Terri and Beyond II
Today's poem:
'Twas not a happy death
'Twasn't happy at all
Amid the spring and its joy
It cast a wintry pall
Amid the ire and shouting
Amid cries of "True" and "Untrue!"
No one could ever fully claim
The forgotten, the tragic, the real you
Today's thoughts:
So when the Schiavo case finally went national, my brothers and sisters of NDY strove to be part of the dialogue. But because most of them were in chairs, they were literally and figuratively overlooked by my brethren in the media. As a result and because Terri's blood kin pin their hopes on Republicans like Tom Delay (Why would anyone do that?), it became a red state/blue state issue and not a disability/human rights one.
So temporarily able-bodied progressives rallied around Michael Schiavo, a man so unlikeable as any you could meet because, they thought, if DeLay is agin him, the boy must be OK. Ninety-nine per cent of the time that would be good logic. Here it wasn't.
So my brethren in the media and t.a.b. progressives poo-poohed what my brothers and sisters were saying, which was: "If they can kill Terri today, they can kill us tomorrow."
They and I were told that was silly. However, in my state of Kansas a guardian can withhold medical treatment and even food and water from a person with a disability and she/he needn't be dying at the time. I wrote about this for The Wichita Eagle. It sparked no outcry. I'll tell you what did and what that says tomorrow.
Keep hoping.
'Twas not a happy death
'Twasn't happy at all
Amid the spring and its joy
It cast a wintry pall
Amid the ire and shouting
Amid cries of "True" and "Untrue!"
No one could ever fully claim
The forgotten, the tragic, the real you
Today's thoughts:
So when the Schiavo case finally went national, my brothers and sisters of NDY strove to be part of the dialogue. But because most of them were in chairs, they were literally and figuratively overlooked by my brethren in the media. As a result and because Terri's blood kin pin their hopes on Republicans like Tom Delay (Why would anyone do that?), it became a red state/blue state issue and not a disability/human rights one.
So temporarily able-bodied progressives rallied around Michael Schiavo, a man so unlikeable as any you could meet because, they thought, if DeLay is agin him, the boy must be OK. Ninety-nine per cent of the time that would be good logic. Here it wasn't.
So my brethren in the media and t.a.b. progressives poo-poohed what my brothers and sisters were saying, which was: "If they can kill Terri today, they can kill us tomorrow."
They and I were told that was silly. However, in my state of Kansas a guardian can withhold medical treatment and even food and water from a person with a disability and she/he needn't be dying at the time. I wrote about this for The Wichita Eagle. It sparked no outcry. I'll tell you what did and what that says tomorrow.
Keep hoping.
posted by DAVID P. RUNDLE at 1:33 PM
4 Comments:
I hope you write more about this case, for I haven't read enough opinion from the disability community's point of view.
It was buried beneath all of the media framing the case as a "culture wars" or "conservative/liberal" which was nothing of the kind.
ANY reading of the facts of the case would lead one to conclude a terrible injustice was done here, but unfortunately my side of the political spectrum--liberal and progressive--simply couldn't see past the right-to-life support of the Schindlers. Never mind the obvious shortcomings of the "loving husband," a man with no credibility and probably not all there mentally.
I don't know how much more there is to say but thanks.
I agree with you. Where are you and what's your story?
I live in Reno, Nevada.
I am not disabled, but I am interested in reading about disability rights issues.
Thanks. The topic will recur.
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