Letters from our Readers - March 2005

Credit Card Profiteers (See Feature Story)
I can't say I have dealt with the agencies as a customer, but I am a house keeper and I answer the phone more than I work and guess who is on the line the most? You guessed it, MBNA trying to get my boss to sign up for something that only profits them. I have told them to stop calling so many times I think that is now the way I answer the phone no matter who it is. These people are relentless. 
I do not know if I am just saying this in a foreign language and they just don't understand me or they just ignore me. How about we publish their numbers like they do ours?319-390-8411, and a complaint line 1800-421-2110.They have the nerve to call at 8:00 Saturday morning, but if you call them back you get a recording that says they are closed for the weekend and call back during "regular business hours". If they are closed then why are they calling? 
I am now at the point that when they call I pick up the phone and place it oh so quietly at the speaker of the tv and walk away. AND THEY STILL CALL BACK! I have gotten down right rude and this also does not deter them. I have gone on to ask them a line of my own irritating questions ie; are you married? what is your bank account number? do you believe in god? how often do you have sex? is it with the same sex? what is your mother's maiden name? etc. And they have the nerve to tell me this is none of my business. 
I see it this way...I did not give them this number and they are told not to call anymore and when they do they are preventing me from doing my job and if I am not doing my job this is considered personal time and if they are going to invade my personal time these questions are my business. By the way...if you call this number and ask what does MBNA stand for, they tell you... NOTHING, THEY ARE AFFILIATED WITH OTHER CREDIT CARD COMPANIES AND BANKS BUT MBNA HAS NO NAME MBNA DOES NOT STAND FOR ANYTHING. 
Heather Boggs

Buy High Sell Low
I love your article on this matter , it is the best one I have seen. I have been a citizen of Conroe for 5 years now and I have seen the good old boy system up here in almost ever part of the local government. I was also wondering whom owned CCD Construction it has never been disclosed. I found a location on the internet of 508 Bryant Rd. Conroe,TX. 77301-1762. Phone no. 936-441-5080. I drive by that location and there is a Innerspace Construction Co. there now? Why would a city take a settlement for less than what it would cost to fix something if it was not something wrong with the deal made, right? Now the taxpayers have to foot the bill. The lawyer and the Construction Co. was the ones that come out on top. I would love to see answers to all of your article made public somewhere. 
Keep up the Good work, 
Edward Makovy

Heartless Greedy Fascist Republicans
When Bush signs the legislation transferring class-action lawsuits to Federal Court, he will have taken another freedom from us. A truly free society can sue anybody, anytime: We're free. That's the sign of a truly free society. Now, we're no longer free, working people can no longer ban together to fight these heartless, greedy corporations.
Now our suits must be transferred to the 
business-friendly Federal Court. This is 
another example of why working people must fight for populist appointments to the federal bench.
Next Bush wants to protect doctors and the pharmaceutical industry from lawsuits. He also wants to limit recovery in asbestos suits. 
Tax cuts for the rich, billions for the invasion of Iraq, universal health coverage for Israel and Iraq paid for by the American taxpayer.
For middle-class working Americans Bush gives us cuts in social security, cuts in block grants to our neediest cities, cuts in education funding, and now he is considering raising taxes on workers to pay for the soft-handed, idle rich. These people are fascists in republican clothing.
Pray for our country.
Jim Kane'ala

(Come on Jim, you have to have a little faith. After all, we changed our laws in Texas. Last year, we put a limit on what the medical field could be sued for, and it's worked wonders. We have more people insured for less money. Health care cost have dropped like a rock and all is well with our average working family. 
Well, not really. Texas is now number one in something. We are the number one state in the number of uninsured working stiffs. 
Don't give up hope. Privatization and the big companies that profit from it will soon trickle down a little relief to us poor working idiots when they get back from their long extended cruise to the Bahamas. - Mike)

