Okay, I looked around and there really isn't much gay news happening that's worth writing about- although I did find this Advocate story about a lesbian who fled the U.S. for Canada but is now returning (she'd "rather remain a disgruntled American queer. Free to be oppressed, free to be maligned, and free to be trampled upon, all in the name of political expediency," but is "ready to take up the mantle for positive change-not just for gays and lesbians but for all Americans") to be the perfect embodiment of the Advocate-gay worldview. It appears in the same online issue along with the expected knee-jerk vilification of Jeff Gannon.
So, I'll follow up again with Terri Schiavo, now being starved to death in Florida. Many of our commentors are enraged by my stance. Too bad. To paraphrase Lillian Hellman, I won't cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. And when there's doubt, I won't hesitate to err on the side of life. But like the abortion battle, nothing can convince those who disagree; it's a gut issue. And my gut tells me that Michael Schiavo should no more get away with murder than O.J. Simpson or Robert Blake or, oh, never mind.
I will say that to those of our readers on the left who are
enraged that I could possibly support any position that Tom DeLay
might support (no need to think, just conclude that whatever
they favor must be opposed), I note that not all Democrats
are with you, either. As this piece in Slate
reports:
In the Senate, a key supporter of a federal remedy was Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a progressive Democrat and longtime friend of labor and civil rights, including disability rights. Harkin told reporters, "There are a lot of people in the shadows, all over this country, who are incapacitated because of a disability, and many times there is no one to speak for them, and it is hard to determine what their wishes really are or were. So I think there ought to be a broader type of a proceeding that would apply to people in similar circumstances who are incapacitated."
I don't agree with Harkin on most issues, but I do think this
makes the point that it's not only members of the great right-wing
conspiracy who oppose starving Terri Schavio to death. Of course,
some will still, I'm sure, conclude that both Harkin and I are
tools of Tom DeLay!
Update:
Chuck Muth writes, perceptively:
This intellectual and constitutional battle over the Schiavo matter is taking place almost exclusively among those on the right, with bona-fide card-carrying limited-government types finding themselves on opposite sides of the issue.
I'd agree with that. Some who oppose the congressional action paint it as a simple matter of federal encroachment on the states; it's not (simple, that is), if you believe the central responsiblity of government is, above all else, defending life and liberty.
Intemperate Update: On the death watch: Wouldn't it be more humane - and certainly more honest - to administer a lethal injection? But somehow starving her allows those responsible to obscure causality regarding their actions.
Is the Village Voice a Tom DeLay mouthpiece? Nat Hentoff has some eye-openers about Michael Schavio's behavior.
Final update: Cruel to the
end, Michael Schiavo denies her parents' request to be with
Terri as she died.
--Stephen H. Miller.