The News You Can Use Or You'll Lose (So Go Choose)

[hkellick]

Alot of interesting things happening around the world and I wanted to touch base on some of them.

Everyone's talking about Terri Schiavo. I've seen two people, so far, commenting about how terrible it is for the religious right and the republicans to be backing the parents, instituting a law that gives the parents a chance to save Terri's life... well, except that the judge wants nothing to do with it.
Let's move past the politics. The politics is, to me, a smoke screen for what's really going on.
Not that I have any idea what's really going on. I don't think anyone does.
It's difficult to get the real story here and that's truly worrisome. If you listen to Terri's husband, the facts are... Terri's a vegetable, incapable of knowing what's going on around her. If you listen to Terri's parents, she's.. half-baked? She's capable of knowing and understand what's going on around her, but not responding fully. And of course.. no one REALLY knows what's going on inside Terri's head but Terri and she can't tell anyone.
I question everyone's motives.. ESPECIALLY the husband.
So.. we have Mike. Mike has been suffering for 14 years, taking care of a wife who is severely brain damaged. Except.. he hasn't been. He hasn't taken care of his wife... she's received no treatment, per se, just a clean bed and a feeding tube... also Mike has been getting some on the side.. enough, apparently, to have given birth to two new children.
And then there's the manner of her "execution": dying by starving to death.
This is the part that twists in my stomach.. and why I agree (and god knows, I nearly never do) with the religious right.
Terri's husband, Mike, wants her to die by starvation. That means unless the judge changes his mind that the WORLD will watch Terri get weaker and weaker, less and less present.. for WEEKS.. until she dies.
I can't quite wrap my mind around how ANYONE.. how Mike, how the judge, how ANYONE could be OK with Terri Schiavo dying by Starvation. What an inhumane way to die. For god's sake Mike, you assumedly loved her once, can't you let her find a better way to die?
So, for the record, Mike wins the "Heartless Bastard of the Year" award. This guy goes into my personal hell. I know, Mike, that if I was your lady love, I'd take the kids and run. Because I'd hate to be your wife if I should have some sort of catastrophic accident.

Anyways.. my point is.. I agree with the right wingers this time around. What Mike wants to do is wrong. This is just wrong. I know that eventually that law might come around to bite someone else in a different position, but right here, right now, it was the right thing to do.
And, by and by, guys and gals, if you don't have a living will.. consider making one. Seriously. You never know WHEN something life threatning could happen to you. K and I talked about making living wills once we move in together. I plan to hold her to that.

Then there's Buffalo.
I wrote a post a couple weeks about the sad state of Erie County.
It's not getting better.
I check up on buffalonews.com as often as I can to see what the latest county scandal is.. and there's plenty.
The latest scandal.. and this one hits the bottom hard.. is about the county building in Buffalo running out of Toilet Paper because the vendors were paid late. Apparently things got so bad that, for a day or two, people brought in their own wipes.
Yes, i am serious. Here is a link to the story. or this editorial.
But never fear.. because the county figured out a way to keep it's golf courses open.
Good to see where our priorities are.
Then of course, there's the fact that Legislature Chairman George A. Holt Jr., a big champion of raising Erie County Sales Tax, couldn't bother to pay sales tax on his restaurant.
And that the County Comptroller has probably been mishandly loans, costing the county even more money.
All in all, many of these things are small and stupid. The restaurant owner, the mishandling of loans.. but right now.. well.. put yourself in the shoes of a typical citizen. Six months ago, the county proposed a 1% hike in sales tax (bringing it to 9.25% Sales Tax), it gets voted down and suddenly the county shuts down. The local paper has made a point of keeping tabs on every move Erie County makes.. 150 jobs lost at the Medical Center, closing of DMV offices, closing of county parks.. and then the scandals begin... County Executive Joel Giambra was paying some guy $80,000 a year to be his driver (this one's my favorite)... allegations of abuse while Joel Giambra screams "No, it's not that. It's that we suddenly have to put down a lot more money to pay for medical coverage of our citizens!"
Two new taxpayer advocacy groups have sprung up: Primary Challenge and Free Buffalo. Their ranks are bloated and there's still a whole bunch of people volunteering their time and efforts to help these groups clamp down on fiscal abuse.. and to kick the incumbents out of office.
I feel a certain sort of glee reading through this news. Buffalo and, more or less by extension, Erie County have been spiraling down the tubes for a while now. It reminds me of something Dr. Lockwood said.. She said Washington DC was a city of imports.. you weren't FROM DC.. you just lived there. Buffalo is a city of exports.. you're from Buffalo.. but you don't live there. There's no jobs, the city school district sucks and everyone in that city knows it.. and that's a huge shame because Buffalo is a NICE city. If a blizzard happened in DC and I got stuck in a snow bank, I seriously doubt anyone would help get me out.. but that HAS Happened in Buffalo because we have a small town mentality. In a lot of ways, Buffalo reminds me of a big college town... Buffalo has the Sabers, the Bills... and a whole lot of pride, but not much else.
I don't know if clamping down on fiscal irresponsibility will ever bring jobs back to Buffalo/Erie County.. or people back to Buffalo.. but it might help slow the decline. And that, for me, is a good thing.


