I want to remark on one simple aspect of the Schiavo case. Who, in their right mind, having been confined to a bed for 15 years, unable to move, talk, eat, or go to the bathroom, would want to remain in the same condition for another 30-40 years? Look at it from Terri's perspective. Why do the fundies just assume that this woman would choose to continue to live?
For 15 years she has been crunched up like a discarded candy wrapper. The family states she wants to go on like this. Do they think it's a joy for Terri to wait in that Hospital bed all week just to get a half hour visit from her greasy family? It must be great to sit there in anticipation of getting all the news from them. How Bobby went sailing and mom went to the mall and dad stubbed his toe on the refrigerator. I'm sure Terri just loves it, the entertainment factor must be priceless.
How selfish can they be to think that the girl would want to continue? Another 40 fucking years laying in that damn bed. Not even being able to get a drink of water without drowning! Who would choose such an existence?
Everyone goes on the assumption that this woman would choose to continue as she is. Hannity, O'Reilly, BushCo, and all the fundies assume that she would choose this existence over the alternative, which at the very least is peace, at the most would be meeting her creator. Isn't that an improvement over being confined for the rest of what may be a long life of misery?
They even assume that this is what God would want.
The reason that the vast majority of the public is on our side is that they have answered this question for themselves. The prospect of spending 60 years in a bed without the ability to communicate would be a sentence to hell. A living hell, and if Terri is cognizant it is even worse! I would imagine that after the first year she would be begging anybody walking by to put here out of her misery.
This fate that the parents would force on Terri is even worse than being put in prison for 40 years. It is a life sentence that they think Terri would choose, but the notion comes from their own selfishness. It comes from not being able to let go, and the fundies compound it by enforcing the notion that it's the right thing to do. But let's use a little common sense. After a 23 year vibrant life, nobody would choose 60 years or so in a nursing home.
I believe that the parents know this, and it's really about the money. In the past 15 years, they must have asked themselves the question of what Terri would have wanted, and they couldn't have answered this.
If Jerry Falwell comes out of his current sickness, or the Pope for that matter, maybe they will understand. It would be poetic justice if Falwell spent a number of years hooked up to a machine, being force fed pablum thru a tube and having a respirator do his breathing for him. Maybe he would have a little time to think of what it's like to be in the shoes of someone suffering for a moment. I'm sure it would be a humbling experience to such a fat bastard, and I bet he would rethink his relationship to God, not to mention the so called sanctity of life. It's easy to pontificate about the value of life when you have an easy one.
I would give anything to get a diary from Terri Schiavo in her present state. I bet she would have a lot to say to mom and dad and Randall Terry. And she, like the rest of us, would doubtless have a lot to say to the Bush brothers.