Who are Terry Schivos parents?

[intheflow]

I've been gone for about a week, so maybe this has been covered, but who the hell are Terry Schivos' parents that they had access not only to the governor of Florida but to Congress? Are they rich? Politically connected? What?

[Walt Starr]

1. They are politically connected via the radical clerics

and religiously insane within the Religious Reich.

[BurtWorm]

3. "radical clerics"

:thumbsup:

Great terminology, Walt! :toast:

[intheflow]

14. Do you know of any links that support that?

Any news stories linking them to a specific church?

[Walt Starr]

17. Randall Terry is their spokesperson

and radical clerics all over the country have been supporting their legal battle with cash.

[intheflow]

26. This is the first time I've heard of the Randall connection.

Makes sense, though. Now I can see how this starts to be tied to the right-to-life hypocrites. Thanks, Walt.

[bloom]

19. They say they are Catholics

and their church does not support euthanasia.

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. And yet it supports others playing God?

Crazy, eh?

[Zinfandel]

37. Thanks for the Social Security link.It's an excellent site. Let's not

let ANY of Rove's smokescreens, divert any of our attention away from Social Security!!

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Grieving people who are unable to see the selfishness of their actions.

They need to let go of a girl who hasn't been there for years. It's sad really. I couldn't care less how "connected" they are or are not. :hi:

[northzax]

4. she's 40

can we (all) stop calling her a girl or child already?

I know you don't mean ill, but I think we should all treat this married, adult human being with more linguistic respect than any of us have been doing.

From now on, she is "Mrs. Schiavo" to me. remind everyone that she is a wife, as well as a child.

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. She is both, of course.

My 83 year-old grandmother told my 61 year-old aunt that she would 'always be my little girl, to me'; she knws full well that my aunt is an adult and a grandmother herself, but the parent-child bond isn't broken with the passage of time.

:)

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. Thank you CL. A few need to get off their damnable high horses here.

No wonder there are times we get called elitist. We're so busy looking at the forest there are no trees. :hi:

[Cuban_Liberal]

10. Yes.

We need to realize that neither should her parents nor her husband be demonized in this case; the issues can be debated while still recognizing their very human actions in this sad, sad matter.

:hi:

[northzax]

30. I am not demonizing anyone

except those in the media who use diminutives to influence control over other people.

note that FAUX news always used 'hillary' instead of "senator clinton"? when they refer to the junior senator from New York? and President Clinton is always "clinton" while Bush is "President Bush" oh, I'm sure they don't mean any disrespect by it, right?

think for a moment about why you use certain honorifics and titles for some people and not others?

walk into your doctor's office and call her "Jane" see how she responds. call your senator and call him "joe" see how they respond. we use first names to diminish people and honorifics to elevate them. everyone does it. I just don't think we should buy into it in this case.

I was raised to refer to people older than me as Mr or Ms until told differently. I call my surgeon "dr" I call judges "your honor" I don't know Terri Schiavo, so why would I use her first name only?

[Cuban_Liberal]

32. I never said you were.

:hi:

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. Ahem, I am 34 and my parents still think of me as their girl. Please read

more into the post and quit judging. Thank you.

Read..." a girl who HASN'T BEEN THERE..."

[northzax]

31. it was directed at everyone, not you

and I'm not judging, I'm simply pointing out that common courtesy requires the use of someone's full, or last name, unless you acually know then (or they tell you differently)

go to one of the Multitude of Michael Jackson threads. People refer to him as "Jackson" why should an accused child rapist get the respecy of having a full name, when Terri Schiavo doesn't?

on edit; I have no idea what you, personally, use. this is directed at people at large, not you.

[doodadem]

9. A couple of interesting observations

From a doctor I saw interviewed last night, on I think it was Lou Dobbs. He said there would not be this uproar over this woman if her eyes were closed, such as people in a coma. Also, that portions of her brain have actually LIQUEFIED. Ouch.
One other thing--all of the pics/clips being played in MSM are at least 5 years old. The powers that be have been very careful that we don't see what she looks like currently.

[booksenkatz]

21. Absolutely correct, doodadem

I've been thinking that, too. Her eyes make it SEEM like she's alert and active, simply by virtue of being open and "looking around." People forget that their own eyes move around like crazy while they're asleep, during the REM phase, but it doesn't mean they're actually seeing anything, it's just the reptilian brain doing its own thing. We think of the eyes as the window of the soul, etc.

Same thing with Terri's "smile." It looks so real, doesn't it, but it is merely the parting of the lips and the exposure of the teeth, nothing more. Has anyone ever seen the photo of JFK on the autopsy table? He's "smiling." Does it mean he's happy???
:eyes:

We truly do impart tremendous meaning to physical things, unfortunately. If Terri "looked dead," then this would never have become a circus.

[Chelsea Patriot]

41. And just like the sonograms of thumb-sucking fetuses......

That send this same group into orgasms!

Great Observation, Pats!

[intheflow]

11. Of course they're grieving.

I didn't mean to imply in any way that I didn't feel for these people's grief. Only, when my sister was in a vegitative state and taken off life support, my mother was a grieving devout Christian, too, but she didn't feel she had to get the private ear of her state's governor. Thousands of Americans go throgh this every year. So why does this family have access to such power?

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. Because the power decided to use them to meet its own ends.

In my opinion. Right case, right time, in their thought process. I'm betting they're very wrong this time.

[efhmc]

27. You know I so agree with this statement. I do not think they

started this as a cause celebre but out of desperation and as a way to further their deluded state of mind and the only way to do that was by political means. And of course, the right wingers will always take the individual human element out of anything and run with their agenda.

