3/22/2005

Sanity

The Federal Judge in Florida to whom the Schiavo case has been assigned has refused to grant a temporary injunction to force insertion of the feeding tube. From what little I could glean from our execrable 24-news channels, there appear to have been three main arguments that the family made; 1. That Terri's 1st amendment right to religious freedom is being violated; 2. That she is being denied equal protection of the law; 3. That there is an imminent risk of irreperable harm, and that she would succeed on the merits at trial, which would result in permanent and perpetual injunctive relief. The problem for Terri's parents is that the defendants in the case are Terri's husband and legal guardian, and the hospice in which she exists, (I would hardly call what Terri is experiencing "living"), are not state entities. Therefore, the constitutional arguments don't apply. I know my post is incomplete, and I'll post anew when I've read the decision, but thank God that we have an independent judiciary that is unswayed by political machinations and prejudices. When the whole federal case - which is an illegal and unconstitional construct by Congress - is through, and the same result is reached as in Florida, what will the religious fundamentalist theocrats do then? Is a theocratic revolution in the offing? I think the Schiavo matter just may be the tipping point that turns public opinion against the theocracy that the entire right wing noise machine wants to foist on America. I feel so very deeply and strongly against the creeping intrusion of relgious dogma and orthodoxy into American polity, that I would sooner emigrate than live under the type of Talibanic regime envisioned by the likes of Bill Frist, Tom Delay, and others. Lucky for me I live in a border town.

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