C.I.T.O.K.A.T.E.

A reporter on the scene in Pinellas Park told us on PCCboard the events surrounding the death of Terri Schaivo and was quite upset that the Schindlers were not allowed to be present and Michael Schaivo immediately left. The reporter was also upset by a phone call he had with Michael Schaivo's brother because Michael, in the reporter's opinion, "was too much of a wuss to talk to me." Michael's brother chose his words very poorly. The short version of the story is this.

Michael Schiavo, faced with the prospect of spending even more time with the corpse of his wife not different in any way to the time he's had to spend with her body for the last 15 years, understandably leaves the scene as soon as he can, quietly and with more dignity than the Schindlers will ever have. It is not an act of cowardice for Mr. Schiavo to refrain from jamming his face into a reporter's microphone at a politicized moment of fame. "Ask the Schindlers about their $3.5 million book deal and selling their supporters mailing list," I said.

Continuing the narrative: Terri Schiavo's family is not allowed to continue to act like media whores and turn the death scene into a circus, as if this transition of Terri's was somehow more important than the transition that happened to her fifteen years ago. Michael's brother doesn't want to come out and say so outright, so he hems and haws with spiritualized-sounding words like "spirit" that he probably doesn't really believe but our religious society demands. Michael's brother's choice of the phrase "damage control" when he called the reporter indicates someone intimidated by the politicization and rhetoric accomplished by Operation Rescue's Randall Terry and the rest of the Schindler's crack team of cynical spin doctors. He should have said just single-word sentences. Privacy. Dignity. Michael treated this event with all the emotion and ceremony that it merited: none at all.

Does that seem harsh? Disrespectful? Quite the reverse. The idea that what happened at 9:05 AM today is somehow more important than the change that took place fifteen years ago is what truly does disrespect to Terri and her memory. To the Pro-Lifers, Terri Schaivo was worth no more than a wad of flesh just so long as it's pulsating. The last time Terri actually spoke to her parents, fifteen years ago? Unnecessary to them apparently, just so long as they have their life-like baby doll to cuddle. Do you want to know why those who support pulling the plug are so passionate? This is an example of how the right-to-life movement cheapens and denigrates all our lives. Our love and hate, our laughter and tears, our feeling and thinking, our friendship and struggle, is what makes us human, not being a hunk of flesh containing sacred DNA. Life in the sense of a biography is more valuable than life in the sense of a metabolic process in a petri dish. That's true respect for life.

I don't know how a subpoenae from Congress does any good to a breathing meat sack, formerly occupied by Terry Schiavo. Where's Dr. Kevorkian when you need him? Oh that's right... prison.

Christian radio stations have become as emotionally hysterical and mindlessly foaming at the mouth as the anti-Castro Catholics got with Elian Gonzalez, when they were spreading stories about the Virgin Mary sending dolphins to guide Elian to shore. Now a Christian lady I'm talking to about this would have us believe that the body of Terry Schiavo is responding to her family, when (as the report says) the cerebral cortex is liquid? This is the same lady who thinks a single-cell human embryo might be conscious and capable of suffering if you abort the pregnancy. The fact that it possesses no brain cells does not seem to give her pause. "You believe Terry Schiavo can feel pain? With a nonexistent cerebral cortex?" I asked her. "Let me guess, her immortal soul is animating her body. What's next? The Virgin Mary showed the pattern of her face in your pancakes this morning and told you she did it?" The only way this could be more of a farce would be if Congress subpoenaed Bernie from Weekend At Bernie's.