The Discerning Texan

It is not often that the death of a person, who was relatively unknown to the public a year beforehand, has had such a profound sobering effect on an entire society. No matter how we rationalized it, and even with a media telling us that we should rationalize it, we sat and watched as our elected representatives, empowered by our Constitution to represent the will of the citizenry, attempted to save Ms. Schiavo's life; yet, based on an extremely shallow review of the medical evidence in the case, we all stood by, seemingly powerless to overrule one corrupt State Judge, who himself overruled the will of the people (via its elected members of Congress, the Senate, and the President of the United States)--that the Judge not allow a philandering bigamist-de facto husband starve his helpless (and NOT brain-dead) wife to death.

The resulting events speak volumes about who is really ruling over whom in our society, does it not? In civics class we were taught that "we the people" governed ourselves. Now, thanks to Terri, the public has been awakened to its out-of-control judiciary; now we know it is a few elite judges, not we, who really control our lives. That knowledge is Terri's gift to us. And just in time for a few of the President's judicial nominees to come forward, men who do not share such a vision of overreaching judicial power. The timing could not be better...thanks to Terri.

Also of interest, there is still a lot of information about the original details of Terri's "accident" which raise even more ominous questions about the validity of allowing a man who fathered two children with another woman while married to Terri, to also have the decision whether to kill her, based on something she supposedly said at age 26...only it took Michael 7 years to recall it... I don't know about you, but when I was 26, I was not thinking about feeding tubes, should I become somehow unable to communicate effectively with others... yet we are to believe Schiavo that Terri did, despite evidence to the contrary.

Then there is Felos, Michael Schiavo's bloodthirsty lawyer, for whom Michelle Malkin's characterization as a"Ghoul" may be a case of giving too much credit to this guy. As well, other individuals surrounding Mr. Schiavo's legal team had, at the very least glaring conflicts of interest, including the Doctor who examined her (at Michael Schiavo's request).

Regardless of what other sordid details will be uncovered, the death of Terri Schiavo will have far deeper repercussions, beyond any scandal or criminal activity yet visible. America experienced a tectonic shift with Terri Schiavo's death. Sherri Eros, MD, summed up well what happened today:

To a corrupt nation, Terri Schiavo is a living, breathing, thinking, willing, loving rebuke and provocation. She exposes all that is worst in us, the lawlessness, crassness, hard-heartedness, and viciousness that we see almost everywhere around us. In her silence she elegantly refutes the shameless fraud of the bioethics experts, the callousness of the Death Doctors and the Right-to-Die enthusiasts, the tyranny of an unchecked judiciary, the utter depravity of the secular humanists. In her debilitated state, nearly squeezed dry of life, she filled the world with her voiceless eloquence.

One last observation now that she has died. Due to the pall of unreality enveloping these events, those actively witnessing Terri Schiavo’s struggle cannot but feel a deep unease and conflictedness, sensing that on the one hand the world ought to have come to a dead stop until this immense evil was undone, and feeling on the other hand that her progression toward death was inexorable--that the forces of death were not about to halt for even a second, and we were utterly powerless to intervene. This state of unsettledness reveals to us that we, not Terri Schiavo, are the ones in a "locked-in" state, with minds and wills imprisoned in paralyzed bodies, powerless to find the right words and actions to effectively intervene or cry for help, unable to prevent the monstrous torture-killing that occurred right in front of our eyes.

The one thing that will be said about Terri Schiavo for a very long time was that she will have had a major impact on the course of our culture, and probably even the course of our future government, particularly the judiciary. That's not a bad legacy to leave behind. Rest in peace, Terri. You deserve it.