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The News You Can Use Or You'll Lose (So Go Choose)
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.
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
"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. :)
no subject
It's those differences that sort of make the whole thing really suspicious.
no subject
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
no subject
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?
no subject
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.