Image Is Everything
I am a political activist who has been actively working for the legalization of marijuana (especially for medical reasons) since the late 1980's. I have even been arrested for protesting marijuana prohibition. So I was especially interested in hearing the reported tape of President Bush discussing his past marijuana use.
According to the reports that I read and saw, President Bush said something to the affect that he would not answer questions about his past use because he did not want children doing what he once did. From my point of view, this statement clearly demonstrates how stupid President Bush is.
President Bush believes that the end justifies the means - meaning anything is justified. That is why he believes that children should be manipulated into doing the right thing by withholding information and experiences that may send them off in the "wrong" direction. That is why he can justify harming children by putting their parents in prison for choosing to pursue happiness by smoking a blunt. And that is why he believes that he is a better President for presenting a false image to the children of this nation.
Charles Henry Schoonover

Keeping The Faith
A few points regarding your recent articles covering issues of faith.
1. As a Christian, the story of Porter’s First Baptist Academy & Child Care closing (What Would Jesus Do? Feb. 11) saddened me. The actions and words attributed to Pastor Harms seemed to lack the compassion of Jesus and certainly put the families that depended on, and offered to help, the church’s educational arm in a bind. 
I would have liked to hear Pastor Harms’ version of the events, but alas, he did not offer the Bulletin access to his opinions – a very unwise choice in my opinion. I pray that this affair doesn’t further jade our community from the experience of authentic Christian faith. Please know that there are churches in Montgomery County that are different.
2. I was encouraged by Mark Williams “Leap of Faith” (Feb. 18) piece in which he laid out his honest questions regarding science and spirituality. I applaud him and the paper for running this story. 
Ours is a culture interested in the questions, answers, and issues regarding our creation and Creator. It’s only natural for these topics to be covered and discussed in the media of our day. May others like Mr. Williams to continue their search and find the Truth for which they are looking.
Jason Bellini
theBridge Communications

Honorable Congressman Brady:
Thank you for taking time to present your position on Social Security reform at the Concerned Citizens meeting on Monday, March 7, 2005, in New Caney, Texas. Your request for suggestions regarding the issue encouraged my following response. 
A quick look at Margaret Thatcher’s attempt to privatize Britain’s social net will show that our administration’s idea of investing Social Security funds in businesses does not produce fiscal security. Latin America’s experiences with this idea are not good either. In this atmosphere of globalization, their experiences are relevant to the US. 
Even the most apparently trustworthy US businesses offering stock have cooked their books and fooled many investors. Stock investments are always risks and only for people who can afford to lose that money. 
Most Americans cannot afford to lose a penny of Social Security, especially lower- and middle-class people who live hand to mouth and find retirement only a dream. If they save and do not buy, what will stimulate the economy? 
Recently, US companies that accumulated large pension funds have merged with other companies. Their pension funds were raided by the new companies, which were not responsible for keeping pension promises made by the previous companies. Because of that legal but unethical practice, Social Security became the sole pension for many people who saved and invested only to lose to unscrupulous men and women in business. 
Making every citizen co-owners of businesses and clients of investment firms can result in more citizen stockholder participation in businesses. Is business prepared to be controlled by worker investors? 
How can a worker’s interests and needs for income, savings, benefits, and pension balance with the desire for the value of stock to rise? Does a worker have to choose whether to send his job to Bangladesh, to work in the US for Bangladeshi wages, or to move to Bangladesh for a job? What kind of US society is based mostly on investment, not employment? In such a society, money is God.
Congressman Brady, you explained that government borrowing from surpluses to create the Social Security Trust Fund does not draw adequate interest. I suggest you propose legislation that provides adequate interest for the Trust Fund. 
Going into debt to take care of our elderly and vulnerable is superior to debt incurred to dominate foreign governments. This domination mode makes the US a sitting target, hence more spending for offensive wars and defensive homeland security. Accusing other nations of being evil for doing the same things we do makes the US evil too. 
Since wars have been a main reason for borrowing from former Social Security surpluses, surtax on companies that produce war materiel and provide services to our military are excellent sources for replenishing the Social Security Trust Fund. 
Companies that avoid federal, state, and local taxes by establishing addresses in off-shore tax havens should have tariffs imposed on their “foreign” products. Those tariffs could bolster the Social Security Trust Fund. 
Tax reductions for the extremely wealthy while the US is waging war is not fiscally sound. While we are at war, three percent surtax on the top five percent of economically advantaged Americans is an honorable source of replenishing Social Security. 
Number one in the minds of US citizens is the exorbitant cost of health care. US citizens pay too much for health care, and every month fewer citizens have access to any. Medical catastrophes cause families to lose their homes and their livelihoods. Under the new bankruptcy laws, this nation might as well rent space under bridges to families devastated by medical catastrophe despite their medical insurance and middle class incomes. 
Listen to the people! We value Social Security and healthy bodies in retirement. If you are not with us, you are against us. 
K. Paige

