Meshuggenah does a Public Service Announcement
Necessary Disclaimer: I’m going to take a brief departure here from the regularly scheduled programming of angst, creative fluff and nothingness, and restaurant reviews and show that I am not completely and totally oblivious to all current events. I’m also going to express my political opinion here which I don’t normally do. If this isn’t your bag don’t read this post.
This Terry Schiavo feeding tube story has me completely riled up. Yes, I’m tired of hearing about it and so are you however we all need to 1. be completely outraged by the media coverage and the stand the Republican Party has taken on this issue and 2. learn from it. The notion that the Republican Party, and most notably the unfortunate inhabitant of the oval office, feels they’re “[erring] on the side of life” is completely outrageous to me. I suppose they are if one defines life as no consciousness and the inability to feed oneself. Boy, that’s really living, isn’t it? Even if we don’t get into the issue of quality of life or debate what persistent vegetative state means there’s still the larger issue at hand: it is so dangerous for us to allow the government to tread in such a personal arena. If Congress can legislate to force hearings on re-inserting the feeding tube in a woman who has been in a vegetative state for 15 years imagine what else they could do to impact how we choose to live our lives. There could be hearings on mandatory prayer in public schools, abortion rights, etc. The list could go on forever. Don’t let it.
Next would be the lesson. You may say I don’t see where there’s a lesson here. The lesson is GET A LIVING WILL. I have one and so should you. I think you can even have them drawn up over the internet now. There’s no excuse.
This Terry Schiavo feeding tube story has me completely riled up. Yes, I’m tired of hearing about it and so are you however we all need to 1. be completely outraged by the media coverage and the stand the Republican Party has taken on this issue and 2. learn from it. The notion that the Republican Party, and most notably the unfortunate inhabitant of the oval office, feels they’re “[erring] on the side of life” is completely outrageous to me. I suppose they are if one defines life as no consciousness and the inability to feed oneself. Boy, that’s really living, isn’t it? Even if we don’t get into the issue of quality of life or debate what persistent vegetative state means there’s still the larger issue at hand: it is so dangerous for us to allow the government to tread in such a personal arena. If Congress can legislate to force hearings on re-inserting the feeding tube in a woman who has been in a vegetative state for 15 years imagine what else they could do to impact how we choose to live our lives. There could be hearings on mandatory prayer in public schools, abortion rights, etc. The list could go on forever. Don’t let it.
Next would be the lesson. You may say I don’t see where there’s a lesson here. The lesson is GET A LIVING WILL. I have one and so should you. I think you can even have them drawn up over the internet now. There’s no excuse.
posted by Michelle at 3:24 PM
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