Schiavopalooza

Hell, everyone else has weighed in on the Terri Schiavo case, so why not me? Here’s the count so far: husband wants to let her die, parents don’t. Husband, claiming Terri had spoken about not wanting to live this way, gets Florida court order to remove her feeding tube. Parents appeal to the feds. Federal ruling is pending. The Republicans and Christian Right, cementing their hold on modern American discourse, have miraculously driven this private case to the front pages, above ongoing war, pending war, terrorism, global disasters, foundering economies and political scandals. Gotta give the bastards credit.

Here are my observations:

  1. Isn’t it odd that the same people who demand the strengthening of states’ rights and the need for the federal government to get out of our lives are the very same people demanding that the federal government step in to overturn a perfectly legal state ruling? I see, they’re for states’ rights unless they need Congress to pander to their base.
  2. Isn’t it interesting that the same people who trumpet loudly about the sanctity of marriage and of spousal rights are so very eager to deny the spousal rights of Michael Schiavo?
  3. All this “sanctity of life” crap would ring a lot more convincingly if it weren’t spouted by the same people who fight like hell to execute minors and mental deficients, and who gleefully drop bombs on legions of innocent non-brain dead people in foreign countries.

Hypocrisy thine name is the American Right. If only the President and his goose-stepping minions were as concerned for the oceans of people going hungry in America and abroad, the children of the working poor, or even the limbless bloody civilians victimized in their foreign wars, as they claim to be for this single woman whose living status is questionable at best.

Lastly, let’s consider the one thing no one else seems to: that when the federal government became involved in this case it was to enforce the will of the people. Well, what do the people want? Recent polling data, in outlets from Fox News to the Washington Post, show that an overwhelming majority of Americans back the husband. A 2003 Fox News poll (yes, Faux News), showed that a mere 2% of Americans believe the government should be involved in this case at all.

So what’s my personal final verdict? Put the feeding tube back in. Yep, you heard me. Why? Because food and water are basic, not extraordinary, means. Starving someone to death, regardless of her cognitive state, is cruel. If her body is to die, give her a drug. If it’s good enough for executed convicts and family pets, it’s good enough for someone’s wife and daughter.

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