Terri Schiavo one year later: a memoir of the event

This is the first anniversary of the controversy over the death of Terri Schiavo on March 31, 2005. I did not have much to say about the controversy while it raged across the nation, for it struck a very deep and sensitive emotional nerve. Even though I had a strong opinion about it, I could not write much that was not emotionally laden. After one year, I will venture an opinion about the event if only to discover whether my emotions have subsided.

I was once faced with making the decision on whether to keep a beloved family member alive or not—someone condemned to spend the rest of her days on life support in a brain damaged vegetative state. There are few more gut wrenching and soul searching experiences. My heart goes out to all those who are confronted with the same terrible decision, regardless of what they decide.

Everyone, it seemed, had their opinion about what ought to be done with Terri Schiavo. It is a so called free country.

The President of the United States and Congress should have maintained cooler heads than the rest of the country. Instead they responded with demagoguery. They interrupted their holidays to take a side in the case. Some, like Tom Delay, rejoiced in exciting the nation’s passions. Tom judged Michael Schiavo an evil man willing to kill his wife for money. Tom knew the Schiavo case was why people murdered judges in cold blood.

Tom Delay was later discovered to have taken his father off life support in a situation similar to Terri Schiavo’s. I have no words to explain the joy I felt when I learned he was not only a demagogue, but an unrepentant hypocrite. And as for all the others who participated in the despicable enterprise, I wish someone would find skeletons in their closets too.

While this was happening, medical care spending was cut for children living in poverty. So much for the right to life. An autopsy showed that half of Ms. Schiavo's brain tissue was dead and she was blind. It was shortly before those same people would remain on holiday during one of the nation's greatest natural disasters, one claiming thousands of lives and creating untold suffering.

I would become a true believer again if someone convinced me they would burn in Hell for eternity. But that is just my passions getting the better of me even after a year has passed. Yes, I took the President’s and Congress’s behavior personally. The President and the Congress invaded the most intimate parts of our lives. Incompetence and corruption reached a new zenith in an atmosphere resembling that of a three ring circus. I was enraged.

In my more sober and reflective moods, it doesn’t bother me much. I know I am a better person than they are. I would never sell my soul for a few votes and a couple of points in the opinion polls.

The irony is that the event started public resentment against the disaster known as the Bush Administration.

I’m not angry anymore. The Hell I ain’t. I hope their opinion poll numbers drop to zero, and they never hold public office again. As for their place in eternity, I’ll leave that to the capable hands of their god.