The Black Republican

I have never been so disappointed in our govenment as I am today. With the death of Terri we have ripped a hole in the fabric of the American experiment. Had our government been simply unable to save the life of an innocent, it would have been a tragedy. That our government intentionally killed an innocent citizen is revolting. And we are all to blame. Some more than others, certainly, but we get the government we deserve. We all share some blame. We should have tried harder. We should have done more. We should have gotten this right, in a way that was clear and indisputable.

We did not simply remove a device that was delivering nourishment to Terri, we denied her the chance to consume food and water in the usual way. We did not give her a chance to eat and drink the normal way, we denied her food by any means: we flat out starved her to death. In a story with many questions, there is no question about that; we starved an innocent woman until she died.

And those who would attempt to mollify the impact of that statement be damned! We did it, have the courage to admit what we have done, and call it what it is. We starved her to death! The shame.

(If you think we only denied her the extreme measures that were keeping her alive, I sincerely hope that you will spend the next fourteen days under the same terms; during those days you may intake only one drop of wine period. Only one drop in fourteen days, you must not have any other form of nourishment or hydration by any means for fourteen days. Good luck dead man!)

The many questions surrounding this story may never be answered. In that way, this may be the Kennedy assassination of our time. Not that there is a point by point comparison between the two cases. But, just that, as with the JFK killing, there may never come a time when we can all agree on the facts; we may never be able to say, case closed. And it didn't have to be that way.

I am not certain of her level of brain function. Nor, of her rehabilitative capacity if given treatment and love. Nor, of how she came to be in that state in the first place. Nor I am I certain that she wanted to die. Nor am I certain of so many other associated matters. And the uncertainty is what drove me to do what little I did for her. I wasn't the only one who did not know. And there was enough reason to believe in her, and enough reason to suspect that she was not in a permanent vegatative state, that killing her made no sense. (When would it make sense to kill the innocent?) There was enough reason to wonder, with so many loved ones telling us that she was still there, with so many citizens alarmed at what we were doing. We could have done so much better about getting the facts right. A true, "rush to judgement", (ironic that Cochran died just before Terri, reminding us that his most famous phrase has bearing today, even if not back then).

An autopsy is to be done. But, we could have learned so much more from testing while she was alive. She never had an MRI. She never had a PET scan. She had not been given an EEG to determine which parts or her brain were active. Schiavo had denied her access to medical experts in recent years, in spite of breakthrough developments in diagnosing and treating brain damaged patients. The autopsy is like an archaeology dig piecing together the past, much supposition and conjecture. Compared to live testing, which, well, is in time observation of what actually happens. There are questions the archaeologist can not answwer, so it is too with the medical examiner's autopsy.

There was much misinformation going around about this matter. Much of it intentional. Much of it intended to get her killed. Much of it bourne of hate and contempt for other figures, unconnected figures, with no consideration for the merits of her case. These people be damned!

Some of it bourne of carelessness, indifference, and stupidity. These people are a part of the we, as in, we get the government we deserve. Unfortunately.

The certainties in this matter? She was alive. Her parents and siblings loved her, and believed in her, and wanted her to continue to live. Since the initial event, she was in a diminished mental state as compared to before the event. Her condition was not life threatening (she was not dying). Her condition was not progressive, (it was not getting worse). Michael Schiavo certainly wanted her dead. Michael Schiavo successfully enlisted our government to accomplish his goal.

Oh, and one more certainty, the shame is on all of U.S.!