I've listened to both sides--Michael Schiavo's lawyer and the family of Terri, and I stick by my conclusion that the Schindlers don't have a clue what's really happening and are refusing to accept what a lot of other people know in their hearts to be true: Terri is not going to get any better. She's a vegetable. The laughing, smiling, crying, pissing and whatever else Ms. Schiavo does on a regular or irregular basis are instinctual and are completely unrelated to any sign of actual, intelligent life. I'm sorry to break that to the conservatives and pro-lifers out there, but having been brought up Catholic (going to Easter mass in a little over an hour, in fact) and also being the son of a very well-educated Registered Nurse, I'm confident in saying that removing the feeding tube was absolutely the right thing to do in Mrs. Schiavo's situation.

In fact, the tube should probably never have been put in. Do you know how Mrs. Schiavo came to be in this condition? She was a bulimic who, instead of dying like Karen Carpenter, suffered cardiac arrest due to Potassium deficiency (from throwing up so much), and the resulting brain damage made her like this, and so she's remained since 1990. And now, ironically, we're making a fuss about feeding her (or rather, not feeding her). It's ironic, and you may call it tragedy, but I call it poetic justice.

There's no quality of life in Terri right now; hasn't been for well over a decade. As-is, can she lead a good, unassisted existence as productive member of society? Look at the file footage and dare to disagree with me. I've listened to enough people on radio call-in shows chastising the Bushies (Jeb and Dubya) for not doing nearly enough to help, that if they wanted to, they could override the judicial branch of government Like hell they should. Checks and balances exist in government for a reason! I also keep hearing that Michael Schiavo should be put on trial for bigamy--maybe so, maybe not. Fact is, Michael has tried to care for Terri as best he could these past several years; he should be admired for sticking by her as long as he has.

More and more, I'm convinced that the Schindlers' struggle is less and less about Mrs. Schiavo herself and more about their own (and, by extension, everyone else's) fear of death. And it's gone ludicrously far into government. Why? It's an open-and-shut matter between husband and wife, as far as I'm concerned. For having historically been hands-off with regard to government over the people, Bush and his fellow Republicans sure are pushing an awfully tough, broad agenda for giving us rules to live and die by.

What's more humane--a couple weeks' starvation, or fifteen years of a woman rotting away day by day while her relatives banter on and on, reduced themselves to little more than animals and carrying on an absurd "he said/she said" game?

And now, the parents say Mrs. Schiavo just tried to say "I want to live!"(nevermind the state of her mind) and give this as new reason that the tube should be reinserted. It reeks of desperation. I have to shake my head, over and over and over.

Huh, maybe that's why my neck hurt so much this week.

Let Terri die with what little dignity she now has left.

~G.