Clemency from a Subpeona
I posted the following thoughts at GOP Bloggers last night:
Surreal, isn't it?
I have a daughter myself. She'll become a teenager two weeks from yesterday. I watch her growing up and I feel a little sad that she won't be my "little girl" for much longer, but I'm also joyful that she'll grow into a beautiful, intelligent, godly young woman.
Terry Schiavo was thirteen once.
I wonder if her parents ever imagined the living nightmare that would engulf their lives and the life of their little girl. I wonder if any parent could.
Can a father and mother actually wish that their child had been killed in the accident that "merely" damaged her brain? Is that any more perverse than their scumbag son-in-law determining, apparently, that abandonment isn't sufficient?
See, I can't look at this atrocity objectively because I can't identify with the scumbag husband. I can't conceive of cutting loose my wife like dumping empty soda cans at the recycling depot. I can sympathize with what an ordeal it would be to have to live with the reality of a mentally disabled spouse who really wasn't even "herself" anymore, but even if I could stretch that to wanting out of the whole situation, I still could not reconcile that with why Mrs. Schiavo must die.
But I can identify with Terri's parents. I can identify with conceiving a child, watching her be born, holding her in my arms, changing moldering mountains of diapers, watching her speak her first words and take her first steps, teaching her to ride a bicycle, buying her what instantly becomes her favorite dolly, helping her with her homework, taking her to her basketball games, and the other milestones of growing up yet to come from my perspective. I can identify with investing a goodly chunk of their lifetimes in her entire lifetime. I can only imagine their grief and sorrow after she suffered the accident that injured her brain. I don't want to imagine their horror at a son-in-law using the court system to do to her what could just as easily have been carried out with a pillow or a handgun or a length of electrical cord.
Except, of course, that those methods of homicide would be a helluva lot quicker.
"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these." - II Timothy 3:1-5
If only Terri had taken that last piece of advice.
Michael from Michigan took my set and spiked it home:
"I can sympathize with what an ordeal it would be to have to live with the reality of a mentally disabled spouse who really wasn't even "herself" anymore,..."
The only reason I take issue with this reasoning is because I have read that Michael Schiavo did not use the money from the malpractice suit towards Terri's medical rehabilitation and therapy. 3 months after winning the settlements of $1+ Million, he started the quest to have Terri die. This was in February of 1993. In April of 1991, Terri was diagnosed as "improving". The Schindlers testify that Michael promised to use the malpractice suit money on Terri's medical therapy and rehabilitation, but didn't. Therefore, he chose to go through this ordeal and keep his "wife" mentally disabled and "not herself". I have no sympathy for that.
Indeed. Reverend Robert Johansen, a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan and one of the most stalwart defenders of Mrs. Schiavo's right to live, posted a devastating piece along the same lines at NRO the other day. His conclusion? "The most obvious possible explanation for what would otherwise be inexplicable behavior is that Michael Schiavo, George Felos [his attorney], and [Pinellas County Circuit Court] Judge [George] Greer don’t want to admit any information that would upset the diagnosis they already have."
I did say that Michael Schiavo is a scumbag. A greedy one, in fact. Ditto Felos. I wonder what Judge Greer's excuse is.
Parenthetically, how ironic is it that Terri’s maiden name is Schindler? I’m amazed nobody’s caught that before me.
This morning, by contrast, brought happy news (via Captain’s Quarters):
As a deadline loomed, U.S. Senate Republicans sought to keep severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive Friday with an invitation to bring her to Washington, and an attorney for her parents said they hoped the move would buy them more time.
The Senate Health Committee has requested that Terri Schiavo and her husband, Michael, appear at an official committee hearing on March 28. Earlier Friday, a House committee was issuing congressional subpoenas to stop doctors from disconnecting the tube. ...
"It is a contempt of Congress to prevent or discourage someone from following the subpoena that's been issued," David Gibbs, the attorney for her parents, said. "What the U.S. Congress is saying is, 'We want to see Terri Schiavo.'"
