I haven't gotten around to posting for the past couple of weeks, partially because I've been really busy at work (which is where I do most of my blogging), partially because I've been writing a short story that's going really smoothly, and I didn't want to mess with my energy while writing it. But mostly, I haven't written in a couple of weeks, because I haven't had much of anything to say.
I considered writing something about Terri Schiavo, but found I didn't have much to say about it that I didn't consider obvious. Bonnie sent me this article and also this one on the day Terri died. Both make good points about the political circus that this case was and about the tricky situation of determining if a brain dead woman would have wanted to die. It seems to me that the only person who really knew for sure was her, and that any further decisions amounted less to a question of "did Terri want to die?" than a question of "can we bear to see our loved one live like this?" Her parents could. Her husband couldn't. His argument won out. All the rest was political bullshit, as evidenced by this memo from U.S. President, George Bush, proving that this has more to do with votes than it does to do with life.
But I'm preaching to the choir, which is why I didn't post this article in the first place. However, in the off chance I get into a ghastly accident and find myself in a permanent vegetative state, let this stand as my official request that you let me die. Preferrably in a way that takes out as many of these people as possible.
So, like I said, I haven't written in a a couple of weeks, because I haven't had much to say.
Then two things happened yesterday: the third person commented on my lack of blog and the Pope died.
I can't really say which has driven me to write more, but I can tell you I'll miss the Pope. JP2 has been Pope since before I was born. He's the only Pope I can really visualize, and even though I'm not and never will be Catholic, I'm really going to miss the guy. I liked JP2. Sure he said all sorts of ridiculous shit about birth control and homosexuality being sins against God, but what do you expect? He's the Pope. He's a Catholic...in fact, he's THE Catholic. There's certain standards he has to uphold. However, he's been willing to break with a couple of traditions. For starters, unlike his predecessors, JP2 wasn't hit on the head with a hammer to determine his death. They just took his pulse this time. And the Cardinals won't be locked in the Sistine Chapel until they vote in the new Pope. Presumably because the ghost of Michelangelo proved just too scary for Cardinals Shaggy and Scooby to bear.
Bonnie and Darcy have a picture of JP2 up on their chalkboard, for reasons I've never known. It's a picture of him looking very contemplative. One day I walked by the chalkboard and found "Girl Scout Cookies" on the board. So I wrote in a thought bubble and the words "I likea the Girl Scout Cookies..." Bonnie and Darcy thought it was so funny, they've left it there ever since.
That's that.
Next time: Slide...
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7 comments:
The very moment the Pope died was the same moment that the Terri Schiavo news item was erased from the public mind. The coverage of the Schiavo family was a news buffer that was only intended to provide mainstream media (and the government) with a hot issue that could be easily forgotten once the Pope passed away.
-ed
I wish I could agree with that. But I think the news coverage of the Schiavo case had something more to do with the politics of the so-called pro-life movement than it does with filling space. It was a way to try to set antiabortion precedent without ever having to say the word "abortion". And it was a way for Bush to make nice with the moralists. Theresa Nielsen-Hayden has a good blog entry about this, which is here.
If he was any kind of holy man, he liked thin mints. Samoas, a.k.a. Caramel DeLites are gooey, thick, and far too sweet for someone with the austere tastes required of a true man of God.
But didn't Cardinals Shaggy and Scooby find out that the "ghost" of Michelangelo was really Ole Vicar Magoo trying to scare the kids away so he could steal the hidden treasure?
Jamsky
I'm a card-carrying leftie, but, in my heart, I supported the family. I hated the political circus. I was mad at the Cons for trivializing and making a mockery of the issue. I also was mad at my fellow Libs for their knee-jerk approach. The only two Libs that I know of who broke party ranks were columnist Margaret Carlson and Jesse Jackson.
There was no living will and she was not on life support. It wasn't a matter of "pulling the plug." Starving someone to death based on hearsay is barbaric.
Just my two cents.
~Kim
I'm going to miss John Paul II, as well. I had some issues with him (the same you mentioned), but he was a revolutionary. He could only change the status quo so much without a coup. :p
I've always grown up admiring him. My grandmother, who wasn't a Catholic, admired and respected him for his ecumenism, diplomacy, and multiculturalism.
I wore black the day he died.
~Kim
Kim:
I hear ya, re: Schiavo. I also had a few moments of disgust regarding the knee-jerk reaction of a lot of the liberals I know. And I'm definitely a liberal. As much as I would have wanted it to be a matter of black and white rights, it wasn't. It was an astonishingly complicated issue.
But it's interesting to me that, in all of this, the assumption was that it was her husband versus her family. But her husband, by virtue of being her husband, who presumably loved her well enough to keep her alive for a decade before giving up, is her family as well. I'd think this wasn't an easy choice for him, and I'd think he might have known her well enough to be able to reasonably say what choice she would want, had the choice been hers.
-matt
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