Sunday, April 03, 2005

So, Where Are We Now?

So, Where Are We Now?


It’s all over but the shouting. The autopsy is done and the full report will be out in 2 weeks. The Schindlers and the Schiavos are planning separate funerals. And the Pope is dead. So where are we now that we’ve had our guts wrenched out? We’re here ->




Just about in the same place we were it seems to me but hopefully a lot more prepared for the curve balls life may throw us. In millions of homes around this great nation of ours millions of people have been having deep discussions with their loved ones about their wishes should life find them where Terri Schiavo was.

Though I wonder, did the Pope have a living will? In his last moments was there a discussion as to whether to keep his unresponsive body alive on a dialysis machine and a ventilator or to let him pass on even before his brain activity had ceased as is the natural path we all take into death? It’s possible that he could have been kept alive days, weeks, maybe months longer even if his EKG was a low or lower than that of Terri Schiavo. But is there anyone who have argued to do that? A cynical person could charge that in light of the discussions going around in Rome about electing a much older man to he Holy See this time to avoid having one man influencing the course of the Roman Catholic Church for as long a time as John Paul II did could say his death was “hastened”. After all, science could have kept him “alive” longer. A man can make a lot of changes when he is in a seat of power that long. Perhaps electing an old, more frail man to the post is their way of instituting term limits? Could they have “let him go” without doing everything medically possible first? Could they have plotted to let him die sooner than science could kept him alive? Of course they did. It would have served no moral or medically ethical sense to prolong his life in the condition he was in. And so he was allowed to pas away naturally.

A quote by Thomas Jefferson comes to mind when I think about the endless court battles between the Schindlers and Schiavos; “The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and engrafted into the machine of government, have been a formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man." For with the involvement of every leader of the Religious Right, fringe group, and major religion what should by rights been a private family fight settled in a few months or at worst a couple of years, was drawn out into a 10+ year battle played nightly in living rooms from coast to coast. And we the public, with our perverse need for titillation egged on the press, demanding to be spoon fed every vicious and gory detail of something that was by all rights none of our business and in doing so provided a pulpit for every religious ideologue to use to promote their personal agenda. It was a propagandist’s dream, custom made for self-promotion and cult recruiting. And let’s not forget that august body, the Congress and their interference with the help of President Bush in passing an un-Constitutional law caused this case to be needlessly drug out weeks longer that it already had. And just what sort of people are our democratically elected leaders? Let’s take a look:

29 have been accused of spousal abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

19 have been accused of writing bad checks

117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses, as has Bush

3 have done time for assault

71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

14 have been arrested on drug-related charges, even more have been investigated for this, ditto Bush

8 have been arrested for shoplifting

21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

And of those who involved themselves in this case, ALL were guilty of being responsible for one or more of those statistics. Yup, that’s who I want to set the moral tone of an argument... a bunch of wife beating, drunk embezzlers. Sheesh!

We should be ashamed of ourselves. For poking our collective noses in where it didn’t belong. For despite all the public involvement in what should have been an intensely private matter, the outcome was not changed except that it was drawn out far longer than was entirely necessary. The courts did their duty and ruled in the only way the law allowed them to and rightfully according to the law. Some will say that the law needs to be changed then. Others say that that the law, as it stands is fine. If you have been following the last few issues of this minor publication you know where I stand... I agree with the courts and think the law is fine as it is.

That's my opinion and you are welcome to it.

Julie Johnson aka “The Great Spoon“

1 Comments:

Anonymous Telkom University said...

In light of the recent events surrounding Terri Schiavo and the Pope's passing, how has the public discourse influenced conversations within households regarding end-of-life wishes, particularly the creation of living wills?

3/03/2024 2:16 AM  

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