OK. I'm done rambling for now.

Comments

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

I have refrained from commenting on the Terri situation, because I didn't know the details. I still wouldn't like to say what should be done with Terri.

However, nomatter if her husband or her parents are right, removing her feeding tube is NOT the way to go. Euthenasia is one thing, subjecting somebody to starve to death is QUITE another.

I hope there's somebody out there with sufficient power to do something about it, who realizes this before it's too late.

[lite.livejournal.com]

I agree. That's what bothers me the most about this case. The way she's going to die. Like I said.. she'll just get weaker and weaker for the next few WEEKS until she dies.
Gah! How can EVERYONE be so inhumane?
Even if she WAS a vegetable, it's still inhumane! Like I said, we're more humane to our pets!

[phoenixsong]

Her parents have supposedly told her husband, several times over, that if he wanted to give up caring for her, they'd gladly take over that responsibility and he wouldn't have to do anything for her ever again. He won't take the offer.

Also, according to http://www.terrisfight.org, the reason "Terri can't get a divorce" is because her husband is her legal guardian, therefore she can't do anything unless he allows it.

Ugh.

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

Wow.

That's a horse of a different color.

Why didn't they put THAT out in the public eye? Say THAT to a reporter, and watch Michael Schiavo's public rep go down the toilet.

Instead of "culture of life", how about culture of "her husband's an asshole!"?

[lite.livejournal.com]

Do you know.. i think it's because of politics.
The right wingers are behind the parents (again, I agree with them.) So the liberal media has to be against it.

No one has come out and said what an asshole her husband is. But... again, go to http://www.terrisfight.net/ and read another side.. her husband won't let her get any sort of treatment. He's got two kids by another woman.. you have to ask yourself what his motives ARE?

My answer is.. he's a low life scum.

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

Gaaaah.

This should not be a political issue.

I think Terri's parents are being manipulated too.

[lite.livejournal.com]

I agree. The politics are clouding over the issue.
This isn't about euthanization versus respect of life. This is about how Terri's husband wants to be a widower so he can marry the other woman in his life and Terri's parents just want their daughter to live.

[sisterred.livejournal.com]

One has to wonder just what the "loving husband" would gain by sticking around through her death. He's so anxious to off her... I just wonder why.

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, totally James. It doesn't make any sense at all, you know? Esp. if the 'rents will take care of her.

[sisterred.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Her parents have said over and over that they take full responsibility for her... but he just wants to off her... It's very fishy.

I can't say for sure what I would do if I were in that situation, but I would hope that someone would fight for me... not just give me up to a slow and very horrible death--morphine or no morphine.

[lite.livejournal.com]

I imagine.. the chance to marry the mother of his two children?
Possibly some of the money from the lawsuit, but I highly doubt it anymore. I imagine taking care of Terri is VERY expensive.
Possibly losing the money drain involved in taking care of Terri.

I'm not sure I fully get his motives either, but as I said.. it's hard to figure out what's really going on.

[sisterred.livejournal.com]

If he wants to marry the mother of his two children, he can give up his rights to be Terri's legal guardian, and then go for a divorce. It's not impossible to go before a judge to move guardianship rights, if he really wants to wash his hands of her and move on with his life.

