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Terri’s Legacy, It Is Time for a Real
Culture of Life Bill From Progressive America; Terri's Law
- By Anthony Wade
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- March 31, 2005
www.OpEdNews.com
- The circus is finally over, Terri Schiavo has gone home. The
side-show has packed up their tents and will head home, learning
nothing, and soon forgetting a woman that sparked such outrage.
That is unless someone does not let that happen. The GOP will
feign indignation and try to use Mrs. Schiavo as a weapon to reign
in a judiciary they feel is out of control but all you need to
know about the judge in this case is that he was a republican.
There is no out of control judiciary. The true sad fact of the
Schiavo case is that at every turn when someone could have
intervened on behalf of life, it was a GOP decision to allow her
death. The primary judge was a conservative from the GOP. The
Supreme Court also refused multiple times to intervene and is
controlled by the GOP. The speculation about possible executive
intervention focused on two men, George and Jeb Bush, both of
which stood by and did nothing while Terri died. The GOP will not
do anything about this case except try and use it to their
political advantage, which is all they have done for the past two
weeks. No, the true legacy of Terri Schiavo needs to come from the
progressives in this country. It is time to have the GOP put their
money where their mouths are and pass a “Culture of Life” bill,
honoring Terri Schiavo.
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- The first tenet of a Culture of Life Bill must demand
healthcare for all Americans in this country. I do not want to
hear any more of the right-wing talking points about socialism
meant only to distract from the pitiful reality that in the
richest country in the world, there are 40 million people who do
not have healthcare. Because of these shortages in healthcare,
there are 18,000 unnecessary deaths per year. That has to be
completely unacceptable in a civilized society. Anyone who truly
believes in a culture of life has to support a plan that would
eliminate 18,000 unnecessary annual deaths. Without healthcare,
Terri Schiavo would not have lasted the 15 years that she did and
progress to the point that she became the cause celebre of a
nation.
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- A nation that affirms a culture of life insures that everyone
has access to healthcare.
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- The second tenet of any Terri’s Law would have to federally
protect Medicaid, Medicare, and State Children’s Health Insurance
Program from any federal budget cuts. Sound impossible? No, it is
simply a matter of making priorities. The fact of the matter is
that balancing the federal budget on the backs of the poorest
people in this country is not the kind of philosophy that asserts
life. If you hold tax cuts for the rich in one hand and the
ensuring of healthcare and continued lives of the elderly and
children in this country in the other, I would assume that
believing in a culture of life demands that the tax cuts get
shelved. Terri received her medications through Medicaid and just
the cuts alone that Tom Delay is currently demanding would have
jeopardized Terri’s medications.
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- A nation that affirms a culture of life insures the most
vulnerable are always taken care of.
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- The third tenet of Terri’s Law would need to guarantee to the
citizens of this country the ability to seek legal redress when
victimized. The tort reform bandwagon is laden with millions of
dollars of donations to the GOP from special interests who seek
protection from being sued. The truth is that frivolous lawsuits
are NOT a factor in increased healthcare costs, as they amount to
less than 1% of healthcare costs. Tort reform is simply siding
with corporations over people. The truth is that Terri Schiavo
would never have had the money to pay for her treatment for
fifteen years if Tom Delay and Bill Frist had their way. The
hypocrisy from Delay is especially disturbing as his family
actually sued and won the exact types of damages he is so bent on
eliminating when his father passed away 20 years ago. The Delays
won a quarter of a million dollars in pain and suffering and loss
of companionship damages. Now, he wants to take away your right to
seek the same legal redress. Terri Schiavo won malpractice
lawsuits and as a result was awarded the money that was then used
to care for her. Any type of Terri’s Law, needs to protect the
rights of citizens who are aggrieved.
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- A nation that affirms a culture of life insures that people
can seek recovery when wronged.
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- The fourth tenet, and most important right now, is that a
Culture of Life bill must address state laws which allow
corporations to decide the life and death of citizens. In Texas,
there is a law that killed a six month old child a few weeks ago.
The child was born with a very rare and severe form of dwarfism.
