Written by DAVID KEYES

March 20, 2005

Just when you think it can't get any worse, the GOP finds new and inventive ways to play puppeteer with the civil liberties of people in this country. Today's example: their interference in the now-legendary Florida case of Terri Schiavo, who is in a tug-of-war between life and death because of shameless political agendas currently being waged at the national level.

For those who don't know by now, Terri Schiavo has pretty much lived in a vegetative state for the past 14 years, kept alive via a mere feeding tube. For the past several years, though, it has been her husband's wish to have that tube removed -- an action that is not exactly radical, especially in an age when people recognize the notion that having to forever depend on machines to stay alive is not what you call proper living. Her parents disagree, however, and their challenge against him has served as the groundwork for a fierce and disgraceful political morality issue that the Republicans have been only too eager to capitalize on.

Naturally, they have taken the "high road" in this issue and want to keep Schiavo on that feeding tube. "This is about defending life," says Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary. Utter bullshit if you ask me, especially from an administration that didn't care enough to plan out a sufficient war strategy that might have spared a few hundred lives of American soldiers in Iraq (but that's a separate issue, I guess). The real irony here is that these politicians, amidst all their misguided activism, somehow seem to think that they are bettering something by taking this moral ground. Exactly how is it a benefit for the victim? Is keeping Shiavo alive by these means really what you call defending life? Gimme a flippin' break. This is yet another example of the country's current political majority continually moving towards the far right of the political spectrum. They are invading our lives, playing totalitarian, and abandoning all sense of priority. What next?--modifying the constitution to discriminate people based on their sexual orientation?

A recent motion in Florida allowed doctors to remove the feeding tube this week, but if the government has its way, the tube will be put back in either Monday or Tuesday after Congress passes a resolution to keep her alive (at least until the case goes to the Supreme Court). I don't want to necessarily offend anyone on either side of this issue (even though I would hope that someone would be removing my feeding tube if I were ever in that condition), but in any case I am greatly disturbed, saddened and appalled at the actions of the political majority in this case. How cruel, vicious and self-serving it is of them to take this one innocent victim and turn her into some kind of martyr for their one-dimensional moral argument on human life. People like this have no business running a democratic government