Grassroots Democrats The NEW DEAL 
It is all about people like you and me. No special interests allowed. No corporate backing. No gutter politics. We are about doing what's right for all of America. We are all over the map. Our people are for and against every issue out there because WE are the face of America. We are tired of government that works for special interest and not the people. We are tired of being a divided nation. We are all Americans and not enemies. We are tired of our tax dollars being used to spread propaganda for programs that do not work in the public interest. We are tired of our government persecuting the weakest voices in our communities. We are fed up with government for the rich and by the rich who have no regret in mortgaging our children's future while short changing them on education, healthcare, clean air and civil rights. Every thing this administration has touched has been a failure and who ends up with the bill?
You and I do with higher gas prices, higher tuition, less job security & less freedom. We have special interests running our most valued departments such as the EPA, FAA, FDA and now we must defend Social Security as well as the right to sue a negligent doctor when doctors refuse to police themselves. Have they no shame? The giant has awakened. We are not satisfied with being the lesser of two evils.
We want our country back!
Peggy Walton

To the Staff of The Bulletin
Keep up the good work! My wife and I enjoy the letters to the editor and the editorials in your paper sooooooooooooooo much! We look forward to each new edition. We will patronize your customers every opportunity we get. 
Your paper puts the Houston Chronicle to SHAME! 
My wife and I are glad that the people in southern Montgomery County can think, and do it well. 
Bill and Becky Chilcutt

Three Days $22,000
I read your article on health care system in the US. I live in Sweden with a health care system which is similar to the British system. And I have recent experience in the american system when my wife had to go to hospital for three days when we last time visited New York. Three days in a hospital at the cost of 22.000 dollars. In Sweden it would have cost a little more than 100 dollars. 
As a former chief executive of number of hospitals in Stockholm I know that you pay about 16 - 18 % of GNP in health expenditure in the United States. And in spite of that about 30 % of the population doesn´t get adequate care - only the most acute care. 
In Sweden 5 % of the population cost 50 % of the health care budget. In all this makes about 8 % of the GNP, which is half of that of the american proportion. And everyone gets care and is treated the same way as all the others. 
In Sweden these 5 % of the population don ´t exist because most of them died, too early. We have done calculations and found that if these people had survived within the american health care system, you would hav to pay about 28 - 30 % of GNP as health care. Almost one third of the resources in th e community would go to health care. It is a system almost four times as inefficient as the Swedish system, and for that part too also the British, and one third of the population doesn´t get adequate care. 
That is what the dominance of companies on the health care arena costs the american people. 
Håkan Jarmar 
Stockholm, Sweden

