Friday, March 18, 2005
Questions for Christians
While people who didn't help Terry while she was starving herself try to get the courts to force feed her today, Robin has started Questions for Christians to try to understand the hypocrisy of the religious right. Comments are open to anyone who wants to answer the questions. At least until we get Christian death threats.Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Selfish, Shortsighted Neighbors
The selfish, shortsighted views of neighbors like [LA Times] letter writer Jim Blumel Sr. are why the Santa Clarita Valley, pristine little over a decade ago, now has some of the worst air in the country. It has to do with poor development planning of housing ( huge, thoughtless, waterless, tract housing owned by people that don’t even live here) and freeways, as well as a cavalier “I have a Hummer, so I’ll damn well exercise my American right to just pick up my photos at Sav-on in it” mentality. He says “Whatever negative impact occurs to the environment [due to oil-drilling], it would be a small and necessary trade-off to save us all from impending disaster.” This is wrong! We need the planet, it doesn’t need us. That’s like saying the cherry is in charge of the sundae. We can leech everything we can from our country, sure. Become one big, ugly Texas. What then? The oil is gone, the environment choked, and it’s too late to turn solar (one of many infinite energy sources yet to be developed). So the whole country is a toxic mess, what then? Humans die off. The few left with the most gun power rule our land, taking over the last gallons of oil by killing for it, a la “Mad Max.”It’s time for a reality check. Unless you are extra-terrestrial, environmental protection is in your best interest. If you are among the evangelical Christians that believe Jesus is coming back real soon, try to remember the trinity. He may very well choose the year 3000 to come back. In that case, killing ourselves off in the meantime just amounts to less work for Him.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Devotion Through Dignity:
Hopes for the Memory of Terry Schiavo and Those Who Love Her.
By Robin Supak
Terry Schiavo’s tragically short life and equally tragic long death have touched me deeply. We are both forty-one year old white women, raised privileged Roman Catholic. We both entrusted a man with our lives and married him. The similarity abruptly ends there, because where I have a healthy fifteen year old daughter and a son, she has a fifteen year old abyss.
Fifteen years ago, Terry Schiavo’s heart stopped long enough to suffocate most of her brain. It stopped from a potassium imbalance due to anorexia. She succeeded in starving herself almost , but not completely, to death. She was mostly gone, and as the years went by, became unrecognizable as the stunning, conscious, and conscientiously beautiful woman she once was. The loss of Terry in the prime of her life was tragic, awful, and so unnecessary.
She had a mental disease with physical consequences, and that’s what killed her. The time to treat her malnutrition, to force-feed her, was before she destroyed herself. Anorexia, like alcoholism, is insidious; it doesn’t happen overnight. This illness develops when a person, usually female, feels they have no control over their life. That, combined with low self-esteem and the positive reinforcement that comes with being thin and looking “good,” can be fatal. The guilt the family feels must be overwhelming, but protracting her death is a selfish salve for not having been able to help her when she really needed it.
It is time for her parents, picketing Christians, and the governor of Florida to let her go. It is time to count their blessings from her life, and be grateful they get to say goodbye at all. Fortunately, Terry wasn’t vaporized beyond DNA recognition at the World Trade Center. She wasn't washed away in a tsunami, and she didn’t vanish from her bedroom during the night. Everyone gets to kiss, hold, and say goodbye to her. For that, they are so very fortunate.
If well meaning people want to honor her life, they should share her story, and let others learn from it. Start a foundation in her name. Speak to girls in schools and groups about the dangers of under-eating/ over-dieting. Show them the pictures of Terry at her gorgeous prime, and tell them she didn’t find herself attractive enough. Next, show a picture of her at the last of her life, her head floating and grinning like a sad, ironic bobble-head doll, a way she would never have wanted herself remembered.
Her family and community ought to, at last, honor the only major adult commitment Terry was able to make on her own before she was lost: marrying Michael Schiavo. If marriage is really sacrosanct, demonstrate that. Respect the wishes of a wife implied purely by virtue of marriage. If she was truly a loving person, she’d want her family, her husband and parents, to move on, certainly after fifteen years.
