A disgrace and a tragedy

Last night, while you and I were sleeping, our democracy weakened. This is a quick post before I go to work, but I'm simply outraged. Terry Schiavo told her soulmate, her husband, not once but repeatedly, that she didn't want to be kept alive by machines if something happened to her. Well, something happened, and she's been kept alive by machines for fifteen (15) years. Her husband has been offered millions to drop the case - he's declined. Her husband has been urged by Terri's parents to let them take care of her - he's refused. Why? Because it was her wish not to be kept alive like this - not by him, and not by her parents. But especially not by the likes of Bill Frist and George W. Bush. Nor Tom Reynolds or Brian Higgins, for that matter. Last night, both houses of our congress passed a law to keep Terry Schiavo alive artificially, and to send her case to a federal judge for yet more hearings. Vacation-lovin' George W. Bush cut short his weekend in Crawford to fly back to Washington so he could sign the bill into law at about 1:30 a.m. This is a president whose normal bedtime is 10pm. This unprecedented and cynical federal intervention into a family's private matter should be deplored bipartisanly. The federal government should not bust its way into this sort of issue, which has already been subject to hearings and trials and decisions and appeals, and even the macabre spectacle of the congress subpoenaing Terri Schiavo, whose brain is not functioning, to "testify" before a Senate panel. Macabre. I don't care if you're pro-life or pro-choice. I don't care if you're pro-death penalty or anti-death penalty. I don't care if you're Christian or Jewish or Muslim. For the federal government to intervene in this way is simply disgusting. It's a tragedy. It's also quite abusive to Terri Schiavo herself.