"The family is prayerfully excited about their daughter going before the United States Congress for the whole world to see how alive she is."
He said that despite her brain damage, she would be able to travel. A statement from the office of [Senate] Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN, on Friday said the purpose of the hearing was to review health care policies and practices relevant to the care of non-ambulatory people.
Frist's statement noted that it is a federal crime to harm or obstruct a person called to testify before Congress. [my emphasis]
Whoever came up with this last-minute gambit has definitely earned his/her pay for the week, and the tearful gratitude of two parents for a lifetime. Not just in the stay of Terri Schiavo’s execution (for the “crime” of not having died), but in ensuring that her no-account husband and the Florida courts can’t carry it out in relative obscurity. With these congressional hearings, Terri will no longer be an abstraction, a name on a page, but a real, living, breathing human being that the whole country will see on their TV screens.
Given that in our media-driven culture a picture is worth far more than a thousand words, the political and public relations price tag of snuffing this poor woman just became a whooooole lot more prohibitive.
UPDATE: Judge Greer just flipped a big, fat "F.U." at Congress, reiterating his order that Terri's execution proceed on schedule.
Captain Ed is speculating that this will create a jurisdictional conflict that will have to be settled in federal court. He also believes that the congressional subpoena would take precedence based on the (theoretical) supremacy of federal law over state law. But that would, of course, depend entirely upon the federal judge that drew the case, since adherence to the word and rule of law on the part of the Imperial Judiciary can hardly be taken for granted.
It's funny, isn't it, how Judge Greer isn't catching hell for this act of defiance, and is in fact being lauded as a de facto federalist! Yet the last time a state judge took a stand against the feds, he was pilloried, sanctioned, and finally removed from the bench altogether.
His name? Roy Moore.
Interesting progression here - on the one hand, completely purge Christianity from American public life; on the other, let slip the dogs of the burgeoning, rampaging culture of death.
A coincidence utterly bereft of serendipity.
Surreal, isn't it?
I have a daughter myself. She'll become a teenager two weeks from yesterday. I watch her growing up and I feel a little sad that she won't be my "little girl" for much longer, but I'm also joyful that she'll grow into a beautiful, intelligent, godly young woman.
Terry Schiavo was thirteen once.
I wonder if her parents ever imagined the living nightmare that would engulf their lives and the life of their little girl. I wonder if any parent could.
Can a father and mother actually wish that their child had been killed in the accident that "merely" damaged her brain? Is that any more perverse than their scumbag son-in-law determining, apparently, that abandonment isn't sufficient?
See, I can't look at this atrocity objectively because I can't identify with the scumbag husband. I can't conceive of cutting loose my wife like dumping empty soda cans at the recycling depot. I can sympathize with what an ordeal it would be to have to live with the reality of a mentally disabled spouse who really wasn't even "herself" anymore, but even if I could stretch that to wanting out of the whole situation, I still could not reconcile that with why Mrs. Schiavo must die.
But I can identify with Terri's parents. I can identify with conceiving a child, watching her be born, holding her in my arms, changing moldering mountains of diapers, watching her speak her first words and take her first steps, teaching her to ride a bicycle, buying her what instantly becomes her favorite dolly, helping her with her homework, taking her to her basketball games, and the other milestones of growing up yet to come from my perspective. I can identify with investing a goodly chunk of their lifetimes in her entire lifetime. I can only imagine their grief and sorrow after she suffered the accident that injured her brain. I don't want to imagine their horror at a son-in-law using the court system to do to her what could just as easily have been carried out with a pillow or a handgun or a length of electrical cord.
Except, of course, that those methods of homicide would be a helluva lot quicker.
"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these." - II Timothy 3:1-5
If only Terri had taken that last piece of advice.
Michael from Michigan took my set and spiked it home:
"I can sympathize with what an ordeal it would be to have to live with the reality of a mentally disabled spouse who really wasn't even "herself" anymore,..."
