special edition
TERRI SCHIAVO: Disabled activist Mark Pickup appeals for continued pressure to save a Florida woman whose husband wishes to order her feeding tube removed. A judge has set an Oct. 15 date for that removal to happen. Terri Schiavo’s case is currently on appeal in the state court system. Pickup writes:
The image is etched in my memory of an exhausted and brokenhearted Bob and Mary Schindler showing up, unannounced, at a Charlotte, North Carolina hotel. They drove from Florida to plead with total strangers — who make the lofty claim to be pro-life — for help to save their disabled daughter, Terri Schiavo, from imposed death. As they presented their plea to me, I sat in my own wheelchair, looking impotently at my shoes. What could I, a foreigner from Canada, do for them?
I had just finished delivering an impassioned keynote speech to the 2001 U.S. National Right to Life prayer breakfast about building a culture of life that embraces and includes people with disabilities, the handicapped, the genetically flawed. Were all those high-minded words I’d just said to 800 people in the banquet hall untrue? I asked myself, “What would I do if Terri was my daughter?” Well, I would leave no stone unturned, no gate uncrashed, no door unopened in order to save her — just like the Schindlers were doing. If the practical outworking of my Christianity meant anything of substance, then I had to behave toward them in the same way I would want them to behave toward me, if I were in their position. The man on the street calls it the Golden Rule; the Christian calls it Luke 6.31.
I am asking you to increase pressure on Governor Jeb Bush to protect one of his own citizens (Terri Schiavo). Despite her disability, Terri has inalienable rights, and the first is the right to life. Why is it the first right? Because liberty and the pursuit of happiness are never found in a grave. If Terri has inalienable rights like the rest of humanity, then nobody has a right to take them from her. Or do inalienable rights exist everywhere except the state of Florida?
The unspeakable cruelties and medical neglect endured by Terri Schiavo for the past decade must stop now! Governor Bush must intervene or face the repudiation of people of good will in Florida, and abroad. Jurisdictional considerations, protocols and legal process be hanged! An innocent woman’s life is in danger. No civilized society can tolerate such odious violations of fundamental human rights against one of its citizens, disabled or not.
Shame on Florida! Shame on America! Shame to us all if we stay quiet while Terri is led to her death. Look at the website noted above then consider Proverbs 24:11-12. I fear we will not be held guiltless.
Write, phone, email again to Governor Bush. Be respectful but firm. Accept no excuses for not protecting Terri Schiavo with direct and decisive action. Address for Governor Bush is –
The Honorable Jeb Bush
Governor for the State of Florida
Office of the Governor
Florida Capitol Building, PL-05
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001e-mail:
phone: 850-488-7146
(Background: See the Schindler family’s web site, Terr’s Fight)