3/20/05 01:14 am
I feel compelled to write this, cause I'm pissed off. Not cause George Carlin canceled his show in Erie, and we didn't find out about it till we were at the box office to get them. Not at Ticketmaster for being morons.
No, I feel compelled to write about the disgusting abuse of power the United States Congress is putting on display for America and the world. If you've been alive the past week or so, you'll know that Terri Schiavo, a woman who has been in a persistant vegatative state (due to complications after a heart attack) for more than 10 years had the feeding tube keeping her alive removed yesterday. For those unfamiliar with the case, this woman has no cognative function, no motor activity and no response to external stimuli. In other words, except for technology, this woman is not alive in any way recognized by medical science.
Her husband, who has legal guardianship over her, has been fighting for most of those 10 years to have the technology keeping her "alive" removed, so she may die in peace. The husband, Michael Schiavo says that this was Terri's wish all along, and she would not wish to remain in the state she is in. There is no known medical science that can help this woman function in any way, and the chances of her recovery are almost nonexistant, given the length of time she's been in her current condtion.
The abuse of power comes from the fact that a local Florida court, a Federal Court, the Supreme Court of Florida and the US Supreme Court have all reviewed this case, and in every review, the finding is that Terri's feeding tube should be removed, and she should be allowed to die in peace. The Republican party has decided that this is not acceptable, and have tried every avenue to keep Terri alive. CNN is now reporting that the Congress will meet in special session tomorrow to pass a bill allowing yet another hearing in Federal Court on the case. This is after another last-ditch effort where the House supoenaed Terri to testify at a hearing later in the month. A woman with no cognative function. Testifying at a hearing. The reason? Becuase you can't do something that might kill someone under supoena. When this latest effort was thrown out by a judge, the Republicans now try this.
This is disgusting, wrong and outrageous. The right wing of politics, which more and more is representing the only wing of politics in this country, is trying to force their own values on every American. That's so far beyond wrong that I'm at a loss for words as to how to describe it. I cannot, for the life of me, reason how this action is in the public interest. The Republicans have to understand somehow that just because they control two branches of government, it does not give them the right to try and strong arm the third branch. Read the fucking Federalist Papers, the Notes from the Constitutional Convention, and the fucking Constitution itself. This is not how this country was designed to work, and we may not survive this latest attempt by an extreme faction to undermine the basic prinicples of democracy.
And we wonder why the world doesn't like us. A shining beacon of liberty my ass.
working, literally...
relieved
miserable