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03/31/2005: "Political Hunting Season Opens Today"

Today is March 31st and it is the official opening day of hunting seasons for judges and politicians. The season opens today and shall continue through every election until these pompous assess are replaced with reasonable, thoughtful, and wise people. Now before some crazy zealot misinterprets this, I am not calling for a literal hunting season through the use of violence. That would be illegal and I believe in the rule of law. Laws that need to be changed, need to be obeyed while one gets them changed.

Terri Schiavo was murdered today by the judicial and legislative branches of the Florida state government and the United States Government. This horrific act of violence that was perpertrated on her will not stand without repercussions to those responsible for not stopping the insanity of this tragedy that didn't need to happen, shouldn't have happened, and better not happen again.

I have discussed this case with a gamut of people, some of whom are close friends that I respect both their intelligence and wisdom. Each time I had these conversations, I would throw out a few probing questions to see if they were aware of all the nuances of this case before they had formed an opinion. Most were not any more knowledgeable than the snippets one hears on the news and glances at in the papers. Pity because life and death decisions were being made here that affected a lot more than just one family. No one I talked to who was well versed in the nuances of this case was in agreement with the decisions the court made. One friend even told my husband when he was listing some of the very troubling aspects of this case , "You know way too much about this case, I gotta go."

The polls that were conducted asked who should be able to make these types of decisions for you, your parents or your spouse? The overwhelming response was your spouse, of course. If the poll had asked, Who should be able to make these types of decisions for you, your parents or your estranged spouse?, I suspect the numbers would have changed dramatically. When I said this to a friend, he responded with something along the lines of Michael Schiavo was not estranged, it's been 15 years and he has been there. Estranged by primary definition, according to Merriam Webster Online,: "to remove from customary environment or associations". The day Mr. Schiavo took up with another woman, right or wrong, he estranged himself from Terri. If you think of the second most common definition, "to arouse especially mutual enmity or indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness" then that term might be harsh. So let's reword the poll question to Who should be able to make these types of decisions for you, your parents or your spouse who is currently living with another person with whom he/she now has children ? That's about as objective as you can get with this one and I suspect the numbers reverse even farther apart in favor of your parents. Most thinking adults immediately see a potential conflict of interest in this situation, the others are hopeless and deserve what they get.

Those of us who thought it was prudent under these circumstances to err on the side of caution and choose life have a fight on our hands now. We need to make sure that unelected judges are conservative in their beliefs and get them appointed to the federal courts and if that takes the stupidly named "nuclear option" to get an up or down vote, then do it. Let your Senators know this. We need to make sure that judges, such as Judge Greer, that are elected are voted out. We need to make sure that when a United States Supreme Court Justice sites international law in their opinion that the United States Congress starts Impeachment proceedings immediately because their job is to uphold the United States Constitution which has absolutely nothing to do with International Laws or any other country. We need to make sure that the partisian hacks in Congress know that they are just as responsible for this tragedy as the courts are and get them out of decision making positions via the ballot box. We need the courts and the government to know that this power play pissing match they engaged in cost an innocent woman her life and they are just as responsible as the monster she married.

My heart breaks for the family that loved her and grieve for their loss. May she rest in peace. And may the bastards that killed her today never get a moments peace in any life.