I am a peculiar blogger. Unlike every person in the world with a modem, a pen, a microphone, a bully pulpit, a snarled lip, or a bucket of bloodlust, I don’t really have much to say about the Terri Schiavo case. I just wanted to write "Terri Schiavo" a bunch of times so I could get more Google hits.
Pathetic? Disgusting? No more disgusting than the people who are crowding around the corpse, posing for the cameras. No more disgusting than the sick bastards who are sending their pre-teen kids through police barriers with cups of water, all the time knowing their children will be handcuffed, detained, and photographed by the national media.
"I know you don’t know her, Son. And I know you’re just doing this because you think Jesus won’t like you if you don’t; but Terri Schiavo is a very important symbol for our movement. If folks see a nice youngster like yourself trying to save a life, they’ll see that we mean business, and that even kids support life, not just angry middle-aged white people.”
“But, Daddy, if we respect life so much why don’t we take life to gays dying of AIDS, or to people on death row, or to the poor folks across the street from our church who are living without health insurance?”
“Alright, you insolent little crank, gimme that cup; I’m gonna send your sister instead. Now we’ll see who gets invited to the celebrity Bible toss at this year’s Holympics. Do you think you will? No, sir. Do you think you will receive Focus on the Family’s Lifesavior Award now? I don’t think so. You had a chance to make God proud, Mister, but I guess you’re just gonna be a biiiiig disappointment.”
No more disgusting than Tom Delay, who defends his own family’s private decision, yet feels the need to federally mandate another family’s decision.
No more disgusting than
No more disgusting than (Dr.) Bill Frist, who claims to be able to diagnose a persistent vegetative state from 10 seconds of four year-old video.
Here's my take: I don't have a take. I'm not there, at her side. It's not my pain and not my call. I am inclined to say that feeding tubes are hubris, and that the desperation with which we hold onto life defies our supposed belief in the sweet release of heaven. However, if my daughter were on that bed, showing even a glimmer of recognition when I kissed her cheek, I might be tempted to firebomb government buildings, if it meant my baby girl wouldn’t be hurt.
It seems inhuman to hold Terri in this world by force. It seems barbaric to starve her to death. I can’t begin to understand the anguish the family must be feeling.
Terri, I refuse to play games with you. I refuse to objectify you as a representative of some ethic or ideal. I refuse to make you a martyr for a pro-life movement you never joined, or a poster child for a dignified death you may not have chosen. I'm sorry we have taken your tragic, beautiful life and turned it into the movie of the week. I’m sorry we have taken your humble, quiet spirit and placed it among the American Media Pantheon of celebrity child molesters, thieves, and wife killers. I’m sorry that your death—whether it happened 10 years ago, or will happen tomorrow—fills so many of us with self-righteous satisfaction.
Regardless of how you leave this world, may your entry into the next one be better. May you dance, sing, and feast in the presence of glory. And may you be far, far away from talk radio.
If you ended up here because you Googled “Terri Schiavo,” or you wanted to fan your particular political flame even hotter, get lost. I’m not interested in your patronage. If you were looking for congruence or opposition, because that’s how you get off, go to hell. You’re what’s wrong with this country and culture.
I’m not saying discussion, debate, and conversation aren’t important, even vital to our survival; I just don’t think most people are interested in real exchange anymore. Controversy has become a game, or a war, that is designed to declare winners and losers and create profit, not build understanding and relationships.
So, if you’re looking for a fight, look somewhere else. I’m taking the day off.
15 comments:
Thank you. - Jennifer
I believe when I get home tonight I'm going to sweep the place for bugs and wrap the whole house in tinfoil, to reflect the Russian mind-reading lasers you've pointed at my house.
Good post. Much better than mine. :)
Poppycock. Mine was bitter; yours was useful.
By the way, I'm no longer using the Russian model. Mmmwwwhaah-ha-ha-haaah.
Hey Brett. Great post. You've expressed a lot of my thoughts. I have a question, though. If feeding tubes are hubris, what else of human invention is? Soap? Antibiotics? The tubes, blood transfusions, and incubator in the neonatal ICU that allowed my now 2-year-old niece to live?
You're right: This entire affair has become an enormous and dangerous exercise in self-conceit with dire political consequences either way.
The way I see it, all we have is a woman who is probably 99 percent for sure brain dead who told her husband once she'd rather die than be a vegetable. But we might also have a human being who is not only alive, but who may want to live. I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of that choice. Alive or dead, she will suffer no pain, so the doctors say. Then why force her death?
Any chance of recovery is infinitesimal, certainly-- but who are we to have the hubris to say we know 100 percent?
Well-stated, Amanda. I think that's why we should resist the urge to proclaim the matter closed.
This issue is truly mind-boggling and spirit-troubling in its complexity. I think there are earnest and compassionate people on both (all) sides of this issue. What I have no tolerance for is the activist who whips the public into a frenzy, seeking to capitalize on the misfortunes of this woman and her family.
You always bring even the most polemic issues back around to elegant grace, tender love, and a more expansive perspective. Thank you.
Brandon
Dr. Miller,
You are correct in your assessment. I can't imaginge how either party is feeling; the anguish, the anger, etc. We can't get a straight story from any media outlet, so I don't know how to feel. I know life is precious beyond description...I know the "slippery slope to euthenasia" argument does hold some validity. I know Michael Shiavo appears shady @ a casual glance. But, I know that until Christians began to value life when the cameras aren't on; until they visit the Hospices in anonymity to hold a dying friend or stranger's hand...Until they die to self and agenda, their message of love is invalidated to a dying and hurting world that needs to see and hear of the crazy love of God more than they need their next breath. I feel like Paul after the road to Damascus...I alone am the most wretched of these.
Jim
Terri died about an hour ago. May she now rest in peace.
Dear God, may the family, the lawyers, the politicians, and the activists shut up and let her rest in peace.
When the cameras turn to the next flashpoint, may we follow Jim's admonition and turn our efforts to the helpless.
Amen, so glad to call you a brother in Christ. I pray PEACE for Terri and her family and our world.
I felt an incredible sense of relief when I read what you had written in regards to the nonsense going on in Florida. It is so reassuring to my heart to read fellow belivers responding rationally and with genuine love to issues like this. Thank you
Kase
Amazing post, Brett. Really.
Daily I teeter on the edge of falling into a polemical ditch myself, and it always takes some mental arm-flailing to tip me back.
I get angry about these things, about so many things that make our country the daily three hundred ring circus that it has become, and it doesn't take much to push me into that area where I'm one of the red-faced finger pointers I so hate, even if what I'm arguing so passionately about is reason, rationality, and for once, just ONCE, some in depth thought.
I appreciate your thoughts because they walk that line that can be so hard to find.
It's a tricky thing, this world.
Dead on sir, dead on. That's all that needs to be sad.
kudos
Damnit....said not sad
I don't want to turn this into a lovefest or anything, but I must say, when I put myself out there--with a position I think is not widely appreciated--you all confirm my deepest hopes: There are a lot of decent, honest, compassionate folks out there.
Thanks for continually restoring my faith in people.
Ah, I'm pretty sure that there's a fair silent majority of decent people out there who are capable of really examining an issue without jerking their knees. Thing is, it's generally those who are dead certain, who see things as black/white or us/them that speak the loudest. Like most politicians, for instance, as us vs. them is a handy way to get elected. The rest have a way of getting drowned out in the din of the crowd.
Something that got almost zero news coverage during the whole Schiavo thing was that poll after poll revealed a huge majority of Americans who believe that this should have been a family issue, and not politicized. But that's not very dramatic. It's not good television.
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