The child was six months old when the hospital decided, against
the wishes of the mother, to kill the child. The hospital
stated it was mercy because the child was non-responsive. The
mother emphatically disagreed with the hospital and tried to get
media coverage but the hospital refused to allow the media to film
the child. The fact of the matter is Sun Hudson is dead today
because his mother was poor. So poor, she had no prenatal care,
which could have spotted the problems in-utero, yet another
argument for mandatory health care. This poor mother was granted
ten days to find another treating facility that would take the
child, without any money. None agreed and they pulled the
respirator. The state of Texas murdered a six month old child
while we were all weeping for Terri Schiavo. The person who signed
the Texas law was none other than George W. Bush, Mr. Culture of
Life himself. The state of Texas is also the home state of the new
poster child of hypocrisy, Tom Delay. If Terri Schiavo is to have
any legacy at all, it must be to end this practice of
corporate-sponsored, state-sanctioned, financially-driven, murder.
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- A nation that affirms a culture of life does not allow money
to dictate who lives and who dies.
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- The fifth tenet of a Terri’s Law would have to be allowing
independent oversight of all environmental laws to ensure the
safety and continued lives of the citizens of this planet. You
cannot pretend to care about life, and pass laws that uniformly
damage the health of people around this world. As I have reported
before the Bush administration has passed a most ridiculous system
that actually encourages companies to not clean up their mercury
pollution. Most of the environmental changes made by Bush were
only designed to benefit corporations, at the expense of the
health of all Americans. Destroying the environment is not
supportive of a culture of life. If Terri’s life could have this
kind of long-reaching impact, that would be truly amazing.
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- A nation that affirms a culture of life protects the
environment, and thus extends the life of its citizens.
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- Lastly, any Terri’s Law needs to set up a nation wide system
of mandatory living wills. Without these documents there can be no
guarantee that the Tom Delay traveling circus does not end up on
your lawn one day. When we turn 18 we mandate signing up for the
selective service. When drivers licenses are granted, people need
to chose to be an organ donor or not. A similar mandate can be
demanded from people, to make their choices in unambiguous terms.
Terri’s life and now her death seem to cry out for this measure.
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- Terri Schiavo has passed and her legacy, if any, will take
shape over the next year. If we allow the GOP to shape that
legacy, you will hear about Schiavo this summer when Bush tries to
fill a Supreme Court vacancy. You will hear about judicial tyranny
and how Bush needs his nominees approved to reign in the
judiciary. Don’t let them fool you. The judge in this case was a
conservative republican. Of the 19 judges that reviewed the
Schiavo case, many more were republican. The conservative,
GOP-controlled Supreme Court was asked five times to intervene,
and they refused. Just like there is no social security crisis,
there is no out-of-control judiciary. What we had, was one of the
most vetted and debated court cases in this country’s history that
has reached its end today.
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- Legacy though still awaits Terri Schiavo. The GOP used her to
bring to the forefront the issue of life and how they claim to be
the party of life. The term we heard repeatedly was that they
believed in a “culture of life”. Now is the time to hold them to
their words. If you believe, truly believe in a culture of
life, then you must support that which supports life. The core of
that culture of life must include:
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- Mandatory health care for all
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- The elderly and children are always taken care of.
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- People can always seek legal redress when harmed.
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- Equal protection for life, regardless of money.
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- Environmental protections to increase life spans.
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- Mandatory living wills.
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- This is not socialism, it is common sense. It is time to put
up or shut up. A smart progressive needs to craft this legislation
and let the representatives vote what they truly believe in. It is
time to line up on what side you actually are on. It is time to
see if there is any real action behind the empty rhetoric we have
heard so much about.
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- A culture of life does not allow 40 million people to have no
healthcare, killing 18,000 people unnecessarily per year. It does
not allow the raping of the environment, corporate protections at
the cost of legal redress, and balancing the budget by cutting
healthcare to the elderly and children, while handing millions to
the richest with your other hand. A culture of life does more than
talk about life. It does more then show up on the lawn of Terri
Schiavo for a two week period in the lifetime of America. It does
more than provide photo-ops and snazzy catch-lines. It says that
if you believe in life than you must care equally for the six
month old black child in Texas then you did for the 41 year old
white woman in Florida. It says ALL life, regardless of age,
ethnicity, medical state, or financial circumstances get treated
with the same reverence.
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If you cannot do that, then the culture of life
are just words without meaning. They are just a phrase you like to
say but do not really believe in. They were just two weeks of your
life, pretending to care about a woman you never met, and one day
will forget. The culture of life cannot be just a passing snapshot
in the photo album of this country. Terri deserves better than that.
She deserves her law, to truly care about a culture of all
life, not just the lives of the politically expedient.
Anthony Wade, a
contributing writer to
opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies
and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer
from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple
websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation
Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that
you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies
and excess.
Anthony Wade’s
Archive:
http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm
Email
Anthony:
takebacktheus@gmail.com
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