You're right, there are so many factors that make it impossible for us as outsiders to know what's truly going on, but there are other options for her. She has two loving parents who are willing to shoulder her responsibility. It takes a very strong person to give up their life to help take care of a loved one... They should have that right if they are willing to face all the consequences involved. Terri will probably never get better, but she shouldn't be starved to death just so the husband can go on with his new woman and their two kids with a less burdened conscious.

[lite.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly on pretty much everything you said above.

[sisterred.livejournal.com]

Wow... Careful, I'm not used to having people agree with me!

[lite.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I'm already taken ;)

[sisterred.livejournal.com]

So am I :)

I'm just not used to having people agree with me :-P
Even my boyfriend likes to argue with all my points... though I think he just does it to see how long it takes to get a rise out of me :)

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

WHAT?!

That's just disgusting! So basically he wants Terri to die? It's not even a matter of having had enough of taking care of her?

That's... that's... I'm at a loss for a word strong enough. Disgusting, vile, evil don't even begin to cover it.

[janinedog]

I don't know all the details, but...

First of all, it's illegal to give her a lethal injection, so that won't happen. I highly doubt anyone will make a law just for her to get a lethal injection, because the people who support that are not as vocal as the people who want her to live.

Second, she is missing pretty much all of her cerebral cortex, which means she cannot think like a normal person can. It is very likely that even if she could -feel- the pain of dehydration (not starvation...she was never getting food), her brain would not be able to parse it, and as such she wouldn't know she was in pain. She wouldn't understand it.

But, from what I've heard, they give her morphine or something like that while the tube is out, which will get rid of the pain just in case she can feel it. It may be a long way to die, but given the state she's in, I highly doubt she can feel or understand what is happening to her.

[phoenixsong]

she is missing pretty much all of her cerebral cortex

Huh? Not to be confrontational, just that it's new information to me. Most of what I've heard is that between her husband and Judge Greer, there's a lot of testing that's never been done to determine her current condition.

[janinedog]

Just googling I get:

"For the last 15 years, she's been in a state where nothing that happens to her can hurt or harm her," Prof. Schafer said from Winnipeg. "She has no thoughts, no feelings, no sensations because her cerebral cortex has turned to mush. When that happens, her biological life will continue, but the person who was their daughter has ceased to exist."

Doctors have said that she has a severely damaged cerebral cortex, the brain's center for intelligence, personality and sensation.

Brain scans show that the area of the brain responsible for higher thinking, the cerebral cortex, has suffered severe atrophy and has been replaced by liquid.

What defines a persistent vegetative state is that the cerebral cortex, the seat of human personality, has been massively damaged, usually from the cutoff of oxygen. The complex cell structures that control thought, sensation, memory and emotion are destroyed, even liquefied. [...] Electrical monitoring of Schiavo’s brain has revealed no activity in the cerebral cortex. The blinks and other movements of her eyes, the occasional smiles, the sleep-wake pattern are all typical of a vegetative condition, manifesting reflex reactions, not consciousness.

Obviously, I don't know how accurate everything is, but I suppose it's a case of who you choose to believe. :)

[lite.livejournal.com]

Check out this website. It seems to completely clash with alot of the news the media has: Terri's Fight (http://www.terrisfight.net/)

It's those differences that sort of make the whole thing really suspicious.

[lite.livejournal.com]

Also, this website IS owned and operated by supporters of the parents AND Terribly biased, but that said.. this is an interesting read. Especially when the facts this website lays out fly in the face of the mainstream media.

[janinedog]

Personally, I'm more inclined to believe the media in this case. I read through the "myths about Terri" on that site, and some other things. Even though they don't explicitly say it, I'm pretty sure that site is run by conservative Christians (see the "keeping the faith" section, where's there's a way to share a prayer about Terri), who are definitely going to be biased. Sure, the media can be biased too, but I have yet to see any of the media give the sort of information in that site.

We'll probably never know what's really going on with her. It's just a matter of who you choose to believe. From what I've read, I personally am of the belief that she will not ever recover, and that she cannot understand things going on around her. But, some people think she can understand and just can't communicate it.

[phoenixsong]

Well, Catholics -- or at least Terri & her family are Catholic. They're now also saying that cutting off her food & water goes against Catholic doctrine.