[efhmc]

28. Double post. Please excuse.

[mondo joe]

6. They are 2 people who lied in court and admit they'd defy Terri's

wishes even if they KNEW she wanted to be taken off life support.

[BrklynLiberal]

16. Exactly.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locmiket25022505feb25,0,566960.column?coll=orl-home-headlines

Terri's husband isn't the enemy, guardian says
Published February 25, 2005

I received an avalanche of e-mail about Terri Schiavo. The bad information going out on this case is amazing.

What is real and what is not?

For answers, I turned to University of South Florida professor Jay Wolfson. He was appointed as a guardian ad litem for Terri in 2003 and prepared a report on her for Jeb Bush.

After a judge dismissed him in December of that year, Bush and Terri's parents -- Bob and Mary Schindler -- requested he stay on as Terri's guardian. Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, opposed the request.

Wolfson's report is based on court files, depositions, medical records and interviews with everyone involved.

That said, I begin with the most explosive allegation:

Did Michael try to kill Terri?

Wolfson laughs. "No!"

In 1990, Terri went into cardiac arrest, which shut off oxygen to her brain. A potassium imbalance, perhaps caused by an eating disorder, triggered the attack.

Has Michael withheld treatment?

Wolfson's report states that in the four years after her collapse, Michael "had insistently held to the premise that Theresa could recover and the evidence is incontrovertible that he gave his heart and soul to her treatment and care . . . In late autumn of 1990, following months of therapy and testing and formal diagnoses of persistent vegetative state with no evidence of improvement, Michael took Theresa to California, where she received an experimental thalamic stimulator implant in her brain. Michael remained in California caring for Theresa during a period of several months."

Says Wolfson now: "Michael was adoring of her. One nursing home complained he was hostile and abusive of the staff in championing her care. She was immaculately kept. In 13 years, she never had one bedsore."

Is Michael after her insurance settlement?

Wolfson's report says that early on, Michael "formally offered to divest himself entirely of his financial interests in the guardianship estate."

Why doesn't Michael simply turn Terri over to her family?

From the report: "Testimony provided by members of the Schindler family included very personal statements about their desire and intention to ensure that Theresa remain alive . . . at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open-heart surgery. Within the testimony, as part of the hypothetical presented, Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it."

Wolfson told me that when Michael heard this, he said: "That's it. I'm never going to let that happen to her."

Wolfson says the Schindlers later recanted their testimony.

Can Terri recover?

"Theresa's neurological tests and CT scans indicate objective measures of the persistent vegetative state," the report says. "These data indicate that Theresa's cerebral cortex is principally liquid, having shrunken due to the severe anoxic trauma experienced 13 years ago."

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

22. Um, no.

Both Cuban Liberal and Mrs. Grumpy are correct. The parent/child relationship never ends.

These people are being played like fish on a line by the right wing hypocritical fundies such as Randall Terry.

I also don't like the fact that they released edited videotapes of Terri's condition from 4 years to the networks and politicians. That seems to me to be a lot less than dignified.

Obviously, Mrs. Schiavo's parents, brother and sister, like many people who are put in this totally tragic situation, just can't deal with the reality that this person they loved is no longer there.

[mondo joe]

23. Why do you ASSUME they're just being played?

Why not assume GW Bush is just being played?

Or Randall Terry himself?

Why are some people assumed to be responsible for themselves and others not?

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. Why do you ASSUME they aren't?

Funny.

[mondo joe]

33. Because I always assume adults are responsible for their own actions

I'm funny that way.

[ScreamingMeemie]

36. Well you know what happens when you assume....

I'd try to be less funny.

[mondo joe]

38. I don't know - what happens when you ASSUME they are being

played?

[ScreamingMeemie]

39. Ummmm....I never assumed a thing. You did.

:hi: I refuse to pass judgement on something that I know only that which has been printed about it.

[mondo joe]

40. Sure you did: "Because the power decided to use them to meet"

"Because the power decided to use them to meet its own ends."

[ScreamingMeemie]

42. That's not a judgement or an assumption. It's a comment. Also a known

comment based on reality. :hi:

[mondo joe]

43. Sorry, but your statement assumes they are being used rather than

being willing participants.

[Cuban_Liberal]

25. Because GW Bush and Randall Terry have no personal, emotional bond.

That's the key difference here, and I think any fair-minded person could at least concede the possibility that the parent's very real desires and subsequent efforts could have been suborned/hijacked by those with an entirely different agenda.

[mondo joe]

34. Anything COULD be. But why assume it with no evidence that

they're anything but what they present as?

Did we assume people who bomb planned parenthood clinics ar just being used?

[Cuban_Liberal]

35. It's not even remotely similar.

The Schindlers are not violent, for one, and for another, you cannot see into their hearts; I will never impute a malign intent in such a tragic sitation, absent clear evidence of one.

[UTUSN]

13. They Are the Key to a Sizable Bloc of Votes n/t

[dancingme]

15. Terri's mother admitted she does not care about Terri's pain

Mary Schindler, Terr's mother admitted under oath that she does not care about any pain experienced by Terri. From the August 12, 1999 deposition of Mary Schindler:

"Question. Well, in your mind, does there come a point in time when the experience of discomfort or pain on the part of the patient become a factor in deciding whether to remove life support?

Answer. No"

http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/Testimony%20of%20Father%20Gerard%20Murphy.doc

Read the Timeline in this link and the testimonyof the priest.

http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/timeline.htm

[Frances]

18. Have you heard one word about Tom DeLay's

ethical lapses or the trial in Texas of his friends in the last few days?

[Bridget Burke]

29. Nope. But we've been exposed to "Godly" Tom DeLay!

Such a moral man. How could he do wrong?