March 23, 2005

Sometimes, there are stories that are so upsetting, that I can't blog; I just sit here and read about them, stunned.
Never was this more the case than with Terri's predicament:
Florida Senate Rejects Bill To Keep Schiavo Alive

Terri Schiavo's parents were dealt three setbacks Wednesday in their efforts to reconnect their brain-damaged daughter's feeding tube, with their hopes dwindling to intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Jeb Bush.
[Bless the hearts of the Schindlers.
If it's tough for us who care about Terri's life, think about what they're going through.
Pray without ceasing for all the family!--Jen]

The Florida Senate rejected a bill Wednesday that would have forced the reconnection of her feeding tube as the brain-damaged woman's parents were running out of options to have it reinserted. Earlier in the day, a federal appeals court twice refused to again give her nourishment.

Good Lord.
That not one, but several, US courts would allow a citizen to be starved to death on purpose is frightening to me beyond words!
I don't know what's worse--that these events are occurring during Holy Week, echoing the torture and murder of the Innocent of our Lord's Passion, or the fact that we've endured the preditations of these same bodies before (the Florida legislature, SCOFLA, the Federal courts, and SCOTUS) during the nightmarish Gore Coup Attempt Election 2000 Recount mess.
Now, we can only keep a death watch, while our most trusted institutions and guardians of Liberty look ineffectual and worse, even murderous themselves.
Lord have mercy!

[...]
The bill would have prohibited patients like Schiavo from being denied food and water if they didn't express their wishes in writing. The 21-18 vote came five days after her feeding tube was removed under court order. Doctors have said she could survive one to two weeks without the tube, which was pulled Friday.

In a 10-2 decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused Bob and Mary Schindler's request for an "expedited rehearing" by the full court. A three-judge panel from the same
court ruled against the family earlier Wednesday.
[Terri's case still hasn't gotten a de novo hearing as envisioned by Congress!]
[...]
President Bush suggested Wednesday that he and Congress had done their best to help Schiavo's parents. The White House said it had exhausted its legal options.

Gov. Bush and Department of Children & Families Secretary Lucy Hadi suggested Wednesday they have statutory authority to intervene on Schiavo's
behalf.

Before Bush's announcement, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo said any move by the state to circumvent years of court rulings that support the husband's position would be illegal -- and vowed to bring assault and battery charges against anyone trying to remove her from the hospice.
[Or anyone praying outside her hospice or even a little boy trying to give her a drink of water!
Is this the USA or Nazi Germany or worse?]
[...]Terri Schiavo has not received any nourishment since the tube was pulled Friday afternoon, and relatives who visited her said her deterioration is continuing. Her eyes were sunken, skin parched and flaking and her lips and tongue were dry, said Barbara Weller, an attorney for the Schindlers.
[...]
Terri Schiavo has not received any nourishment since the tube was pulled Friday afternoon, and relatives who visited her said her deterioration is continuing. Her eyes were sunken, skin parched and flaking and her lips and tongue were dry, said Barbara Weller, an attorney for the Schindlers.
[...]
Ten protesters -- a 10-year-old boy among them -- were arrested outside Schiavo's hospice for trying to bring her water. Doctors have said she could survive one to two weeks without the feeding tube.

In Tallahassee, the state capital, Bush renewed his call for the Legislature to "spare Terri's life." Bush pushed lawmakers to pass a bill in 2003 that let him order the reconnection of the tube, but it was later declared unconstitutional.

Sen. Daniel Webster said the Senate's last chance to pass another bill to keep Schiavo alive was Wednesday.

"To be kept alive artificially above and beyond your wishes and the wishes you expressed to your family -- that is cruel and unusual punishment," Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican who has continually opposed the bill, said during his chamber's debate on the issues Wednesday.
[There is no evidence--NONE---that Terris ever expressed the wish that she didn't want to be kept alive on a feeding tube and/or that she wanted to "die with dignity" (As if a death by starvation and dehyrdration had any dignity to it at all!
If that isn't cruel and unusual punishment, for crimes she's never committed, I don't what is.--J.T.]
[...]
Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly from a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. Court-appointed doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery.
[All of these "facts" are in dispute.
There is evidence to suggest that Terri's condition is a result of an assault by her husband.
She most certainly is NOT in a vegetative state and there is much hope that, with rehabilitative therapy, she can get much better.]

Her parents and their doctors argue that she could get better and that she would never have wanted to be cut off from food and water.

Official caption:
Gabriel Keys is arrested by police officers for trespassing in Pinellas Park, Florida, March 23, 2005. The young protester attempted to take a glass of water into the Woodside Hospice for the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo.
Since when it is a crime for one of us, especially a child, to give someone a drink of water?

A 10-year-old boy and his older siblings were among the protesters arrested outside Terri Schiavo's hospice in Florida Wednesday.
[Unreal.
I can't believe this is America...What a sad, sad day for us all.]

Police arrested 10 people who said they were trying to take water to the severely brain-damaged woman. She was taken off a feeding tube Friday.

Chris Keys was among about a dozen people who stood in front of the hospice to bring water to Schiavo. He and three of his children were arrested as his 2-year-old daughter watched from her mother's arms.

His 14-year-old daughter said she was "a little nervous," but that she was sure she was doing God's bidding. She and her 12-year-old brother were cuffed and taken away.

Another protester talked of being held in a Nazi prison camp in the former Yugoslavia. She said she wanted "to at least put some cool water on Terri's lips." She was arrested.

Many of the protesters carried Bibles and cups of water.
[...]
The second arrest was of a man wearing a baseball cap with a cross on it.

That's it?
This man was arrested for being a Christian in public???
Now, Florida's turned into an anti-Christian police state!

How does it feel to know that if we'd been in Jerusalem in 33 A.D., we'd have helped crucify Jesus Christ all over again?
It feels awful to me, down to the bottom of my soul.
I don't want to be part of a nation of Pontius Pilates, led by those Herods and Pilates on these runaway liberal courts, and just wash my hands of this while Terri dies a slow, agonizing death!
Keep praying, America!
Only God should have the power to give and take Life, not Michael Schiavo, Judge Greer or the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals!
Terri is me. Terri is you. Terri is us.