The only reason I take issue with this reasoning is because I have read that Michael Schiavo did not use the money from the malpractice suit towards Terri's medical rehabilitation and therapy. 3 months after winning the settlements of $1+ Million, he started the quest to have Terri die. This was in February of 1993. In April of 1991, Terri was diagnosed as "improving". The Schindlers testify that Michael promised to use the malpractice suit money on Terri's medical therapy and rehabilitation, but didn't. Therefore, he chose to go through this ordeal and keep his "wife" mentally disabled and "not herself". I have no sympathy for that.
Indeed. Reverend Robert Johansen, a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan and one of the most stalwart defenders of Mrs. Schiavo's right to live, posted a devastating piece along the same lines at NRO the other day. His conclusion? "The most obvious possible explanation for what would otherwise be inexplicable behavior is that Michael Schiavo, George Felos [his attorney], and [Pinellas County Circuit Court] Judge [George] Greer don’t want to admit any information that would upset the diagnosis they already have."
I did say that Michael Schiavo is a scumbag. A greedy one, in fact. Ditto Felos. I wonder what Judge Greer's excuse is.
Parenthetically, how ironic is it that Terri’s maiden name is Schindler? I’m amazed nobody’s caught that before me.
This morning, by contrast, brought happy news (via Captain’s Quarters):
As a deadline loomed, U.S. Senate Republicans sought to keep severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive Friday with an invitation to bring her to Washington, and an attorney for her parents said they hoped the move would buy them more time.
The Senate Health Committee has requested that Terri Schiavo and her husband, Michael, appear at an official committee hearing on March 28. Earlier Friday, a House committee was issuing congressional subpoenas to stop doctors from disconnecting the tube. ...
"It is a contempt of Congress to prevent or discourage someone from following the subpoena that's been issued," David Gibbs, the attorney for her parents, said. "What the U.S. Congress is saying is, 'We want to see Terri Schiavo.'"
"The family is prayerfully excited about their daughter going before the United States Congress for the whole world to see how alive she is."
He said that despite her brain damage, she would be able to travel. A statement from the office of [Senate] Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN, on Friday said the purpose of the hearing was to review health care policies and practices relevant to the care of non-ambulatory people.
Frist's statement noted that it is a federal crime to harm or obstruct a person called to testify before Congress. [my emphasis]
Whoever came up with this last-minute gambit has definitely earned his/her pay for the week, and the tearful gratitude of two parents for a lifetime. Not just in the stay of Terri Schiavo’s execution (for the “crime” of not having died), but in ensuring that her no-account husband and the Florida courts can’t carry it out in relative obscurity. With these congressional hearings, Terri will no longer be an abstraction, a name on a page, but a real, living, breathing human being that the whole country will see on their TV screens.
Given that in our media-driven culture a picture is worth far more than a thousand words, the political and public relations price tag of snuffing this poor woman just became a whooooole lot more prohibitive.
UPDATE: Judge Greer just flipped a big, fat "F.U." at Congress, reiterating his order that Terri's execution proceed on schedule.
Captain Ed is speculating that this will create a jurisdictional conflict that will have to be settled in federal court. He also believes that the congressional subpoena would take precedence based on the (theoretical) supremacy of federal law over state law. But that would, of course, depend entirely upon the federal judge that drew the case, since adherence to the word and rule of law on the part of the Imperial Judiciary can hardly be taken for granted.
It's funny, isn't it, how Judge Greer isn't catching hell for this act of defiance, and is in fact being lauded as a de facto federalist! Yet the last time a state judge took a stand against the feds, he was pilloried, sanctioned, and finally removed from the bench altogether.
His name? Roy Moore.
Interesting progression here - on the one hand, completely purge Christianity from American public life; on the other, let slip the dogs of the burgeoning, rampaging culture of death.
A coincidence utterly bereft of serendipity.
posted by JASmius at 10:06 AM
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