A Basket of New Taxes
Where, o’ where, have our little tax cuts gone? Where, o’ where, can they be?
By the look of morning-after coverage in the state’s newspapers, a review of talk radio callers, and the recent flood of phone calls from voters and taxpayers, Texans are focused on the plethora of new taxes they will be paying, not the property tax cut.
Unfortunately, House members who put their reputation on the line to vote for this enormous tax bill will soon realize what became obvious almost immediately: no one will remember the property tax cut, only the vote to tax small business through a hidden income tax and increase the sales tax to the highest rate in the nation.
For two decades, Republicans made historic gains nationally and in Texas based on a simple marketing campaign: they were the party opposed to tax shifts and rate increases. They were the fairy godmother to taxpayers.
One has to admit that House Bill 3, which passed 78-70, is indeed historic. The Republican-led Texas House of Representatives accomplished something Democrats have wanted to do for decades, but could not. The state of Texas now has an income tax.
Defenders of the bill said it was not an income tax, but a payroll tax, or a “Reformed Franchise Tax,” then it became a “compensation tax.” Now we have a “basket” of taxes from which business owners may choose. One thing is certain, the new scheme is sure to make basket cases out of Texans trying to do their taxes next year.
Every business in Texas that hires anybody will be subject to Texas’ not-an-income-tax tax. The businesses that hire people get to choose between two income taxes (based either on employee compensation or net profits) or a property tax.
Did I mention this whole debate was about reducing property taxes?
Nothing in HB 3 will keep taxes down. It does not prevent other taxing entities (cities, counties, hospital districts and the like) from raising their rates the maximum extent allowed by law – effectively erasing the “tax cut” that drove HB 3. Let us not forget the school districts, which the House just last week gave the authority to increase property taxes by ten cents.
The sad truth is that the new taxes were necessitated by the scope of the “50-cent reduction” in school taxes. If the House had simply made the school tax reduction a true 25-cent cut, the state would not be facing this income tax by another name.
Ironically, in legislation that paved the way for a hidden income tax and astronomical sales taxes, newspapers demonstrated they have better lobbyists than small businesses and low-to-middle-income taxpayers. While most every other business in the state is facing higher taxes on their goods, newspapers escaped unscathed. 
This only portends the future of the Texas tax code. Every industry in the state will line the campaign coffers of lawmakers in an attempt to ensure their employees, products and situations are exempted, credited, abated or protected. When the dust settles, small businesses will be left with the tab to be paid by individual Texans in higher prices, reduced wages and increased taxes.
The hope for the future of Texas’ economy now rests with 31 state senators and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. Will they be courageous, working to ensure a tax system that doesn’t penalize productivity and growth? Only time will tell.
For voters and taxpayers, one truth remains: the tax cut fairy has vanished, leaving us only with the cold reality of a tax bill that is wrong for Texas.
Michael Quinn Sullivan

Specialty Hospitals
Most Americans are aware that our health care system is broken.
Unfortunately, Congress got some bad advice earlier this week that would make it more difficult to fix what's wrong.
An advisory panel recommended Congress continue its temporary ban on new specialty hospitals. Specialty hospitals focus on a few areas of care, such as heart surgery or women's health. By specializing, they are able to improve the quality of care and lower costs. They also add needed capacity, as the Baby Boomers begin retiring in a few years and start to need more
medical care.
Because specialty hospitals can also take away market share from large
hospitals and cut into their profits, the large hospitals got Congress to temporarily ban new specialty hospitals in 2003. The ban is supposed to end this June, but the large hospitals have been flexing their political muscles (and $2 million in contributions in 2004) to try to eliminate the competition, and have asked Congress to extend the ban.
Allowing the ban to expire in June, as Congress originally intended, would allow specialty hospitals to once again inject competition and innovation into the nation's health care system. Patients everywhere would benefit.
Sean Parnell

Church and State
One of the most biased, "politically correct" but factually false phrases of our day is the phrase we read almost daily in the media - "constitutional separation of church and state." Our courts rule again and again using that phrase. 
Will our courts and our media ever face the truth of history that "separation of church and state" is not a creation of the Constitution. It is a creation of the judiciary (i.e. Everson vs. The Board of Education, 1947). Nowhere in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights or in the very detailed Congressional Records of over a decade after the Constitution was written (Jefferson -1801). 
News Flash!! Thomas Jefferson, who originated the phrase "separation of church and state," was not involved in the writing of either the Constitution or the Bill of Rights! When these documents were being written, Jefferson was serving in Europe as America’s Ambassador to France.
Prior to 1947, Jefferson was quoted only one time in a Supreme Court case. Since 1947, he has been quoted (and misrepresented) over 3000 times as the primary authority on the Constitution even though he was not involved in its writing. 
I challenge both the media and the judges to have the courage to say it correctly. It isn’t "constitutional separation of church and state." It is "judicial separation of church and state.”
Steve Casey

