And I watched my sister die.
So I feel some slight kinship with him. But here are some big differences:
No one offered a bounty for my killing.
No Governor threatened to take my loved one away from me by force.
No House Majority Leader said my loved one's impending death was "to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America."
No media let dubious people lie on national TV about my loved one's condition.
No right wing nut jobs accused Republican judges of killing my loved one.
No compulsive gambler said that the aforementioned Governor should follow a higher law, conflating such action with M. L. King's civil disobedience.
No POTUS with so much blood on his hands said we should "err on the side of life."
No far right think tanks spent over six figures to publicize my loved one's impending death.
No hypocrite responsible for abortion clinic doctor's deaths coordinated the media coverage.
No idiot let their ten year old son be arrested for trying to bring water.
No news media stopped all other coverage (Darfur, Abu Ghraib, Plame, Iraq, North Korea, etc.) to cover my family's tragedy.
No newspaper owned by a megalomaniac cult leader called me a worm.
No Senator, also a physician, did a long distance misdiagnosis of my loved one.
No Congressperson or Senator called for my loved one's feeding to continue while voting to slash Medicaid funds.
No clergy person compared my loved one's impending death, possibly on Easter weekend, to that of Jesus, calling it a modern day crucifixion.
No politicians had to look at national polls to figure out that were sticking their noses into my family's business.
No other family members held out delusional hopes that my loved one would recover.
No right wing radio wacko said this: "I advocate the use of force to rescue Terri Schiavo from being starved to death. I further advocate the killing of anyone who interferes with such rescue."
I can't imagine what Michael Schiavo is going through. I know how my sister's death affected my family, and we didn't have the goulish and insane media scrutiny, and the hate, both honest and contrived, heaped upon us.
I just wish the politicians who have used this for their own agenda could have the opportunity to feel what Michael Schiavo is feeling. Perhaps in the face of their own impending personal tragedy they would find some shred of human decency.
But probably not.
1 comment:
A very good summary. I have had relatives and friends die with the aid of hospice, and the country must be in some deep state of denial over what happens every day in the deaths of ordinary people to allow the perpetuation of so many blatant lies.
I just stopped by to say hello, I like your blog a lot and link to it on mine.
Jane
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