OFF-TOPIC: Terri Schiavo

Alright, I know this blog is supposed to be about all things Michigan. But I'm really curious about Michiganders' feelings about the sad travesty that is the Terri Schiavo case. Plus, I just feel compelled to write about this because it's bothering me so much.

There are so many issues surrounding poor Terri Schiavo and her family.

• Did Terri really say to her husband that she would want to have life support removed?


• Without that consent in writing, should a feeding tube be removed?


• Does a husband, should a husband, have more say than a parent? Isn't blood thicker than water?


• Is death by withholding food/water truly humane given her physical circumstances?


• Is she truly persistently vegetative?


• People do come out of comas. It's rare but it happens. Is there hope here for that outcome?


• All the people getting airtime over this debacle...Jesse Jackson...Randall Terry...Santorum...are they capitalizing on a family's grief, or is this something that's galvanizing us to the point that they all truly, sincerely want to help?


• If they are capitalizing on someone's pain like this, what does that say about us as a nation?


• Is Judge Greer corrupt?


• Finally, we have three branches of government specifically to act as a series of checks and balances on each other. Each branch has to trust that the others are staffed by intelligent people of good character who have the good of the American Public first and foremost. What happens when one branch seems to cling to a stance that seems inhumane, or cold? Should the other branches step in and bypass the checks and balances?

NO ONE messes with the life of my child.

This is bugging the hell outta me. My gut says: blood is thicker than water. The people who brought you into the world should have final say over their child...not a husband who apparently couldn't wait for Terri and not only got engaged but had two children by another woman. One who rants on and on about being outraged by governmental behavior rather than coming clean about the money he's getting.

No outsider should have any say about my kids, especially one who cheats and seems so freakin' eager to have Terri pass away. If my wife were in the same condition, I would gladly hand over the decision-making to them. She's THEIR child.

And what kind of judge puts a husband before a parent? Should Congress or President Bush get involved? The minute you start bypassing checks and balances you set the precedent to do it again. That is NOT what the Founding Fathers had in mind. The beauty of our system is that it's such a brilliant setup. Yet here, now, there may be a clear legal answer but there's not a clear moral one.

What kind of people are we to starve an invalid to death?

People on other blogs (bloggers and readers) keep trying to make this into a Liberal vs. Conservative issue. It's not. It's about how a society cares for those who can't care for themselves...about what happens to a life, a living person, in our "System"... about how we as a society deal with difficult issues: humanity, privacy, family, love and loss.

This case stinks to High Heaven.

Crazy Kids

Crazy Kids
Originally uploaded by HerrWeave.

Born to an Ingham County horse-raising family, he was a 22-year-old trolley car conductor, a direct descendent of President John Adams. She was a 20-year-old Irish-American laundress. They met on the trolley and fell in love. She was engaged to another man...he pleaded with her repeatedly, finally convincing her to break it off.

In ten years, he'll help her give birth to their fourth child, put on his hat, walk out the door and they'll never see him again. She'll be saddled with four kids, no real job and they'll be plunged into abject poverty on the dusty plains of South Dakota.

Ladies and gentlemen, my great-grandparents, Frank Pratt and May Hughes.

Skype me, baby!

Okay, I have to talk about Skype.

I just signed up for this service, which is an extremely inexpensive way to make long-distance calls, particularly if you talk to Europe a lot. If you're talking to another Skype user, it's FREE. If you're talking to a non-Skype user, in some cases it's maybe 2 cents per minute. CRAZY! And with built-in IM, it takes care of a lot of the little piddly communications you might have to make if you do that on a regular basis.

So, make a lot of long distance calls? Check it out. And if you have it, Skype me and say, wassap?

And NO, I don't get anything by promoting this service. I'm just surprised and delighted.