It's okay to dehydrate and starve the disabled. at least that's what some letter writers to canadafreepress.com are saying as they gloat about the release of Terri Schiavo's autopsy.
"Poor Terri had half a brain left, no chance to ever rehabilitate, no feelings, no thoughts, no way to tell everyone to leave her alone so she could see G-d (sic). It took 15 years but she did it no thanks to people like you," wrote Gloria whose email came from a generic hotmail account (picchetti707@hotmail.com).
Many of us have come across people in this life with "no feelings", no thoughts", and no way to tell everyone to leave them alone. all of the ones I've ever run across are not disabled in the least.
In the throwaway society in which we now live, just being disabled can be life threatening. Problem is the definition of disabled is ever morphing into new territory. Reaching old age, for example is okay so long as you don't become a drag to younger family members whose patience for inheriting your assets is beginning to run thin. Parents of children with disfiguring diseases can tell you how many people see the disease rather than the beloved child. Family pets with easily treated maladies are abandoned on the roadside in today's throwaway society.
When all was said and done, the release of Terri Schiavo's autopsy left behind more questions than it did answers.
In the autopsy's aftermath, one can only ponder the number of Glorias sending embittered emails to Terri defenders like radio giant Rush Limbaugh, the never-say-die researchers, who having found the endless conflicts surrounding the "Death-is-beautiful" crowd, kept sending them to an impervious mainline media. Fox News' Sean Hannity, who put his investigative journalistic skills to work in a valiant attempt to get at the truth, said he had never seen a story with so many disturbing facets in the span of an entire career.
Terri's story brought with it an emotional impact and people who lined up on both sides of the issue will never agree.
There were those waiting in the background, ready to come out on the attack at the long-awaited release of the autopsy.
Their silence was deafening from the day of Terri's death right up until yesterday.
But hidden in the story of their stony silence is a message of true inspiration. If their story were ever to be given a title, it would be called, The Eclipse.
There were no 11-th hour reprieves for Terri, no Jeb Bush and no miracle to save her from a public death by dehydration. Then, just as it seemed that all the cards for publicity were in the hands of Michael Schiavo and his cruel attorney George Felos came another death, that given whose it was, could not help but eclipse a tragic death in a Florida hospice. When the beloved Pope John Paul 11 died at the Vatican within days of Terri's death, it seemed that the whole world was at his bedside. Opportunists in Florida waiting to advance the dying-with-dignity message paled by comparison. In fact, it could be said they paled right out of the publicity picture.
as Fr. Frank Pavone said yesterday: "No details of this autopsy change the moral evaluation of what happened to Terri. Her physical injuries and disabilities never made her less of a person. No amount of brain injury ever justifies denying a person proper human care. That includes food and water.
"a person with a `profoundly atrophied' brain needs profound care and love. Terri did not die from an atrophied brain. She died from atrophy of compassion on the part of her estranged husband and those who helped him to have her deliberately killed."
as sure as the tide comes in and out in Florida, George Felos and company will be back.
Meanwhile, we can only hope that the "G-d" of the Glorias of Cyberspace never lets them fall into the life-threatening vulnerability of the modern-day disabled.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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