Stealth Income Tax
I wish I could say that I was surprised that Rick Perry, a small-government Republican on the campaign trail, wants to introduce Texas to an income tax, but I'm not."
Although there are many parts of the school finance reform plan currently
in the Texas House of Representatives that Texas Libertarians hate, the business tax on employee payrolls is the most odious.
The school finance plan abolishes the corporate franchise tax and replaces it with a tax on mom-and-pop proprietorship businesses. You can call it a business tax, a payroll tax, whatever, but it's still a tax on the incomes of the working people of Texas- and that means fewer Texas jobs and lower pay for Texas workers.
Although Libertarians favor the property tax cut included in the school finance reform plan, they dislike the hike of sales taxes to compensate.
Duties on luxury goods, things we can choose not to spend money on, is one thing, expanding taxable goods to include drinking water and auto repairs is nothing less than balancing the budget over the backs of Texas' poor.
Where some Libertarians are furious at the plan's details, others look forward to 2006 elections. “The boldness of these tax raising Republicans amazes me," said Libertarian state executive director Wes Benedict. "I predict a banner year for Libertarian candidates in 2006 if these tax increases pass.
"Republicans may call themselves the party of small government, but their
support of this new state income tax is proof that they're every bit the big-government advocates that Democrats are. Advocates of smaller government and lower taxes will have only one place to go- the Libertarian Party."
Libertarians call for government taxation to be kept to the absolute minimum necessary for government to fulfill its duties. There's plenty of room for reforming education and improving our public schools without hiking taxes on the poor. 
When you consider that private schools which charge less than half what Texas public schools spend per student produce much better educated students, you have to wonder where all that extra money is going to. We've established time and again that throwing more money at schools doesn't make them better. Maybe it's time we started throwing less.
Kris Overstreet
Libertarian Party of Texas
Polk County Chair

Oil-For-Food
Senate hearings in mid-November 2004 revealed that Iraq‘s Saddam Hussein skimmed over $21 billion from the UN “oil-for-food” program that was supposed to feed and provide medicine for the Iraqi people--and used the money to bribe UN and European officials. Oil-for-Food was authorized in 1995, for “equitable distribution of humanitarian relief” for Iraq which was under trade sanctions. Saddam was permitted to sell oil to earn funds for food, medicine, and social services. Instead, the money went to pay off politicians to get UN sanctions lifted, to buy unauthorized weapons, and to pay off journalists for favorable propaganda. France was a primary client. The OIl-for-Food debacle was administered by a French bank. Iraq historically received extensive French support for nuclear projects. France’s president, Jacques Chirac, oversaw Iraq’s original nuclear plant contract. France also provided Iran with 27.5 pounds of 93% weapons-grade uranium according to columnist Arnaud de Borchgrave.
Saddam’s weapons debt to France was $8 billion. Much of this armaments support was in direct contravention of the UN embargo, according to investigative reporter Bill Gertz in his new book, appropriately titled “Treachery.” The publication Human Events has reported that Russia is the largest of Saddam’s debtors, holding $9 billion in IOUs. France and Russia worked to block UN action against Saddam, and would have eventually received extensive Iraqi contracts. But it was France which would benefit most from Saddam’s perfidy, and it was France that threatened a veto against anti-Saddam action in the UN. As described in Kenneth Timmerman’s book “How the French Betrayed the US,” France had promised to join the US against Iraq, but reneged at the last minute after Saddam offered France proprietary development of Iraqi oil resources--a bribe worth billions. Up to that time, the Europeans were lobbying to get the UN sanctions on Iraq lifted, and were receiving significant payoffs from the Oil-for-food money, according to documents now in the hands of the new Iraqi government. After the lifting of sanctions, Saddam planned to activate his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs, and would have soon had intercontinental missiles as launch vehicles, as reported to Congress by Charles Duelfer last October. With the Europeans in charge of Saddam’s oil production, and Iraq spending billions for their weapons--who, among the bribed and compromised, would have rallied to stop Saddam’s next attempt to control all Middle Eastern oil? Our “allies” treachery made the Anglo-US liberation of Iraq a necessity. Saddam’s European clients may have also bought $10 billion in black market Iraqi oil. Marc Rich, the international trader who received a last minute pardon from Bill Clinton, and, subsequently, is believed to have indirectly contributed thousands to the Clinton library, may be linked to these illegal oil sales. Write or call congress and demand support for further investigations of the UN/European thievery. 
William Fielder
Peachtree City, GA.

