Terri Has the Victory, We Have the Fight

A sweet child of God has passed into eternity, sent there by those who showed her only cruelty in her last days. She is now in the comforting arms of One who knows exactly what she's been through. For her there is no more pain, no more tears, no more injustice. May God give strength and hope to the Schindler family now. May their sacrifice and Terri's not be in vain. I for one will never forget how this struggle jarred me out of my disbelief that this kind of injustice could ever happen in America. I am hereafter resolved that no doctor, no judge, no one but the Creator has authority to dictate "quality of life." Laws need to change, hearts need to change, and the culture of death must be defeated.

An Iron Will to Live

For ten days now, Terri Schiavo has miraculously stayed alive with no life support, no food, and no water, utterly confounding those who insist she wants to die.

The latest extraordinary testimony to Terri's will to live comes from two friends who visited Terri yesterday and witnessed a very personal and heart-rending recollection of their friendship. The Miami Herald published a partial account this morning and Blogs for Terri provides it here:

http://www.blogsforterri.com/archives/2005/
03/terri_schiavos_4.php#more

If Terri's superhuman endurance is not sufficient evidence of a will to live, consider the following cases of the human ability to hold on to life.

My grandfather had bone marrow cancer for more than a decade. He also had emphysema and lost most of his ability to swallow. While he and Grandma lived with my mother, my sister, and I for almost two years, he had many periods of incoherency and extreme agitation during which we thought he was about to die, but he didn't. Grandpa always had goals, things he wanted to live to see, the last of which was my wedding. I had doubts he would live that long, but he was there with Grandma that day in 1992, somehow slightly less feeble than he had been the previous week. He reminisced with Grandma about their wedding day more than 69 years before. He ate a pureed dinner at our reception, then his caregiver, Mary, drove him home. As she put him to bed that night, she said, "I'll see you in the morning, Howard." He replied, "I won't be here." He died that night.

I was tempted to think it was just coincidental, but why did he say he wanted to live to see the wedding, then die just after he fulfilled that goal?

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
- John 19:28-30

Jesus endured until his work was completed, then by His will, gave up his spirit. Grandpa held on until he was ready to give up his spirit.

If Terri did not want to live, she would have given up her spirit days, perhaps months, perhaps years ago, but she has not. What but a will to live can explain her survival? Terri is fighting valiantly, for what, we ask? Continued suffering? Who is anyone to judge for her whether her life is worth living? Verdicts be damned! She wants to live!

The testimony by Terri's friends is new evidence that Terri's wishes have been betrayed by her custodian, Michael Schiavo. For the preservation of human rights, Gov. Jeb Bush can still act. This morning I called his office (850-488-4441 or 850-488-2272) urging him to investigate this latest testimony as new evidence in this case that has not been previously considered. I also sent him the following e-mail (mailto:jeb.bush@myflorida.com):

E-mail to Gov. Jeb Bush:

Governor Bush:

Please investigate the accounts by Terri’s Schiavo’s friends who visited her yesterday. This is clearly new evidence that Terri is fighting to stay alive. These accounts were not known at the time of any of the previous appeals and they warrant emergency intervention pending a review of this new evidence. History will vindicate any action you take as an effort to preserve the human rights of a person misrepresented by her custodians.

Furthermore, on the basis of this new evidence, I urge you to order an autopsy, should Terri die, that history will know whether the judgments in this case were correct.

No criminal can be put to death in this country unless their guilt is proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. This latest testimony casts more than a shadow on the testimony against Terri Schiavo (who of course is not a criminal and is therefore that much more entitled to protection of the law), and must be considered. The appeals process is too slow to act on this with the urgency it requires. For the sake of all that this country was founded on, please use the full powers of your office to order that food and water be restored to Terri while this new testimony is considered. I thank you for all that you have done for Terri, but I submit that your part in this is not over. This is a critical time for the conscience of Florida and the entire U.S. Do state’s rights overrule human rights? You know that you have a higher calling than that to which you have answered so far. Please have the courage to do what you know is right.

A person in your state is desperately fighting to live, defying all odds against her. You cannot with a clear conscience deny that Ms. Schiavo’s endurance is evidence in and of itself of her will to live. There are no artificial means whatsoever keeping her alive – it is by will alone she has survived this long and she continues to demonstrate that her wishes are contrary to the determination of the courts.

Your country is watching, history is watching, and highest of all, God will be the final judge of your action and inaction. The voices of the present are insignificant to the voices of history and of Heaven. Please do what you know is right.

