Separation of Church and State
Would the state of Florida and the United States Congress please get the fuck out of the Terri Schiavo case and let her husband (sanctity of marriage) put her out of her misery?Would her parents just let her go, already and quit fantasizing that she's gonna wake up? Her parents condemn their son-in-law for wanting to be able to marry his girlfriend with whom he has children. They want him to divorce her and let them keep her alive in her vegatative state until they die. They say he won't do that because he wants the million dollars from her malpractice decision.
Maybe, just maybe, and I'm really going out on a limb here, because I don't personally know any of the parties involved, maybe he won't divorce her because he really does care about her, he really does know what her choice was, and he insists on being her guardian so that he can follow her wishes and let her die.
But let me go back to the rant at hand, which isn't about the husband, or even really about those horrible parents. This is about the separation of church and state. This is about getting government out of the hospital room and out of the bedroom.
This is about the kind of faulty logic and inconsistancy that drives me the most wild.
The Republicans say that marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. They say that government should endorse that institution and make it the law of the land. OK. Fine. If so, then any decision between those two parties, the man and the woman, should be sacred and above the reach of government. Which means that Michael Schiavo should have the last word here. He should, by Republican stated beliefs, have rights that her parents gave up when she married him.
But no. They are wringing their hands over what they consider murder. If it was me? I'd want them to pull the tubes out and put a freaking pillow over my face. ASAP, too.
If putting a vegetable out of her misery is murder, then what do you call sending able-bodied American youth to Iraq with inadequate supplies? What do you call it when that same American youth puts a bullet into a native Iraqi woman or child? Is that not state sponsored murder?
What about all those criminals on Death Row here in Florida? Some of them there for crimes they didn't commit, and we all know how frequently that happens: it's in the Miami Herald several times a year. Isn't that state-sponsored murder? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the death penalty in certain extreme cases. Ted Bundy? I would have pulled the lever on Old Sparky my own self.
For a party that is soooo concerned with the rights of the unborn and the undead, they play pretty fast and loose with the rights of the children once they are out of the womb. Cutting funds for education, health care and school lunch programs is good in the Republican creed.
They want to punish single mothers (but what about the fathers?). They are just beneath my contempt.
But they are not above trying to legislate my life according to their own beliefs.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/20 at 10:33 AM in As I See It
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/20 at 10:33 AM in I Hate the Living.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/20 at 10:33 AM in Yellow Dog Politics
Mz Shoes, I couldn’t agree more. I wrote my federal legislators here in Almost Heaven and told them to stay out of the family decisions in the Schiavo case. Just hope they listen…to common sense if nothing else. How many little children starve or are abused in this country every year? Where is the outcry for them, where is the special sessions called for them? We had a child freeze to death here this winter. Where is the public outcry for this child? Ah, it’s all about the media and the publicity. The interfering, conservative politicians see this as a vehicle, not a matter of mercy. Wonder what good old stump would do with his hunting dawg if it went into a coma? Do you think he would let that dog linger for 15 years? Terri Schiavo deserves peace, and so does her family.
I miss the Miami Herald, and am lucky enough to have a few of the op/ed columnists carried in our local paper. Good column in my paper today by Leonard Pitts, Jr. and the story of two Smiths who call themselves Christians.
Be well.
Hear, hear! I often keep CNN playing in the background while I’m puttering around the house, but not tonight—I’m so freaking disgusted by the national Terry Schiavo circus, I can hardly stand it.
EXACTLY. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I don’t know that I trust the husband, but at the end of the day, this is not a decision for the government to make.
You’d think they have better things to worry about. In fact, you’d KNOW they do. But let’s all focus on this poor woman—and on steriods in fucking baseball, etc.—and pretend everything else isn’t falling apart around us.
To Allie: What you write may be true, BUT…the bigger issue (to me) is whether the federal government needs to be involved. I think this is obviously a sad, possibly even tragic situation, but it has NOTHING to do with the U.S. government. The idea that the President and Congress are going out of their way to get involved in this case—while limiting stem cell research (that might help “disabled” people like Schiavo someday!) and perpetuating an unjust war…well, that just burns me up.
I’d love to know your thoughts on the federal government’s involvement in this case.
“Life is either precious or worthless… it can’t be both and there isn’t a middle ground.”
Hmm, I have a hard time making/accepting black-or-white statements like that; I can’t help but see the world in shades of grey. This whole “sanctity of human life” thing is obviously grounded in religion, and it’s incredibly hypocritical coming from Dubya’s government, which has ended countless tens of thousands of Iraqi human lives.
As for a feeding tube being a form of life support… Here’s the thing. If Terri Schiavo were capable of being fed with a spoon, a fork, even a bottle, she’d be fed by a person—not a tube. Right? So she’s apparently unable to swallow on cue. Which means that, in the absence of a feeding tube, she would have no means of obtaining sustenance, ergo she would die. So…doesn’t that make her feeding tube a form of life support?
I dunno. It’s obviously a touchy issue!
“I do have every faith that the government will not act outside of it’s legal powers and therefore I guess I have to essentially trust the structure that the american people and voters have put in place.”
If only that were true. Sadly, the American people can no longer be that naive. We’ll end up under martial law if we keep thinking that way.