The Anchoress

Reposted this date due to numerous requests:

Suppose you are alive, but paralysed. Your mind seems to be in working order, but you can’t say much. You’re happy to see your family who come to visit you all the time, and you do make every effort you can to respond to your surroundings. You enjoy the sunshine in the morning, when your nurses open the curtains, and you like the sound of rain falling upon the window, and at night, you can see the moon travel across the sky, as you watch and wonder. You like to blow kisses and receive them.

Some would say you don’t have much of a life. Others would say, well, maybe not…but it is the life you HAVE, and it is your own, and the YOU that exists within that limited life is still the essential YOU, the absolute YOU…the YOU that God loved into being. You’re still there. You’re just not quite able to come out, all the way.

Now… suppose your husband, who once vowed to be faithful through good times and bad, in sickness and in health, has decided it’s all too much for him - that he wants a life outside of what he can have with you. Hey, he’s only human, who could gainsay it? He’s now got a live-in lover and a couple of kids, and he wants an unencumbered life - he wants the life he wants.

And he has decided that even though he has the life he wants, it would be wrong to simply divorce you and go on with his new life. No…he thinks that even though you are not actually dying…you probably should die. Your death, you see, would be a better and more compassionate thing than your being allowed to continue living…even though your family is more than willing to see you through to the end of your life.

Since you are not on a respirator that could simply be removed, and you do not have a fatal disease that will eventually take your life, since, as I say, you are not actually dying…a decision has to be made as to just how your life may be effectively ended.

So, your husband is working to have your feeding stopped, so that you can starve to death. You can lie in your bed and feel increasingly hungry and thirsty and weak. You can feel abandoned. You can feel the utter cruelty of unnecessary, willfull deprivation, for it is not as if you are on a deserted island somewhere, utterly alone and without aid or companionship, where your paralysis assists in your natural demise…no, you’re in a civilized country in which the means to help you stay alive are quite available…only withheld. Because your life isn’t meaningful enough.

You are not regarded, by many, as a creature capable of comprehension and understanding. However, in your agony of starvation, you will be be permitted to understand that your life is unimportant. You’ll be allowed to understand that your death is desirable.

But since you won’t be able to express yourself, or rail against those feelings, or beg for mercy…you will have to simply endure the helpless stares of your family and friends, as they watch you hunger and thirst, unable - by law - to respond to your dire circumstances.

Imagine your name is Terri Schiavo. And this is your life. And you may begin to die on February 22, 2005.

The bloggers, we are told, are mouth-breathing, unethical, mob-ruled, bible-thumping cretins. They are cold, swarming, scheming, unsophisticated and incapable of really understanding the proper use and function of modern informational tools, which they are using to tear down lives and wreck havoc on all of the enlightened thinking of the last 40 years.

And right now, they are working together to try to save the life of Terri Schiavo and - in doing so - perhaps save the life of your husband or wife, or daughter or son, should they ever be in a situation where they’re-not-dying-but-others-sure-wish-they-would. Greg, at What Attitude Problem has testimonial excerpts from Fr. Frank Pavone, has visited Terri. The indefagitable LaShawn Barber says: “Bloggers caused enough ruckus to topple someone in Big Media, so let’s see what we can do to save a life.”

If you have a blog, write about Terri Schavo, and direct people here. And urge action. Urge your readers to call their local media, their congressional rep, their senators. Write to editors of newspapers demanding another look into this issue. If enough people make noise, Terri’s feeding will not be allowed to quiety be discontinued.

Remember what Schindler’s assistant told him as he was compiling lists of Jews to save from the trains heading into Auschwitz: Who saves a life, saves the world, entire. And saving Terri’s life may keep our nation and our culture from slip-sliding into a dark and irredeemable place.

UPDATE: For a better understand of what Terri’s physical state is, please go here. Dory at Wittenberg Gate has more.

Lest I be accused again of “playing the heartstrings”, let me say that having had a family member, severely brain-damaged after a stroke, who nevertheless defied many “experts” predictions, the one think I do know is that we don’t know everything, particularly when it’s about the inner workings of the human mind and soul. As quoted in the above-referenced site: “Terri’s behavior does not meet the medical or statutory definition of persistent vegetative state. Terri responds to stimuli, tries to communicate verbally, follows limited commands, laughs or cries in interaction with loved ones, physically distances herself from irritating or painful stimulation and watches loved ones as they move around her. None of these behaviors are simple reflexes and are, instead, voluntary and cognitive. Though Terri has limitations, she does interact purposefully with her environment.”

