It's sad to think for most of us, our world is basically confined to the few feet in front of our own noses, but that's what we've let happen to us.  And the small world we've created shrinks a little more each day.  

We are losing our compassion for others at an alarming rate.  Perhaps it's because living in today's world is an increasingly more difficult struggle.  The job market is so competitive with little or  no sense of security no matter what your experience or talent may be.  Employers look for young blood whom they can pay less and give less benefits, and whom they can work harder, work more hours, and work under more pressure.  Families don't merely need to eat and have a roof over their heads, but they need more cable channels, larger TV's, and designer clothes.  We bust our rumps to make enough money to make our limited worlds as nice and comfortable as we possibly can and at the end of the hard worked day, we relax and look around and think the material things we've provided for our  little worlds look pretty danged good.  But what are we missing?

We've lost compassion.  If an event is not happening almost in our very city, and maybe not unless it's in on our very own block, we're sorry but "sorry for your luck, buddy".  

We take our elderly and put them in nursing homes because we have to work.  We have to.  It's not that we want to work, we say, but we have to -- to make ends meet.   We have to take our kids to soccer practice.  We barely have a minute for ourselves, after work and the kid's activities.  So, our visits to the nursing home become less often.  We surely wish there was more time, we say, but there isn't .  We can only do what we can only do.  We make special efforts to visit the nursing home on holidays, it's become a job now.  And when we find out there's been trouble at the nursing home, we are outraged and we ruffle our feathers and go to the top and straighten it out because we don't actually want to bring our folks home, we want somebody else to take care of them ---- and they'd better do it right, by golly, because we don't have the time to be in there watching them.

I have a cousin who is a nursing home Administrator.  Her philosophy is to think of all the people in her building as her  (our) Grandma and treat them as if they were.   

Not all nursing homes are bad but none of them, not one, is home.

Families used to take in the old folks and it was a treat to the young children who were actually able to know and enjoy  their great-grandparents instead of having to look at a picture and imagine the sound of their voices.  And, it was even more than that, taking in the old folks instills a sense of responsibility and compassion in the young.

Compassion is almost gone.  I have watched the tragic story of Terri Schiavo and the published comments and polls absolutely amaze me.  60-70% think it's ok to starve this disabled and defenseless woman to death.   And the experts are all over the stations saying Terri Schiavo isn't aware of her surroundings and isn't even aware of her pain.  So, it's ok.  

"Think about it, would you want to live that way?", they ask, thinking they've asked you the question that will surely bring you to reason.

The answer is of course, no.  Nobody wants to live that way.  Nobody wants a disabling disease, either.  Christopher Reeve surely didn't want his spinal cord injury.  Nobody wants Alzheimer's.  Nobody wants to suffer any disease or debilitation.  It's easy to say you wouldn't want to live that way and be saying it with a basically healthy body and normal brain.  But, it if happened to you, you might feel differently.

My Grandmother never wanted anything to happen to her, just like the rest of us don't.  She certainly didn't want to have a massive stroke and then have to struggle to move or express herself.  But, when it actually happened to her, that was different.  Then, she wanted to survive --- to live.  It's our most basic instinct.

Terri's legal husband says Terri said she wouldn't want to live that way.  But there was nothing in writing, nothing legal.  Now, if you suffer a massive stroke or heart attack and someone calls 911 but you've stopped  breathing and maybe haven't breathed for many minutes --- but you don't have a living will, DNR directive in writing, the paramedics have to make every effort in their power to save you.  They have to do that because that's what medicine is about --- saving lives. If they don't know you'd rather pass on (by seeing your living will), then they must assume you want to live because that is and always has been our strongest human instinct.  

But not Terri Schiavo, because she has no living will, well, then, she must die because surely, we've decided,  "nobody wants to live that way."    We arrogantly assume for her that she'd rather die than live and we then get up on our high horses and turn it into Terri having a right to die.  And we ice the cake with:  she has a right to die --- with dignity.  

What happened to Terri Schiavo's right to live?  There is no dignity in starving to death.  There is only pain and suffering.

Because Terri Schiavo cannot speak for herself, she only has her family to protect her and the Courts won't let them.

Once again,  the black robes disregard the family and treat them as second class citizens if not criminals.  And again, the Supreme Courts stand up in their matching black robes and make  it absolutely impossible for this poor family to protect their daughter.    The society of the black robes will see to Terri's execution because it's more important to them to stand with their egos lined up, displaying their absolute power for all to fear, and bang their gavel.  They might as well have banged Terri in the head with their all important gavel, her suffering would have been over sooner and it would be more humane than the weapon they have chosen.  It's more important to stand by the original judicial decision no matter what it was because Judges are never wrong; heck, they're as close to being a god that a human can become.   Protecting the black robe society is more important than Terri Schiavo and it's a crying shame.   

I extend the question, "Would you want to die that way?" Starvation is a painful, slow and agonizing death. 
There is nothing peaceful about it.  It is absolutely horrible.  

We have a choice.  We can execute the severely disabled and try to make ourselves feel good by saying their execution is going to be comfortable. We can try to make ourselves feel good by focusing on whether or not this innocent woman's execution was or was not an issue for Congress, the Governor, or even the President rather than the fact that her life is important because she is a human being and life is sacred --- and her husband and the legal system are legally executing her.  We can create any smoke screen we need to get around the fact that the Court has just allowed her estranged husband to kill her and that's ok because she's brain damaged.  We can tell ourselves she'll be in a better place.  We can do all those things and still make baseball practice.

Or, we can show Terri Schiavo and her parents compassion and empathy.

We still have a selective but declining amount of compassion left.  The very people who get up in arms and climb up on their soapboxes about how abortion is murder and wrong, seem to think the death penalty is OK.  So many of those who have dedicated their lives to what they say is God's work, think "thou shalt not kill" applies to abortion but doesn't apply to the death penalty, fabricated war, and Terri Schiavo.   How can that be?  It's wrong to kill a life if that life is a child, but hey if you grow up, well then that's a different story.  Surely God was busy and forgot to add an asterisk to "thou shalt not kill"  in fine print at the bottom of the 10 Commandments, he meant to add "*children only".

When Terri Schiavo is gone, and she is still alive as I write this, the truth will come out that she was aware and she felt the pain of her execution.  But then it will be too late for her.  The 60-70% will allow themselves a passing sigh, but that's about it --- there's football practice to get to.  And then at the end of the week, the 60-70% will sit in church and pray and sing happily thinking their God is proud of them..

Terri Schiavo's parents will be devastated.  I know how they feel on a smaller level.  The system killed my Grandmother financially and spiritually, but did not take her life.  I was completely powerless to stop the wolves preying on my Grandmother and I have yet to find the word to express how hopeless and devastating it feels.  But, I understand the Shindlers because I've been through some of they have gone through.  Again, a guardianship was at the root of the problem.  Terri's parents couldn't protect her because she is a Ward of the State and her rights were taken away from her --- including her right to live.  

We should all be ashamed in the AMErican "justice" system's and the 60-70-%'s treatment of Terri Schiavo and her brave and strong parents.  For  direct information on Terri Schiavo's fight to live, visit her website www.terrisfight.org.