Posting

I know that I have not posted in a while...life gets busy sometimes and then when I come back to the blog, I am completely overwhelmed by the politics in this country. Everything is getting so heated and we are becoming more and more polarized. Its difficult to continually wrap my mind around the complexities of the many issues we are fighting every day. Nonetheless, I could not resist commenting on the latest singular news story...as if nothing else is going on in the country or the world.

Of course, today I mean the Terri Schiavo case. This is an issue that is trying to be used as a wedge issue; to drive yet another a wedge between the religious right and the perceived irreligious left. And I find it heartbreaking because this woman is being used for politics. While Bush and the republicans in congress are trying to use this woman to play the moral high ground card they have demonstrated that they have no problem crossing the "states' rights" line to micro-govern our lives. Furthermore, Bush's own hypocracy is showing because he, himself has no problem taking people off life support and allowing them to die. The difference between Mr. Schiavo and Mr. Bush is negligible. In 1999, Bush supported removing patients from life support, even though they could otherwise recover from their illness, because they could not afford to pay. So, does Mr. Bush mean to say that his "culture of life" is only for people who can afford to pay for that life? Apparently so.

I take this issue very personally. I had to go through this myself a few years ago when my dad was ill. The whole family, and I do mean the whole family...step-mom, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, all sat down with the doctors. This was one of the most difficult things that I ever had to do. I was the one holding on and everyone had to talk me over to the other side. I was not willing to let him die. I wanted the hospital to take all extreme measures to save his life, even though the doctors told me there was no hope.

I do think think Mr. Schiavo is scum and only wanted to disconnect her after he found a new family. I think that since her family is willing to let him keep the money if he'll divorce her and let them care for her, its an option that he should consider. That having been said, however, I look at her and I wonder what it would be like to be her. I can't imagine the absolute hell it would be to be to have my mind and soul trapped in a body that I could not control; to not be able to communicate to anyone at all, to not be able to do anything in life but lie their and breathe and wait for someone to bathe me, change me. I don't know if that is life, and I might lay their and pray every day that my family will work up the courage to let me go. It makes me think that her parents are holding onto false hope and are being supremely selfish in torturing her because they cannot let go. Its a difficult decision that I don't think any of us can possibly judge properly. And I resent congress for getting involved. Whether intentionally or not, their involvement politicizes a an already electric, deeply personal and deeply emotional situation. All of this could have been avoided had she had a living will.