Fortunately, Terry Schiavo was devout. She grew up believing there is a special place in the kingdom of heaven for her. There, she will be free from the constraints her body holds on her, and set those that love her free to go on living and loving, as well. Death is a part of life, and so it is, however reluctantly, a blessing.
Hopes for the Memory of Terry Schiavo and Those Who Love Her.
By Robin Supak
Terry Schiavo’s tragically short life and equally tragic long death have touched me deeply. We are both forty-one year old white women, raised privileged Roman Catholic. We both entrusted a man with our lives and married him. The similarity abruptly ends there, because where I have a healthy fifteen year old daughter and a son, she has a fifteen year old abyss.
Fifteen years ago, Terry Schiavo’s heart stopped long enough to suffocate most of her brain. It stopped from a potassium imbalance due to anorexia. She succeeded in starving herself almost , but not completely, to death. She was mostly gone, and as the years went by, became unrecognizable as the stunning, conscious, and conscientiously beautiful woman she once was. The loss of Terry in the prime of her life was tragic, awful, and so unnecessary.
She had a mental disease with physical consequences, and that’s what killed her. The time to treat her malnutrition, to force-feed her, was before she destroyed herself. Anorexia, like alcoholism, is insidious; it doesn’t happen overnight. This illness develops when a person, usually female, feels they have no control over their life. That, combined with low self-esteem and the positive reinforcement that comes with being thin and looking “good,” can be fatal. The guilt the family feels must be overwhelming, but protracting her death is a selfish salve for not having been able to help her when she really needed it.
It is time for her parents, picketing Christians, and the governor of Florida to let her go. It is time to count their blessings from her life, and be grateful they get to say goodbye at all. Fortunately, Terry wasn’t vaporized beyond DNA recognition at the World Trade Center. She wasn't washed away in a tsunami, and she didn’t vanish from her bedroom during the night. Everyone gets to kiss, hold, and say goodbye to her. For that, they are so very fortunate.
If well meaning people want to honor her life, they should share her story, and let others learn from it. Start a foundation in her name. Speak to girls in schools and groups about the dangers of under-eating/ over-dieting. Show them the pictures of Terry at her gorgeous prime, and tell them she didn’t find herself attractive enough. Next, show a picture of her at the last of her life, her head floating and grinning like a sad, ironic bobble-head doll, a way she would never have wanted herself remembered.
Her family and community ought to, at last, honor the only major adult commitment Terry was able to make on her own before she was lost: marrying Michael Schiavo. If marriage is really sacrosanct, demonstrate that. Respect the wishes of a wife implied purely by virtue of marriage. If she was truly a loving person, she’d want her family, her husband and parents, to move on, certainly after fifteen years.
Fortunately, Terry Schiavo was devout. She grew up believing there is a special place in the kingdom of heaven for her. There, she will be free from the constraints her body holds on her, and set those that love her free to go on living and loving, as well. Death is a part of life, and so it is, however reluctantly, a blessing.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Re: “Opponents of ‘Clear Skies’ Bill Examined”, Feb 19
Are anti-environmentalists extraterrestrial, selfish and childless, or just greedy?
Andrew Wheeler, the majority staff director of the Environment and Public Works Committee, considers environmentalists “outside interests.” The funding, Wheeler said, “goes to who they’re speaking for.” Mr. Wheeler and Sen. Inhofe are clearly speaking for “inside interests,” as in “industry.” When pro-earth activists win, every living thing wins. Breathing is not just a private interest, it is fundamentally and crucially public. Environmental defenders are truly pro-life. They fight for the survival of everyone, including present and future generations of nature-haters. If Wheeler and the senator want to waste time and money treating environmentalists as the enemy, they should do so on industry's dime, not at the expense of trusting, air- loving taxpayers and their descendents.
Are anti-environmentalists extraterrestrial, selfish and childless, or just greedy?
