Terri's Supporters Are All Fundamentalist Christian, Far Right Republican, Anti-choice Oppressors, Redneck Conspiracy-Theorist, Fascist Kooks....NOT!

I'm hearing a lot about how right-wing radical America is attempting to impose its disgusting will on the the rest of the country in regards to the Terri Schiavo case. However, I have noticed that support for Terri Schiavo is, in fact, coming from a wide variety of sources and perspectives. This case really does cross political and religious lines. So I thought it would be fun, and instructive to gather together some links to Terri's supporters that don't fit the stereotype.

This person requires no introduction. Ralph Nader says, "A profound injustice is being inflicted on Terri Schiavo." (HT Wittingshire)

Lanny Davis, White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton, told Bill O'Reilly, "I think this is a personal decision that I made about the merits of erring on the side of life where we're not certain about this poor women's wishes. We have a husband who claims what she said is that she wanted to be disconnected. But we're not certain. And at least in this instance, which is rare, where you have parents willing to go through the pain and the agony of tending to this poor young woman, we ought to err and allow those parents to do that."

Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, explained her support for Congress' actions on behalf of Terri Schiavo to a Washington Post reporter in this way, "This is a terrible tragedy. There was no living will and the family was divided, I felt that it was appropriate under these unique circumstances that the court take one last look at this."

Disability groups, with traditional Democratic ties have supported Terri's cause. Boston Globe writer Nina J. Easton writes, "Prayers and references to a ''culture of life" have defined the public face of the emotionally-charged Save-Terri Schiavo movement dominating the airwaves this week. But a critical piece of the coalition is disability rights groups, whose ties to Democrats could produce bipartisan legislation creating a more extensive federal role in cases involving the removal of life support."

Harriet McBryde Johnson, a progressive disability rights attorney wrote, Not Dead at All: Why Congress was right to stick up for Terri Schiavo.

Self-described liberal and lesbian writer of the blog Lesbien C'est Moi, writes, "My liberal friends, my conservative friends...this is not about any other person, it is not about politics, it is not about ideology. It is about Terri and her right to NOT be executed. If I sleep tonight, it will only be with the desperate hope that tomorrow morning brings a stay of execution for Terri."

The author of Trials and Turbulations: Tales from a Patriotic Liberal, describes himself herself [sorry] as agnostic, pro-choice, and pro-euthanasia. Answering a commenter who sought to define life by what a person could do, he wrote in support of Terri, "Based on this logic, this means that everyone who cannot function properly must die. For two years of my life at one point in time, I was incapacitated. Going by the above theory, I wouldn't be alive typing this right now. What about mental patients in the psychiatric wards in hospitals? What about those in regular hospitals? What about those in ICU? If A.R.'s theory were to be enforced, there would never be a need for hospitals, right?"

UPDATE:
A reader alerted me to the concerns Civil Libertarian Nat Hentoff has about this case. Read his Village Voice articles here and here.

Thanks to Judith for leaving, in the comments, links to a report of the words of Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman and to her own writing at her blog Kesher Talk.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson: I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips. This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."

Comments

[Sid]

The Garden

So many people who have written about the effort to save Terri have emphasized the hope that she will "recover." On the other side, those who want to terminate her life say that because she has no higher brain function, she is already dead. It is time to address this serious error.

Terri is a miracle--a living person who is without sin, and without the capacity to sin. For fifteen years, she has lived as sinless a life as an unborn baby. She has never angered. She has never cursed. She has never experienced an impure thought. She has never defied her father or her mother--and how beautifully and steadfastly have they honored their bond with her. She has served as a perfect example of sinless devotion.

Who among us, in prayer, has not been frustrated at our inability to shut out the world, to give ourselves to God in perfect concentration and devotion? Is not Terri's example a gift to us?

Some may say that to live in Terri's state is somehow less than human. This is wrong! It is the life our first father and mother, Adam and Eve, led in Eden before, through Eve's transgression, sin entered the world. Terri is living in that primordial perfect state.

We were created in the image of God, but we marred that image through the disobedience of Adam. Every child is conceived in the same perfection as our first parents, and our Savior, but takes on Adam's sin at birth--that's why even at the moment of birth, a baby's first act is to cry for her lost innocence. Through Terri, we have a living example of God's perfect image, uncontaminated by sin. It is not for Terri that we fight to restore life-giving nutrients and water; she will have eternal life with her heavenly Father when she leaves us. It is for the gift she gives to us by her blessed example of a sinless life on this earth.

[molly]

Wow. GREAT GREAT links. Thanks!

[Plato]

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

[Ri]

It is always nice to be reminded that there are still thinking liberals out there whose opinions are the result of their own thoughts and convictions as opposed to getting their talking points from NPR and blindly supporting whatever is endorsed by mainstream liberal dogma.

[democrat]

Thank you Ri.

What if all the trees were oaks
How plain the world would seem;
No maple syrup, banana splits,
And how would orange juice be?
Wouldn't it be a boring place?
If all the people were the same;
Just one color, just one language,
Just one family name!
But -
If the forest were the world,
And all the people were the trees;
Palm and pine, bamboo and willow,
Live and grow in harmony.
Aren't you glad, my good friend,
Different though we be;
We are here to help each other.
I learn from you, and you, from me.

[Ticklebug]

Thanks for the mention of my entry. Only thing is...I'm a female. :)

By the way, this entry you just wrote is another keeper. You're a great writer. Keep up the good work!

From Dory: Oh! Sorry! I fixed it. That happens to me all the time. I hate doing it to others.

[Yehudit]

Also Joe Lieberman.

Also me.

[Ticklebug]

No problem, Dory.

[Joefish]

Even Jesse Jackson has come out against strving Terri too death.

[RD]

Here's another who supports Terri, and all like her who are intentionally misdiagnosed so they can be dispatched by their future ex-spouses with a court order. The media have done a valiant job covering the minute aspects of the law, while forgetting that Terri is isolated, alone, afraid, and very much a thinking human being. We have been accused of "humanizing a vegetable", when the real crime is that we've dehumanized a woman.

There are more and more nurses coming forward to attest to that very fact. It's horrible what's going on, and I hope there's a way to stop it, even now. But at least - at last - the truth is beginning to come out.

Thanks
Liberals & Conservatives For Terri

[Gun-Toting Liberal]

It's DAMN fine of you to point the fact out that this is NOT a "partisan" issue. Thank you SO MUCH for doing that!