It seems to me this woman would understand that she was in fact, starving and thirsting to her death. And to me that seems unspeakably cruel.

I am so sorry that when you died, your parents and siblings were not permitted to be with you.

…the parents and their two other children “were denied access at the moment of her death. They’ve been requesting, as you know, for the last hour to try to be in there and they were denied access by Michael Schiavo. They are in there now, praying at her bedside.”

It is completely and utterly heartbreaking to read this.

Be at peace, in glory and wholeness. And flights of angels lead you to your rest.

It is not all finished down here. Not by a long shot. But you rest, now.

Let us mourn, but not be discouraged. Let us forgive those who have acted wrongly in our name, even as we beg forgiveness from the Author of Life for whatever failures and delinquencies on our own parts have contributed to the culture of death. We are all sinners, and have fallen short; and the wages of sin truly are death. Let us resolve that Terri’s death shall not have been in vain. In her name, let reform and renewal be our undoubted mission. Let us now, even in the depths of sorrow, rededicate ourselves to our ancient creed, affirming that every human being, as a creature fashioned in the divine image, possesses a profound, inherent, and equal worth and dignity–a worth and dignity that it is the high duty of the officers and institutions of constitutional republican government to respect and defend. Robert P. George.

LaShawn has the round-up of obits and eulogies.

I’ve been meaning to say something to you folks for a couple of weeks. I get some emails from guys in the military, and I often peek and find them reading the blog, particularly in the wee small hours - I’m always especially humbled to see whoever it is that’s reading me out of Baghdad - to think that someone whose courage and sacrifice and commitment I so admire is actually reading little old me. I thank you, and yes, it’s humbling.

I have something to pass on to you - a message. It is a story about something that happened to my son, Buster, a year ago, but I didn’t have a blog a year ago, and so I haven’t told it. It is meant for you.

You see, last year, Buster visited Washington D.C. with his Boy Scout Troop. Buster is a big kid - over 6 feet tall, and built like a giant Scots warrior - and his scout uniform has a fair amount of decoration on it.

As he was leaving the Lincoln Memorial, he was stopped by an elderly gentleman who pulled himself fully erect and gave my son a grave and solemn salute. “Grazie,” he said, “grazie, Joe” followed by some more rapid-fire Italian.

Buster, who speaks a little bit of Italian, tried to explain that he was not a soldier, only a Boy Scout. “Grazie, but no…Boy Scout.”

The man said, “Ah, Boy Scout! Bene! Americani GI Joe, molto bene!”

Buster thanked him for appreciating our troops.

When he came home, he couldn’t wait to tell me this story; he said, “Ma, he looked like he was 80-90 years old ­ do you think he was around when we liberated Europe, and that’s what he was thanking me for?”

I suggested that perhaps he was thankful that Americani GI Joe, molto bene, is still on the job.

I cannot express to you, how proud and moved my son was to receive the salute of this aged gentleman on behalf of you folks. It moves him still to remember it, and to know that he - ­ however unjustly - ­ was witness to and recipient of the sort of gratitude and regard that our American troops have always deserved, and which they’ve always earned, regardless of those sentiments to the contrary which we hear from some quarters.

This kid now knows firsthand, and in his gut, what so few understand; that the American military - for all of its errors (a fully human enterprise will always have some errors) has been, and continues to be, a force for GOOD in the world.

Buster had the honor of receiving a salute on behalf of our fighting men and women. It is my honor to pass it on to you.

God bless our troops and their Commander-in-Chief.

Michelle Malkin is this tiny, delicate flower to look at, and yet she’s as forthright, determined, tenacious and un-BS-able as pretty much any marine I’ve ever met. And her BS detector is still running on the WaPo and their story about the Document of Dubious Origin (Note, I do NOT call it the “GOP talking points memo” because that just helps along the meme…) and she has made the sort of discovery one makes when one chooses to actually investigate a story…you know, something the MSM has chosen NOT TO DO in this matter.

And what did Michelle find? Well, as I sort of suspected, it looks like Mike Allen at the WaPo was quite right when he claimed he never wrote that the Document of Dubiousu Origin was “distributed by GOP leaders…” His orignially published article did not say it. (I believed Allen, btw, or wanted to, because I’ve always thought he was a pretty responsible, straight-up reporter who has tried to avoid partisanship. I’ve always felt his byline was pretty trustworthy.)