Andrew Wheeler, the majority staff director of the Environment and Public Works Committee, considers environmentalists “outside interests.” The funding, Wheeler said, “goes to who they’re speaking for.” Mr. Wheeler and Sen. Inhofe are clearly speaking for “inside interests,” as in “industry.” When pro-earth activists win, every living thing wins. Breathing is not just a private interest, it is fundamentally and crucially public. Environmental defenders are truly pro-life. They fight for the survival of everyone, including present and future generations of nature-haters. If Wheeler and the senator want to waste time and money treating environmentalists as the enemy, they should do so on industry's dime, not at the expense of trusting, air- loving taxpayers and their descendents.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Re: Daily News “Eye for an eye” (Your Opinion, Jan.21)
I’d like to respond to the letter writer who’s question was “Why don’t these people (that ‘get angry when the criminal system sends someone to die for his or her crime’) get angry at the criminal who thinks he is God by ending the life of others?” The answer is I do get angry. I am angered by unnecessary death, period. The evil, insanity, or combination thereof that compels someone to commit murder is wrong, and bad, and should not be repeated. It is unnecessary. Isolating someone until they die is akin to sending a child to the corner to really think about what they have done, forever. They spend the rest of their lives (at a much lower cost to taxpayers) trying to reflect, repent, and perhaps even redeem themselves on some level. Is that not better than we, as a society that condemns it, also committing unnecessary murder?
[This letter to the Daily News was published Jan. 26, 2005]
I’d like to respond to the letter writer who’s question was “Why don’t these people (that ‘get angry when the criminal system sends someone to die for his or her crime’) get angry at the criminal who thinks he is God by ending the life of others?” The answer is I do get angry. I am angered by unnecessary death, period. The evil, insanity, or combination thereof that compels someone to commit murder is wrong, and bad, and should not be repeated. It is unnecessary. Isolating someone until they die is akin to sending a child to the corner to really think about what they have done, forever. They spend the rest of their lives (at a much lower cost to taxpayers) trying to reflect, repent, and perhaps even redeem themselves on some level. Is that not better than we, as a society that condemns it, also committing unnecessary murder?
[This letter to the Daily News was published Jan. 26, 2005]
Thursday, January 13, 2005
RE: LA Times “AQMD releases SCV smog study,” Jan. 13
We in the SCV have some of the worst air in the nation, and the AQMD says it’s mostly not our fault. Travis Lange, Santa Clarita’s environmental services manager, is obviously relieved by that conclusion when he says “We had always understood that our ozone migrated here from other parts” and “The report pretty much says that air quality is one of those things where the source isn’t always where it ends up.” Giving the impression that we are absolved of responsibility for the poor state of our air is a huge disservice to the community. There is plenty that residents can do to make a difference. Take the bus and the train more often. Cooperate with your neighbors and carpool to school, practices, the mall, church, everything. Make the effort to consolidate errands from home to avoid unnecessary trips. Don’t buy vehicles bigger than you really need (sending all Hummers to Iraq would help both our air quality and our troops tremendously). The bottom line is that everyone living here can do something to help air quality here while they are here. Not only will we get better air without waiting for “other parts” to do something, we can also set a good example for our children, who really need to learn conservation in order to survive in the future.
We in the SCV have some of the worst air in the nation, and the AQMD says it’s mostly not our fault. Travis Lange, Santa Clarita’s environmental services manager, is obviously relieved by that conclusion when he says “We had always understood that our ozone migrated here from other parts” and “The report pretty much says that air quality is one of those things where the source isn’t always where it ends up.” Giving the impression that we are absolved of responsibility for the poor state of our air is a huge disservice to the community. There is plenty that residents can do to make a difference. Take the bus and the train more often. Cooperate with your neighbors and carpool to school, practices, the mall, church, everything. Make the effort to consolidate errands from home to avoid unnecessary trips. Don’t buy vehicles bigger than you really need (sending all Hummers to Iraq would help both our air quality and our troops tremendously). The bottom line is that everyone living here can do something to help air quality here while they are here. Not only will we get better air without waiting for “other parts” to do something, we can also set a good example for our children, who really need to learn conservation in order to survive in the future.
