"I Figure I'll Go For The Life Of Sin, Followed By The Presto-Changeo Deathbed Repentence."

I was listening to the BBC the other night, and both their lead stories were about the U.S. One was about the Terri Schiavo case, and the other about the school shooting in Red Lake, MN. Apparently the rest of the world just can't get enough of our bizarre antics. Oh great, we've become the friggin' Jerry Springer show over here.

I have been reluctantly been drawn in to this Terri case. All the pro-Terri websites and blogs (haven't found any anti-Terri ones) I've come across are basically all about saying what a rich and wonderful life she's living as a severely debilitated and more or less retarded vegetable (who would want to spend the rest of their life like that? I think it's basically her family is scared to let her go), and waging a smear campaign against her husband. They call him a monster, a wife-beater, and an adulterer. They're upset at him for finding a new woman that he's "shacked up with" for the past ten years. None of them seem to acknowledge the fact that Terri has been in this utterly debilitating brain damaged state for the past fifteen years. It's not like he went out the day after she vegged out and started a new family. Is this guy supposed to put his life on hold forever? Sure, this will probably hurt his chances for sainthood, but come on. Let's try not hold others to standards that we ourselves would have difficulty meeting. And I haven't found any evidence of the spousal abuse...fill me in if there is any.

They had two guests on the BBC program, one a reverend, the other a civil rights lawyer (I think) to discuss this case. Guess where each stood on the issue. Anyway, the rev started quoting bible verses to support him case, at which point the other guy brought up the issue of separation of church and state. The rev became indignant, saying, "your anti-religious bigotry is just that; bigotry!" Um...ok. I'm sorry, but I don't call it bigotry when you have the opinion that one religion's views shouldn't be held higher than the others. If you want to experience bigotry, Mr. Reverend, maybe you should leave the majority of every major demographic in this country (male, white, Christian, conservative, etc.) and try walking through life as a black Muslim woman... then we'll talk about bigotry. I happen to think that our government would be much better if we followed the wisdom in the Tao Te Ching, but I realize that's just my opinion, and not everyone else should be obligated to agree with me. Just because you are religious doesn't mean you are infallible.

All in all, this is a really tragic case. Either she lives the rest of her life in a way in which pretty much any reasonable person would declare as a way not worth living, or she dies. And she doesn't die like the way your poor old family dog dies when you put him down to ease his suffering. No, we're so freaked out about death in this country that all reason has left the debate. Instead of letting her die humanely, we have to remove her nutrition tube and let her die slowly of dehydration and starvation. So it's either live as a vegetable or a slow, suffering death...there's no middle ground here?!? Are we so retared?!? I guess this is an example of why you need a living will; so here's mine. If you can play country music by my hospital bed and I show no signs of distress, kill me. I just don't want to live that way. Seriously.