O'Reilly Need'nt be a Factor
Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally, someone has told the gospel truth about that piece of skizan. Please continue to monitor O'Reilly and Limbaugh.
Leonard

Budget Mess 
President Bush loves to hide the truth and deceive us. He's afraid to face the public, he ducked-out of a townhall meeting in Germany because he would have to answer unscripted questions. No Jeff Gannons in the audience with softball questions.
He's also hiding huge budget cuts to education. Elementary, secondary, and vocational education will lose nearly $27 billion between 2006 and 2010. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Bush will cut $214 billion in the next five years from health care, veterans' benefits, and housing assistance.
At the same time he wants to add trillions of dollars to our national debt converting social security from a social insurance program to a gambling scheme in a rigged stock market. The current plan has no losers. Under Bush's plan there will be many losers, ask Enron, Worldcom, or Adelphia stockholders, just to name a few.
Bush cares nothing for the middle class and poor families. When asked about that group, Bush's answer has been: I don't care, I'll be dead anyway.
There will be millions of dead Iraqi children and civilians waiting for a piece of his soul.
Call or write your proud Republican legislators and ask them why they support the rich over our children and elderly.
Dan Lavielle
Seattle, Washington 

Humane Society 
I agree with what I had read from another reader about the Humane Society, for the most part. But, I seen the big raid that the Houston Humane Society did in Tyler, TX. I had seen the news and was really interested in a particular breed for my grandpa. So, I got on line and checked into it. Well, this being my first time to try online was confusing so I TRIED to call about them. Once again, more CONFUSION! I didn't know you could fill out an application online and request a certain breed! At least not at this point. All it stated was you could print out an application. Then just this past Saturday Feb.25, my cousin happened to see on television a piece about the same pets and that some of the pets from the raid were going to be adopted out instead of the 4 to 6 week in critical care they had already claimed. So, I called 4 times and left my name what type of breed I was interested in and my phone numbers! NO ONE CALLED BACK!!! So, I happen to be in the Houston area today March 2, 2005 and decided to go by and check it out. Well, if you have been to the Houston Humane Society you know how they have signs for you, Big Dogs with an arrow pointing towards one door and the other exactly the same except for Small dogs. So, we went and checked out the small dogs, unfortunately not the hairless ones that I was looking for! So, I told my husband lets just walk through the Big dogs since it was raining hard outside. I just took it that they have a critical care unit seperate from the kennels that house the animals while they are there. Well, when we were half way through I seen the hairless dogs! SADLY, there were 6 of them! They had a sigh saying NOT to touch they May have the mange and that they were NOT for Adoption! My husband said that it wouldn't hurt to ask about them. So, we did. And this is where I got a bit upset! He asked a lady there that had just came from the back with a puppy that had just gotten adopted. He said, "Ma'am, are those hairless dogs going to be up for adoption? Rudely, she said, "Those are not hairless, they are Chinese Cresteds." So, forgive me, we didn't have the exact breed name for them!! Also, if you know about the hairless breeds, then you should also know that THEY NEED WARMTH!!! You see what really angered me so much is that I have a Mexican Hairless Dog ("Rags") and I keep her in pj's and I also have a blanket on my couch so she can go and get under it if she is really cold! Well, it was kind of dumb on their part because they had some heaters in the small dog section which had all different sizes in there. And the "Chinese Cresteds" were in a wet and cold kennel with NO BLANKETS NOR HEAT!!!!! But yet the kittens and cats all had blankets or towels to cuddle in!!! And they ALL HAD HAIR to help keep them warm!! Now explain to me why is it the shelter that claims to care for these animals won't even put anything in the 2 kennels that house these 6 "Cresteds"? And I was also told that all of those were already claimed by 300 applicants that they recieved. Well, I am happy for them but for the time being it is VERY SAD for the little fellas in back freezing while they are being treated for being so neglected from there first home but think about it is their 2nd temporary home (HHS) much better? Yes, they are being feed and being medically treated but what about some warmth and affection? Not just another homeless number!!! So, it really frustrated me seeing ALL the animals looking so sad but when it comes to the hairless breeds weither it be Chinese Cresteds, American Hairless terriers or my "Rags" breed the Mexican Hairless or Xolo. They need something to keep them warm!! I would be happy to take some blankets or make a few pjs for them but when I left I was so upset and didn't even think to ask if I could send them some stuff but only if it were going to help out those 6!!! And if that is so wrong of me.....OH WELL!!!! Now, I hope no one gets angry at me but I just wanted to voice my opinon at what I seen today that just broke my heart... I think it even got to my husband that I always claim isn't so soft hearted as I am! Thanks for your time and best wishes to ALL the animals at the Humane Society and their possible adopted parents!!!! 
Cindy Watkins
Cleveland, TX 