Thank you,

Greg Bittner
Coon Rapids, MN

Neurologist Says Terri Schiavo is not PVS

A neurologist has testified that Terri Schiavo is not in a "persistent vegetative state." If Judge Greer will listen to reason and permit credible professional testimony, this document could yet save Terri's life. Please pray he reads this:

http://www.terrisfight.net/documents/032305cheshire.pdf

E-mail to President Bush

I sent the following e-mail to President Bush (president@whitehouse.gov) this morning, and a similar e-mail to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (jeb.bush@myflorida.com) this afternoon. These were mostly therapeutic for me. If either message makes it past the government spam filters, I'll be surprised.

---

Dear Mr. President:

For the sake of our country's soul, please intervene to save Terri Schiavo's life, in any way you can. Forced starvation is not compassion by any definition, it is murder and it is unthinkable in a civilized society.

Terri's civil rights have been cruelly denied, including her religious freedoms. What justifies prohibiting a pastor from bringing her Holy Communion? What justifies restraining orders against her loved ones in her last hours?

I appeal to you on the basis of the Geneva Convention. Terri is being starved to death, isolated in a darkened room with no visitors. These are conditions we don't allow for prisoners of war.

Please address Congress, the courts, and the nation and dispel the lies that Terri is brain dead or "vegetative." She is not. She feels, laughs, cries, and she responds to those who love her. She is not an unconscious, unresponsive patient usually associated with the term "vegetative." No one should support the treatment she is receiving. It is inexcusable in country that espouses a culture of life.

Regardless of any "right to die" debate, Terri's treatment is inhumane. Any "death with dignity" demands a peaceful and painless end, but Terri's end is anything but this. By permitting her slow tortured death, we permit the slow death of our conscience, not unlike the oppressive regimes we historically fight.

After the Dred Scott decision, President Lincoln boldy denounced the courts over their callous denial of foundational human rights, and he urged them to overrule their own decision. I urge you to do the same. The stakes here are similar: Are we to permit forced starvation of a human being for any reason?

Please speak out to the nation. Please do not let us become what this is making us.

Respectfully,

Greg Bittner
Coon Rapids, MN

---

Dark Night of the American Soul

I'm struggling to stay focused at work today. My wife and I were up late praying for Terri Schiavo and studying Web sites about her case. I am overwhelmed by the evil that has been done against her and I'm desperate to do something, but there's nothing I can do. I am overwhelmed by the injustice.

Terri feels.
Terri laughs.
Terri cries.

This is no "vegetative state" by any humane definition. No respirator, no life support, no extraordinary means whatsoever. The only sustenance she needs is food and water, and perhaps the faces of those who love her, and let it be clear that her husband is not one of those. If you don't believe so, read this sworn affidavit by Terri's former nurse. Read the testimony of Cynthia Shook, one of Michael Schiavo's girlfriends he dated while his wife lay dying under his tender care.

If you think starvation is a "natural and painless way to die," as Mr. Schiavo claims, read Kate Adamson's account of surviving eight days of starvation following a stroke that left her unable to respond.

Forced starvation is cruel and unspeakably inhumane. It is murder, not compassion.

What progress we have made in defining "extraordinary means" and "vegetative state." Consider the case of Karen Ann Quinlan, whose parents in 1975 fought for legal permission to remove her from a respirator, despite the objections of doctors. They won, the respirator was removed, but Karen continued breathing on her own. She continued living in a "persistent vegetative state," that is, unconscious and unresponsive, for ten years. Withholding food and water was unthinkable and was never a consideration.

Today, Woodland Hospice has gone above and beyond the call of duty, as dictated by Mr. Schiavo, by not only refusing care to Terri Schiavo, but preventing anyone from doing so. Per Michael's orders, she is being held in a dark room with no visitors, thus ensuring she is demoralized while she starves. A care facility that so actively denies patient care can only rival those famous care facilities we called concentration camps.

The most disturbing part of this story by far is Michael Schiavo's almost insane eagerness for his wife's death. Suspicion is mounting against him that could potenitally fuel a wrongful death suit, but Schiavo has taken steps to destroy the evidence. A mortuary is standing by to cremate Terri almost the moment she dies, probably before her body even cools. No chance for an autopsy, to be sure. There are unholy alliances at work as well. Schiavo's attorney is on the board of directors at Woodland Hospice and is the director of the Florida Right to Die alliance. Schiavo himself is on the board of directors for an insurance company apparently handling Terri's care.

If right-to-die advocates are looking for a precedent case, this is not it. Michael Schiavo is not the person who will draw sympathy for their cause. Instead of demonstrating his love for his suffering spouse, he consistently shows disdain, disregard, and impatience over Terri's confounding endurance. He is the worst possible spokesman for "death with dignity."