HOWEVER…here is what Michelle found: If Allen didn’t write that damning line, SOMEONE at the WaPo did, because it seems that’s how it went out over the wires, under Allen’s byline. Everywhere. Check it all out here at Michelle’s site. Then, of course, scroll up and down because you want to be sure not to miss anything good, and she always has something good.

Dirty Harry is posting a tape of Terri Schiavo responding to her father, a tape made just two years ago. Listen to it here.

Terri is clearly hearing and responding to her father. This is heartbreaking.

While you’re at it, if you can bear it, after listening to Terri and understanding once again that she is being made to die, for NO GOOD REASON, listen to Bill O’ Reilly’s rant against the ACLU. I don’t usually watch him, but I’m glad I watched it. I’d been ignoring the ACLU for a while, but clearly it’s time to pay attention to them, again.

You might want to just hang at Jackson’s Junction for a while. They’ve got interesting stuff there.

” Between September 1939 and April 1945 the defendants . . . willfully,and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article II of ControlCouncil Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to,ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected withplans and enterprises involving the execution of the so-called”euthanasia” program of the German Reich in the course of which thedefendants herein murdered hundreds of thousands of human beings,including nationals of German-occupied countries.

“This program involved the systematic and secret execution of the aged,insane, incurably ill, of deformed children, and other persons, by gas,lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals,and asylums. Such persons were regarded as “useless eaters” and a burdento the German war machine. The relatives of these victims were informedthat they died from natural causes, such as heart failure. Germandoctors involved in the “euthanasia” program were also sent to Easternoccupied countries to assist in the mass extermination of Jews.”

(Count 2, section 9, of the indictment in “the Doctor’s Trial” at theNuremberg war crimes trial;United States Holocaust Memorial Museum )

You can read it all here.

Thanks to reader, azbookrat

I thought this was a pretty good read. Found it at the Catholic Carnival.

Merely knowing about the resurrection of Jesus pales into dusty insignificance compared to the everlasting comfort and ecstasy of actually knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord: having him in one’s heart, walking through life with him at one’s side, luxuriating in the many graces he showers on his faithful ones in the Sacraments and so many other ways.Yes, it’s real. Christ is risen. Jesus lives eternally and he is always holding us in his loving embrace.

When you are having a cruddy day, as I am…it’s a good thing to remember. We shouldn’t be having such cruddy days so close to Easter Sunday, though…with all that is going on around us, with news of the Culture of Death encroaching from what seems like every side…we need to hang on to Easter.

Ed Morrissey serves up a furious helping of completely correct and justified righteous indignation at the arrogant and condescending tone of the final opinion rendered by the Eleventh Circuit.

Sez the court:

“In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers’ blueprint for the governance of a free people our Constitution [sic].”

Sez Ed:

Talk about judicial arrogance! Not only did the Eleventh Circuit openly disregard the law written by Congress, this justice arrogantly tells the other equal branches that the only branch guaranteeing a free people is the one not accountable to the will of the electorate. Bear in mind that none of the courts that reviewed this case after the passage of the emergency legislation found it unconstitutional; that at least would have put the court on record. Instead, the judiciary simply and contemptuously disregarded a law which to this moment remains legal and valid.

But don’t read me, on this. Read Ed and then read other folks who are much smarter and better educated than I. Start with Musing Minds, over here - I’m frankly not smart enough to comment on this ruling except to say that it seemed incredibly, unspeakably cruel for the Circuit to even agree to hear this last appeal and give Terri Schiavo’s family any sort of hope. I mean…show of hands, please, who among us did not know last night what today’s ruling would be? Almost seems like the court was toying with the Schindlers, simply because they could.

Holy Moley! Bush and Cheney are all but caught red-handed, and yet they say they will not resign! Read it all here

Then read here

Pretty shrewd, those shrinks, eh?

But I didn’t shrug!

I thought it was actually WAY kewl of LaShawn Barber (who looks great in green, btw) to highlight my humble thoughts on the Document of Dubious Origin on MSNBC’s Coast-to-Coast.

You can check it out here, thanks to Ian at Political Teen. What a great kid!

I was having a sort of yucky day, so that was a neat surprise. I think LaShawn is a natural, on TV, don’t you? She seems very comfortable.

Trey and Dirty Harry have more tape, here.