Leaving the religious and legal arguments aside, I still don't think starvation is a humane way to die. She may not consciously know what's going on -- I'm not sold one way or another on what she's capable of understanding -- but the effects on her body will be the same, which I think makes it all the more cruel.

[lite.livejournal.com]

That's the point that bothers me the most too... the inhumane way she's going to die... weakening, wasting away... It's just... wrong.

[lite.livejournal.com]

First off... Janine, what if that were Marky on the bed. Put yourself in the situation. Would you be willing to let Marky just starve.. even if you thought he was incapable of "Thinking like the rest of us" (Which hasn't been proved because the husband's doctors say he's a vegetable and the parents' doctors say she isn't totally and I don't honestly know what the truth is.

I also have a major issue with your premise that.. she's missing her cerebral cortex.. she's a vegetable.. she doesn't think like us.. therefore it's OK to kill her in this manner.
I'm suddenly remembering freshmen ethics class when we discussed abortion and how you define a person.
It seems that your answer is.. she's not a person, so as long as she feels no pain, it's OK to kill her like this. She doesn't understand what's going on anyways.
What makes her not a person? Why is it OK to let her die that way?

More to the point, what's the real harm of letting her parents take care of Terri? They want to do it. They've been fighting in court for YEARS to do it. So why should we, as Americans, believe the right answer is to let her die?

[janinedog]

I think she should be allowed to die because if I were in her position, I would want to die. I talked to Marky about it, and if he were in her position, he would want to die too. What's the point of living if you can't understand what's happening around you, and there's pretty much no chance you will ever recover? In my opinion, she's pretty much dead already, except for the fact that she has reflexes and possibly can do some basic things.

If her parents do take care of her, how long will they let her live for? Her entire life? I cringe at the thought of having to live that way for the rest of my life. I would rather be let go.

Also, part of the reason I believe it's the right thing to do is that the courts have decided it's the right thing to do (multiple times). This case has been looked out inside out, and so there must be a reason they've always said the tube should be removed.

All that said, the biggest issue I have with all of this is that it's an issue at all. It should not be such a big deal in the country right now. This is a personal family thing. What if Terri does "wake up" one day and finds out that the whole world knows her name? Somehow I doubt she'd want that.

[peachtess.livejournal.com]

On the subject of Terri I found a very good unbiased site with information about the case. Its a blog written by a lawyer in Florida who comments on the legal aspects of the case. Its very informative and even provides court documents to read for yourself. Its as unbiased as it gets or at the very least a whole lot more unbiased then any site put up on behalf of Terri's parents or her husband.
So before comment further on things like "bastard of the year awards" I really encourage you to read this information page (http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html).

[mythagon.livejournal.com]

One thought, and I don't know if it's true or not, but it is a possibility for what is going on:

before her accident, terri and husband discussed what they would want to happen to them in the event of vegetablization and she stated adamently that she would rather die than go on living.

Husband is trying to carry out her wishes and won't let the parents have custody b/c he _knows_ what she would have wanted. You can't give someone leathal injection in Florida, so the only way for her to die is to stop giving her food. I'm going to doubt that she's in pain, b/c that would be all over the conservative media (i.e. fox news) if it were true. Assuming she can even still feel pain, she's probably being given morphine or the equivalent. Given the options, this is the only way she can die.

Personally, if it was death by starvation or being a vegetable, i would rather die. I will not be kept alive by machines when my mind is that gone.

I agree that it is possible he is an ass, but I also think it is possible that he loves her very much and is doing everything he can to follow through on what he knows she would want.

Just a thought.

[lite.livejournal.com]

It's certainly possible that he's trying to be the good guy. Again, my information is limited and it's difficult to discern the truth among the various statements.

The problem, again, is the lack of a living will.

Personally, I'm trying to make sense of the whole thing and that's a very difficult thing to do given the amount of misinformation and my general mistrust in American mainstream media. I'm trying to determine what the motives might be.

On one hand, you have a husband who is saying "let her die". On the other hand, you have parents saying "No. We'll take care of her. Let us take care of her." The parents are saying the husband is refusing help for Terri (I actually believe this one. I suspect that, assuming Michael loved Terri, he gave up hope when various doctors told him what Janine said above.. that his wife's body is a mere shell and that his WIFE is gone. And if he doesn't love her/the allegations that he beat her are true (I honestly don't know. This one seems like it came out of left field.).. well.. that speaks for itself...)
On the other hand, you have her parents who have not given up hope and who may mistakenly believe (No idea, honestly, if it's a mistake or not.) that there may be a way for Terri to be Terri again and want that chance.

