Terri

Where to start? Such a tragic story. Such a pull of emotions. Spousal right. The sanctity of life. The freedom of death. And a real story. A horrible situation. Yet a time for us all to reflect and to ponder the difficult thoughts that more than likely will face us at some level some day directly or indirectly.

Below you can see where I stood on this issue. "Stay out of my life!" And I still feel this is true. At this point, there I don't see a means to distinguish between black and white. So someone has to be made in change if the situation requires.

But I have to say, I'm learning a lot from this poor family's tragedy. I've been forced to think about the other side. Why has "The Right" fought so diligently over this? Why have they put politics into this and put their political necks on the line for this case? I don't believe they are so low to drag this into the national spotlight to court the evangelical vote. I have more faith in them than that. So I have been listening. I have been trying to understand their drive to sound the message of life.

I keep trying to think of analogies. And I keep hearing people on talk radio discuss this subject. "Pulling the feeding tube is no different from pulling the ventilator." "Suffocate, starve, what's the difference?" But I'm coming to think that this isn't the root of this story. The root of "the sanctity of life" plight.

For me (and this case is all about you. If it's not, Terri's life and death has no purpose to you and she died like any other death that day. Except it was humiliatingly dragged out into the open.), Terri's life has made me think of this situation beyond an brain injured spouse. There's a fine line between life and death.. Where do you draw it? A coma, a ventilator and a heart lung machine? A feeding tube? Alzheimer’s? the mentally retarded ("Who'd want to live like that?") Where is the line? And where should our government get involved. Of coarse the government should stop any attempt to euthanize retarded people. And grandpa in the nursing home with Alzheimer’s shouldn't be allowed to perish because his brain can't take him to the store to buy food (thereby "letting nature take it's coarse). But where's the next line? Terri? Terri.

So this IS a story that matters to me. It isn't just a family's tragedy being dragged through the street for political gain. It's about the future of society. It's about where we draw the line. And if we don't continue this discussion today, then Terri's sacrifice - Terri's family's sacrifice is for not. And Pope John Paul leaves us at the very same moment. I valiant missionary for the sanctity of life. His sacrifice, and the celebration of his life in his death. That life leads to death. That death is eventual. But life is eternal even in death.

So don't let the subject fade, or Terri's death and the Pope's death are without meaning - without lesson. We must refine the line. Whether Terri wanted it that way or not.