What we need in the Terri Schiavo Case is the wisdom of King Solomon to sort this one out because the Courts and the Congress just don’t have what it takes. The Left and the Right have very different perceptions of what is going on with Terri Schiavo down in Florida and it is most evident in their use of language.
The Left calls Terri Schiavo “brain dead” and “in a vegetative state” and the Right calls Terri Schiavo a responsive and loving daughter who only needs food and water to survive.
The Right calls Michael Schiavo a monster if not a murderer who just wants to get on with his life and the Left calls Mr. and Mrs. Schindler, Terri’s parents, loving but misguided parents who just can’t let go — and should.
When I started driving back and forth to Chapel Hill last month, I started listening to Savage, Reagan, and Humphries. They never stopped talking about Terri Schiavo.
It wasn’t until weeks later that the story got picked up by NPR and the more moderate and liberal news wires and programs such as CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, and even FoxNews.
Of course, what it all boils down to is the abortion issue. The Terri Schiavo Case is a back door to overturn Roe v Wade. The Right knows it. The Left knows it. It is the proxy issue.
If you can decide to terminate a life — even a life that only needs food and water and not a pacemaker or an iron lung — it really doesn’t matter how old that life is, according to the theory of the slippery-slope.
Also, according to the theory of the slippery slope, before we know it, everybody is going to be able to put anyone down, to terminate life willy-nilly.
The Right is comparing this slippery slope to the eugenics movement of the turn of last century that of course is best known for how it influenced decisions in Nazi Germany in the 30s. That the Schiavo Case is just a foxy way of bait and switching the issues, like a shell game. Scream right to die, scream quality of life and before you know it, everybody is frothing at the mouth. After the feeding frenzy, there will probably be a big enough of a chink in the armor of Right to Life that you could drive a truck through. A truck full of abortion lawyers that will not only allow Roe v Wade to stand but will allow the Government to terminate any expensive or resource-intensive “undesirables” who are caught in Hospice and the like.
(This is of course the same faction that supports capital punishment.)
The Left is comparing the slippery slope with a complete and overarching reclamation of the 1950s, when a woman did not own her own body and her reproductive rights. That the Schiavo Case is just a foxy way of bait and switching the issues, like a shell game. Scream eugenics, scream euthanasia and before you know it, everybody is frothing at the mouth. After the feeding frenzy, there will probably be a big enough of a chink in the armor of Roe v Wade that you could drive a truck through. A truck full of anti-abortion lawyers.
(This is of course the same faction that would never support capital punishment.)
Strangely, what bothers me is that when one is married, one apparently becomes possession of the other. To me, that is a seriously antiquated notion.
What the world needs now is a truly wise man. We really need King Solomon right now. Here’s the favorite Bible story highlighting King Solomon’s wisdom”
American King James Version
1 Kings 3:16-28
16Then came there two women, that were harlots, to the king, and stood before him. 17And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. 18And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. 19And this woman’ child died in the night; because she overlaid it. 20And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. 22And the other woman said, No; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son. And this said, No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king. 23Then said the king, The one said, This is my son that lives, and your son is the dead: and the other said, No; but your son is the dead, and my son is the living. 24And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. 25And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. 26Then spoke the woman whose the living child was to the king, for her bowels yearned on her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither my nor yours, but divide it. 27Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof. 28And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.