I'm trying to see past that, to the motives.. to the fact that everyone in this case is a faulty humans with their own motives. And it seems that Terri's parents motives seem pretty clear but Michael's less so.

Maybe, in Florida, the only way to let someone die is to, in this case, just take out her feeding tube. It's been pointed out (again, I have no idea) that injections are illegal and the web site peachtess points to says that taking out the feeding tube is, at least in law, synonymous to just ending life support.
If that's true.. if this is the most humane way Flordia has to let someone die, then Shame on Florida (shame on Florida anyways. I'm beginning to strongly dislike the State of Florida as a whole and it's not just because Jeb Bush is still governor.) and maybe that's what we, the public, should be conentrating on.. trying to get Florida to allow more humane ways to die instead of whether or not Terri lives.

As the facts lie now, though... I want to condemn the husband because the parents are begging him to let them take control and he is stubbornly refusing. Maybe you are right.. maybe Terri wouldn't want to live like this. I think it's the stubborness that makes it easy to villify him.

In the end, it's difficult to tell. I don't know if the motives I attribute to people are true. I have NO idea what Terri would want, but when you come down to it.. Michael is letting Terri die in a very inhumane way.
I'm not sure Terri would have wanted this either.

[phoenixsong]

OK, I've read at least the general timeline on the site peachtess posted. It certainly seems at least mostly unbiased, from a legal standpoint. (Not to mention, the timeline is easier to follow than the legal one on "Terri's Fight.")

Put it this way: if we were married, you were trying to let me go because there was little-to-no hope of my recovering, and my mother tried to fight it, would you say that was grounds for your guardianship of me to be terminated? No matter how well intentioned my parents were in the offer to take care of me, if you were POSITIVE I wouldn't want to live under those circumstances.

I'm asking mostly because peachtess' site's legal documentation (PDFs of the actual decisions) directly contradicts the parents' claim that the husband has never done anything in the way of care or rehabilitation.

*sigh* I still don't like the idea of a starvation death. But if my brain was half-rotted away, and I was only partially aware of my environment, I don't think I'd want to keep living like that, either. I risked the volume (which was actually pretty low) and watched the videos on the parents' site earlier today, and that's what I'm seeing. Not someone who has any cognizance "That's my mom, this is my family, I'm in a hospice/nursing home, I want XYZ." I see someone reacting at a pretty basic level, maybe even a trained level -- but not actively capable of want or complex recognition.

I feel for the parents, but I'm becoming more convinced they're grasping at straws in any hope for a meaningful recovery -- especially by bringing the Pope into it. (Yes, though not directly, just one of his writings on "This is what Catholics should believe.") peachtess's site shows they don't just want her to live, but actually expect a meaningful recovery. At this point, even if there was cognitive therapy that might have been helpful, it's many years too late if parts of her brain have dissolved.

In short, the media's done a terrible job of giving any real in-depth coverage to any of this. They're going for the emotional sensationalism (regardless of left-or-right bias), and I'm currently pretty disgusted it's gotten this much publicity with so little actual content. s:P~

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

That's what my husband said too. I was appalled when he said, he didn't object to the husband's actions, but with this reasoning, it makes sense. I really, really, REALLY hope you're right!

[mythagon.livejournal.com]

I really hope those are his motives as well. Very few people probably truely know what's really going on, and the media cares only for what will sell best, not the truth. If he's fighting tooth and nail for what he _knows_ his wife would have wanted, I salute him. If he just wants her to die because he's tired of dealing with it all, I'll take off his man-bits myself.

In the end, I only know that I wouldn't want to live that way. And that I would never want the government involved.

[neutralface.livejournal.com]

To be honest...I just couldnt miss a opportunity to make fun of anorexics. Thats it.

...nf...

[lite.livejournal.com]

Actually, I thought they were thinking she was a bulimic, not an anorexic. She doused assloads of Iced Tea and then... possibly regurgitated.

[phoenixsong]

The iced tea would have been an attempt to get rid of water weight, I imagine, being a diuretic.