The War on Terri Part XVI
In Terri Schiavo's final hours, stark lines are drawn between those who love life and those who love death:
Which side exalts the spirit of Man?
Is it the Schindlers', who have fought tooth and nail for their daughter to have a chance at life, who have sought her continured rehabilitation, who have labored to allow her to feel sunlight on her face and the wind in her hair?
Or is it Michael Schiavo's, epitomized by Judge Greer's statement above, who see her as nothing more than an animated corpse, to be locked away in the flourescent dungeon of the hospice, forbidden sustenance until she dies after agonizing weeks?
Are we meat or men?
In church this morning, we sang the traditional Easter hymn “Christ The Lord Is Risen Today”, where this verse leapt from the page:
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer seek to drag us all into a sodden grave. As we contemplate the tragic end of Terri Schiavo, we must not despair. Other men, equally cynical, equally powerful, equally inured to the embrace of death, have sought to turn this world into a charnel house before.
As they failed on that first Easter Sunday, so they fail now. Americans can see what is being done to Terri Schiavo, and while we may not have awakened to the danger in time to save her, countless others will be plucked from the mechanisms of death so carefully erected by the nihilists among us.
It is for that we should be thankful, both to Terri Schiavo and her family, and to God.
Two visions of Terri Schiavo emerged Saturday: Her husband's attorney, George Felos, said he had "never seen such a look of beauty and peace upon her." Schiavo's father, Robert Schindler, whose family has compared her complexion to that of a concentration camp victim, said "she is fighting like hell to stay alive."
The starkly divergent portrayals were delivered as the Schindlers' attorneys gave up appealing to the federal courts for reinsertion of a feeding tube that was removed March 18. Instead, they asked the Florida Supreme Court (news - web sites) to intervene. The state's high court has repeatedly rejected appeals by the Schindlers but is being presented with a new argument: claims that Schiavo tried to tell one of her parents' attorneys, "I want to live."
Pinellas County Circuit Judge George W. Greer ruled Saturday afternoon that the utterances were not enough evidence that there was a "sufficient promise" of Schiavo's cognitive skills improving. The attorney, Barbara Weller, had said Schiavo said "AHHH" and "WAAA" after Weller touched her and asked her to say "I want to live." But Greer wrote that medical experts have testified that Schiavo makes sounds as a reflex after being touched in the same way that people yank back their hands after touching a hot stove.
Which side exalts the spirit of Man?
Is it the Schindlers', who have fought tooth and nail for their daughter to have a chance at life, who have sought her continured rehabilitation, who have labored to allow her to feel sunlight on her face and the wind in her hair?
Or is it Michael Schiavo's, epitomized by Judge Greer's statement above, who see her as nothing more than an animated corpse, to be locked away in the flourescent dungeon of the hospice, forbidden sustenance until she dies after agonizing weeks?
Are we meat or men?
In church this morning, we sang the traditional Easter hymn “Christ The Lord Is Risen Today”, where this verse leapt from the page:
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer seek to drag us all into a sodden grave. As we contemplate the tragic end of Terri Schiavo, we must not despair. Other men, equally cynical, equally powerful, equally inured to the embrace of death, have sought to turn this world into a charnel house before.
As they failed on that first Easter Sunday, so they fail now. Americans can see what is being done to Terri Schiavo, and while we may not have awakened to the danger in time to save her, countless others will be plucked from the mechanisms of death so carefully erected by the nihilists among us.
It is for that we should be thankful, both to Terri Schiavo and her family, and to God.
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