A few things, believe it or not. The lives of Terri Schiavo and Valerie (Plame) Wilson have a few parallels. Both were teenagers in Huntingdon Valley, PA and graduated high school in 1981 (from different schools), then went to college.
Both got married and lived quiet lives until the rabid right decided the women would make handy punching bags for the conservative agenda.
If the rabid right is actually concerned about saving lives (their excuse for hijacking Terri Schiavo) where's their outrage for all the people who were endangered when Valerie Wilson was exposed? Anyone she worked with was exposed when she was. Where's their concern for the safety of all Americans, now less protected from WMD after an entire career of human intelligence work was destroyed? That was Wilson's job, protecting all of us. Does the rabid right care? No. They needed to prop up a lie used to justify the war in Iraq, so the hell with everyone else.
They desperately want a court to say the federal government is allowed to control the end of your life. Once they have that, it will be easier for the federal government to control the beginning of life too. Your life and mine.
Terri and Valerie became household names, and neither are able to defend themselves. The rabid right thought it would be easy to get their way. Luckily, both women married strong men. Men who fight for their wives. Men who are attacked and lied about every day. Men who don't back down.
The details of their situations are very different but the big picture is exactly the same. They're being used and abused by people with ulterior motives who don't give a damn what happens to these women or their families.
Mr. Schiavo and Ambassador Wilson, I salute you. You've both stood up to incredible pressure from petty, vicious people.
Mrs. Schiavo and Mrs. Wilson, I'm sorry everyone in America knows far too much about you.
I wish you all peace.