No place for politicians

In Tucson, earlier this week, regarding the Terri Schiavo case, President George W. Bush said, "This is a complex case with serious issues, but in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life."

Gosh, too bad he didn't feel this way when he sent 15,000 young Americans to their death in a meaningless and indecisive war in Iraq.

All because, at the start of his first term, he wanted an issue he could call his own.

Fifteen years ago, 26-year-old Terri Schiavo collapsed in her Florida home due, apparently, to a potassium imbalance that caused her heart to stop temporarily, thus depriving her brain of the required oxygen. Twelve years later, a jury awards her husband Michael a settlement of $700,000 against Terri's doctors for their misdiagnosis.

The following year, her parents lose their case that Michael be removed as Terri's guardian. And that, so far as I can see, is pretty much where things stand nearly two decades later, when everyone and his/her uncle invites himself/herself to.

Unless my political memory is playing tricks on me, a famous Conservative Republican campaign slogan not too long ago said, "Get government off our backs!," and in those years when Ronald Reagan was on our backs spending our money as if it was going out of style, successfully out-spending the Soviet Evil Empire and charming us out of our good sense, it was one of the sayings that helped elect him President, and disunify us as a nation.

My question is this: What right does a U.S. President, regardless of political party, have, without his being asked, giving public notice of his opinion regarding a very private matter.

Pretty soon he'll be inviting himself to be a third person in the Schiavos' bedroom.

Terri Schiavo clearly didn't believe that human life is simply a matter of breathing.

Her husband told reporters that she told him she wouldn't want to live in a "persistently vegetative state." Evidently, however, her parents do. And who can blame them?

If my daughter were in the place of Terri Schiavo, I think I might well try to argue that she be re-connected to her feeding tube, in the event that modern medicine might find a way to repair a damaged brain.

And, every time I passed her pathetic figure lying helpless on the bed, I would look into her face and believe I saw her smiling up at me, in the same way I saw Jessica smiling up at me before her doctor told me that in her first couple of months, what a parent takes to be a smile on his infant's face is actually the infant passing gas. Nature can be damn cruel.

According to USA TODAY, "Florida state courts have ruled repeatedly that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state" . . . and her husband expressed anger that Congress had stepped into the dispute.

"This is a sad day for Terri," he said. "It's also a sad day for everyone in this country because the United States government is going to come in amd trample all over your personal, family matters."

Amen.

A recent Gallup poll on the question, "Should Terri Schiavo's feeding tube have been removed?" reported that 56 percent of those interviewed said Yes, 31 percent said No, and 13 percent had no opinion. That sounds like a pretty clear majority opinion, doesn't it?

Politicians, go back on vacation where you belong, where you can't get into any trouble..