Screw your moral outrage
Terri Schaivo has died, and may she rest in peace. I pray that she’ll find a happier existence in the next world than she found in this one. #
I haven’t read or talked much about the case because I just think it’s a deeply personal situation. I cannot presume to know the pain of the husband or of Schaivo’s family. I can’t imagine there was a pain-free outcome that would have pleased everyone. Everyone involved suffered from this tragedy, and the public spectacle only exacerbated the pain. #
Better men than I have weighed in already, but here’s what I will say: What appalls me about the radical right’s reaction to this case is how absolutely hypocritically pious it is. #
Do you notice how these radicals always rally around the rights of those who have—literally—no voice? These right-wing zealots easily summon the moral certainty to kill or condone the killing of death row inmates, of doctors who perform abortions, of Arab prisoners of war, or of innocent civilians if they happen to be living near good bombing targets. In the name of their god, they will sanction, countenance, and call for the murder of their enemies. But they’ll draw the line at the brain-dead and the fetus. Anybody who can express their own point of view will be either ignored, dismissed, or shouted down with extreme prejudice, but humans whose life states are fuzzy or indeterminate will be defended to the last breath. #
Conservatives stay mum as hundreds die every second from AIDs, hunger, preventable diseases, and abject poverty. They support the rights of companies to poison our water and food, to spoil our land, and to consign country and citizen to the poorhouse. They rip great swaths out of our Constitution in the name of preserving national security. But let some vegetative victim come close to peace after umpteen years of extraordinary hospice care and exhaustive legal battles, and suddenly the “sanctity of life” is their number one issue. Suddenly the party of small government is bringing the full weight of the legislature to bear to micromanage a painful, thorny, complex family drama. Suddenly, the party that has fought so hard to preserve the sanctity of marriage is sanctimoniously shrieking at a faithful husband who has been dealt a blow that God forbid any of them should ever come close to understanding. #
Terri Schaivo was a wingnut’s wet dream. She represented metaphorically the ideal citizen of a conservative utopia. She was unable to communicate, unable to feel pain or pleasure, unable to respond to those around her, unable to defend herself, unable to participate in the struggle that was taking place over her. Brain-dead, thought-free, choice-free, completely dependent on others for every function, Schaivo could be controlled and manipulated to suit any purpose. She was an empty vessel, to which all manner of ideals could be ascribed, and none refuted. #
I wish her peace. I wish her family and her husband peace. And I desperately hope that those who found Schaivo such an inspiration for passionate words about the importance of respecting life will remember that there are millions and millions of conscious, thinking, feeling people on the point of the knife who could really use a few ardent advocates on their side, too. #
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Thursday, March 31st, 2005 @ 11:32 pm 
Politics Matters
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