I am very, very ashamed, that I did not get informed and involved in this case sooner. I am extremely frustrated at my powerlesses to do anything to save Terri. I feel like the character Col. Brandon in "Sense and Sensibility" who, while the young woman Marianne was dying, asked to be given a task or he would go mad. I just can't stand to see this evil prevail. So, I am joining the vast blogger community in decrying the doctors, judges, and media who are participating in the murder of a disabled, non-vegetative patient for the convenience of a philandering, conniving, despicable man.

I know my frustration over this cannot begin to approach that of Mr. and Mrs. Schindler, Terri's parents, but I hope they and Terri might somehow feel my prayers for them and know how I wish I could do more. I believe miracles can happen, and I continue praying to that end.

See these sites:
Terri's Fight: http://www.terrisfight.net

Justice for Terri Schiavo: http://journals.aol.com/justice1949/JUSTICEFORTERRISCHIAVO

A Series of Fortunate Events

I’m long overdue in my accolades for MacDonald’s At the Back of North Wind since I finished the book weeks ago. I’ve since finished several more books that I want to recommend.

In Praise of Audio Books

But first, another word about audio books. Our life is presently (how should I say it?) … rich. Several major changes are in progress and my home/business project list has never been more backlogged. I’ve tried to keep up a discipline of recreational reading 15 minutes a day, but am hopeless at maintaining it. Audio books on my PDA have been tremendously enriching, following me while I’m stripping wallpaper, moving furniture, boxing up books and papers. I can even hear them over the noise of power tools (earbuds make pretty decent earplugs).

The purist in me still says, “But you’re not getting the full mental exercise of reading.” No, but I have time for this. My favorite quote this week is from my wife: “I don’t want to simplify my life, I just want more time.” I found more time, in the unused streams of my brain. I could choose to occupy my ears with music or talk radio during manual chores, but I’m finding much more enjoyment getting acquainted with classic stories. The books that have nagged me and shamed me as they’ve sat gathering dust on our shelf are becoming great friends without my even touching them.

Our life will eventually slow down some and I look forward to reading these books aloud with my son. I romanticize about settling down in a chair with a cup of coffee and a good book by a window, and I believe those days will come, but I won’t spend the meantime being frustrated over the demands of our present schedule. Audio books are, for the moment, a great coping mechanism and are enabling me to enjoy the pace of our life.

At the Back of the North Wind

It’s only the most brilliant mind that can conceive a story you continue to ponder for weeks afterward. I admit it helps that Focus on the Family Radio Theatre is currently broadcasting a radio adaptation of the story, but this book had already set in my mind many profound ideas I’m eager to explore further. It is no surprise to me that C.S. Lewis once said that MacDonald’s stories “baptized” his imagination as a child, imprinting it with deeply Christian principles of which Lewis was unaware until they resurfaced many years later during his journey from atheism to faith.

The little boy, Diamond (who was named after a favorite horse and does not even know what a real diamond is), is a picture of innocence, goodness, and selflessness. He is not ignorant of evil and recognizes it when he sees it, but his heart is always drawn to the victim, even the victim who is unaware of the evil. He is remarkably fearless, but his courage is derived not from self-confidence, but trust in higher powers.

Many times Diamond is asked, "Aren't you afraid?" and his answer is always, "No. Why should I?" This reply is for him honest, not defiant. He has a seemingly delusory peace about him that causes some to consider him simple. They call him, “God’s baby.” His difference from other characters in this regard suggests that fear results from the need to control one’s circumstances. Peace, on the other hand, comes in surrender to one in whom trust is warranted.

This “one,” for Diamond, is an agent of Providence known as North Wind. She is both beautiful and dangerous, good but not always comforting, benevolent but not always predictable. She is to be trusted, but she will not always be understood. I recognized these characteristics as resembling Lewis’ Aslan, of whom one of the Narnian creatures said, “He's not safe, but he is good.”

Much is said about dreams in the story. Many times Diamond is tempted to believe his adventures with North Wind were a dream, but MacDonald seems to suggest that dreams and reality are not so separate as we think. Dreams are, for some, impressions of a higher reality. In a child’s imagination there may be a transcendent reality, and in a child’s nonsense there can be the most profound wisdom. I actually got lost several times in some of Diamond’s (or MacDonald’s) metaphysical wanderings in nonsensical poetry and dreams, but for the benefit of the reader, he always returns to the narrative in time.

