Holocausts do not begin with operational concentration camps; they start on a smaller scale and steadily break down our resistance while many people plead that they are "too busy" to pay attention and get involved.
The stakes are enormous here and there is no neutral ground. Not to decide is to decide. The fight for Terri’s life is another battle to determine whether we are to live in a culture of life or a culture of death.
I'm writing this from a hospital bed (DON'T ask about the difficulty of getting "hooked up" - I'm posting this from a dial-up connection). I periodically have to check in for a few hours or days, to clear up a flare-up of the asthma condition I've developed in the last 10 years.
It suddenly occurred to me, what if I hesitated to go to the hospital, for fear of being terminated as an unworthy life? What if, instead of getting prompt care for a condition that is totally treatable, I avoided medical facilities, not wishing to place myself in a vulnerable position?
Folks, it isn't just Terri that we are all blogging our hearts out for, it's for any person in our society that might be considered to have a lesser, and unimportant life. Will we all be at risk for execution if we don't meet some committee's exalted standards of a meaningful life?
How sick do we have to be to worry:
- chronic conditions?
- disabilities - blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, arthritis, etc?
- cancer that is not immediately terminal? AIDS?
- mentally impaired - retarded, brain damaged, Alzheimers?
- emotional illness - depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar?
- learning defict - LD, behavioral issues, "slow", ADD?
Write your legislators, newspapers, and blogs. Call, fax, email. Do everything you can - lest you lose the choice in the future.
It's not just Terry's fight - it's a fight for all of us.
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