Let Terri Schiavo die with dignity
Let Terri Schiavo die with dignity! We put animals to sleep with a painless lethal injection and even do the same for murderers. So why do we starve Terri Schiavo to death?
According to neurologist Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. This means she has no cognitive response. She cannot talk or communicate in any way. She cannot understand anything anyone tries to communicate to her. She must be fed by a tube to remain alive. She cannot attend to any of her bodily functions herself so she has tubes connected to her for elimination of body waste. But is starvation ever death with dignity?
Terri Schiavo was married when she had a stroke 15 years ago, her brain being deprived of oxygen leaving her as a vegetable. She had never made a living will saying what she wanted to be done in such an event. Her husband says he told her she would not want to be kept alive. I believe he is telling the truth and agree that her own personal wishes should be respected.
I do not agree that her parents or anyone else has a right to decide this; this was decided between her and God; she already decided what she wanted done and told her husband this. So I agree with her husband that her wishes should be respected. But not by starving her to death! 
Certainly this is a tragedy. It is always a tragedy to lose someone you love. But Terri Schiavo really died 15 years ago. All that remains now is a body without any awareness of life or love, without any awareness of feeling or hope for recovery. So I agree with her husband that everyone should do as she wished and let her body also die. 
However, I do not agree that Terri Schiavo or anyone else in her situation should be starved to death. A more humane response would be to put Terri peacefully to rest the same as is done with animals so badly injured or diseased that this must be done to humanely end their suffering.
Why should others deny this woman the right to die with dignity? It is cruel and inhumane to deny someone who is in a persistent vegetative state the right to die with dignity. People are so selfish, cruel and afraid that they would have this woman exist like a vegetable against her expressed wishes and then starve her to death. This is quite insane if you ask me and it draws into question the validity of any religious beliefs which would dictate such behavior.
If Terri Schiavo were my wife I would agree with her that she be put to sleep and allowed to die with dignity. We even give convicted criminals lethal injections which is a humane procedure. Yet this woman is being starved to death! Those who really believe in God should be protesting that she be put to death humanely by lethal injection!
Everyone has invaded this woman's life and made a personal and private affair a public circus. Terri Schiavo should have been allowed to die with dignity 15 years ago!
With physical illness there is hope for recovery but when the brain is dead the person you knew and loved is already gone so it is best to let their body die without suffering and with dignity. This is what is meant by death with dignity.
Some people argue that as long as Terri Schiavo's body lives there is hope. Yes, there is hope, but not for those who are brain dead. Hope is something the living share with the living; not with the brain dead who have already left this world and are waiting for their bodies to join them!
Of course I feel for Terri Schiavo's parents. It is awful they have had to go through this for all these years. But you see, this is also why Terri Schiavo's wishes should have been honored. She did not want them or anyone who loved her to have to go through this terrible ordeal. Nor would I want anyone I love, to have to go through such an experience were this to happen to me. So I have prepared a living will and specified that I would not want to be kept alive as a vegetable. I recommend everyone do the same that families and loved ones are not burdened with this issue. If my heart, mind and soul are gone, let my body go too and let me die with dignity!
Death with dignity is also a choice which sets those who love us free to go on living, loving and hoping, for as I said, these are experiences of the living, not experiences of the dead, and for all practical purposes, Terri Schiavo died 15 years ago. May she rest in peace!
Terry Lynch
Montgomery, AL
terrylynch@aol.com

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