The most interesting statement about dreams, I thought, was when North Wind explained to Diamond that a lying person dreams lies, but the dreams of a truthful person contain truth. That really set me to thinking about the thoughts I dwell on as I drift off to sleep. A friend of mine once suggested to me, during a time I was struggling with a series of disturbing nightmares, that I ask God to govern my dreams. I’ve since fallen into the notion that dreams are nothing but the brain emptying its trash and showing it to you as it goes. MacDonald’s suggestion is more intriguing and worth considering.

The tone of the story overall is mysterious, but never dark. Diamond’s goodness is increasingly supernatural, derived from his longing to return the country at the back of the North Wind, a near-heavenly place he visited while, unbeknownst to him, he was near death. Here MacDonald’s influence on Lewis is again evident when, in Mere Christianity, Lewis says: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

What the reader sees in Diamond is not a child struggling to do right and stay alive while surrounded by evil people and circumstances (see the Lemony Snicket stories), but a boy who is good and wise and spreads goodness to everyone he meets. There is no villain, save for Diamond’s ambiguous illness, which serves only as the doorway to the place he wants to go anyway. There is danger, adventure, and many, many, moral lessons. It is not a tale of good versus evil, but a compelling journey toward goodness and final enlightenment.

In the end, the story made me want to become a better person. It's a great thing when a story does that. It gave me a greater appreciation for my son’s mind and a desire to learn from him while I teach him and guide him. I want to be a teacher like North Wind and I want his life’s journey to be as wondrous as Diamond’s.

The Princess and the Goblin

This struggle of a noble miner boy and a gentle young princess against a plot by a race of sinister goblins to overthrow a kingdom must have influenced Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. MacDonald’s goblins are described very similarly to Tolkein’s orcs. The scope of the story is much smaller, of course, and clearly aimed at a younger audience. The story is cleverly woven with a series of exciting and clever fights and a brilliant climactic battle.

The young princess is named Irini, and the supernatural assistant in this story is a mysterious and beautiful woman who calls herself Irini’s great-grandmother. I was struck by MacDonald’s use of beauty in this story as well as in North Wind. MacDonald’s moral guides are gloriously angelic, projecting a beauty that is inexplicably sublime, supremely feminine and yet, I noted, not sensual. Their beauty is a manifestation of their goodness. Even so, they warn their subjects against being deceived by false beauty. MacDonald seems to imply that beauty is not mere vanity, nor is it superficial. Beauty is the nature of goodness.

This is not to say that what is ugly cannot be good, for we live in a fallen world, and MacDonald addresses this. As North Wind said, some things beautiful are in the process of becoming bad and it may take a long time for their badness to spoil their beauty. Conversely, some things ugly are in the process of becoming good. I found this very refreshing, given the complete confusion, even ridiculing of this notion in modern fairy tales like Shrek. MacDonald’s use of beauty is akin to the muses of Greek mythology: beauty as a glimpse of heaven that inspires and guides mankind to great things.

The Princess and Curdie

This entertaining sequel to The Princess and the Goblin is a story about true nobility. Curdie is the young miner boy introduced in the previous book. Although he was offered training for knighthood following his heroics in the first story, he chose to stay, considering himself not quite ready to leave home. This story picks up several years later, as Curdie is becoming a man, his youthful idealism and goodness beginning to wither under the hardening crust of a miner. He faces a crossroad at which he is confronted with what he has become and given the opportunity to right his path before he strays altogether. Then he gets to meet Irini’s “great-grandmother” who gives him a gift of supernatural discernment and a mission to rescue the kingdom from an insidious coup from within.

The story is quite different from its predecessor in that the good and evil are much less apparent by physical appearance. Where Curdie’s strength and cunning were useful in the previous story, now he needs wisdom and insight to uncover a conspiracy that even the King’s daughter, Irini, failed to see.

MacDonald’s themes are definitely more complex in this book and seem to be written for a teenage or adult reader, where the first book is suited to pre-teens. The intended audience of each book seems to be a reader of Curdie’s age in each book.

MacDonald makes several social commentaries about class warfare, educational elitism, personal responsibility, cultural moral upheaval, and is not above a brief slam at insincere dogma in the church. After a fascinating and surprising battle for the kingdom, the story concludes with what seem to be two endings, the first heartwarming and fairytalish, after which it should be perfectly acceptable to stop reading. Those who continue on will find what seems to be a dismal, perhaps prophetic, warning against the seduction of prosperity and materialism.

All said, I still highly recommend both Princess stories. I have greatly enjoyed MacDonald’s fantasies and want to read (okay, hear) more. The story that C.S. Lewis cited often was MacDonald’s Phantastes, which I have so far found for $50 in audio book form. I’m just a little too cheap and find that too steep a penalty for having only enough time to listen. At present, I am enjoying some Jules Verne books that I will review in a later post.