News analysis
March goes out like a lion (and so does Terri Schindler)

April 1, 2005
Curtis Dahlgren
RenewAmerica analyst

"If someone is one step ahead of everyone else, he's a leader. If someone is two steps ahead of everyone else, he's a 'crackpot.'" — Michael Savage

NO MORE EXCUSES. NO MORE SCAPEGOATS. The American people killed Terri Schindler. They were more than willing to accept the "spin" of CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN as "facts" in the New Age Gospel of the worship of euphoric death and "finality." And in many ways, Terri was three steps ahead of all of us. She wanted to live and tried to tell us that. There will be no "finality" to this case, mark my words. Like John Brown's body, Terri's ashes will be forever blowin' in the wind.

As a fellow columnist put it: "3/18 is our cultural 9/11. The Schindler-Schiavo tragedy has shocked us into wakefulness, in the most violent and gut-wrenching of ways. We, like Terri, are trying to open our eyes." But we hit the snooze button one too many times.

Boiled down to its essence, what we have here is a failure to provide Terri with the legal representation in court to which she was entitled by the Constitution of the United States. Johnnie Cochran could have gotten Terri's death sentence delayed — or even Johnny Carson. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, that other J.C. — Jesus Christ — is never going to let you forget that Terri went out like a LION, and every one of you will be reminded in perpetuity what we did to trample on Terri's Right to Life.

I used the word "we" loosely, of course. We could go on and on about "the rule of Law" and the "separation of powers" ad infinitum, but we all pierced Christ's hands collectively, and we all killed Terri, whether by sins of omission or commission. The legal and legislative battles were more about a competition to shift the buck than a competition to take the bull by the horns, and we again kept hitting the snooze button.

But those who are popping the champagne bottles full of snake oil today had better pay closest attention to my words, mark them!

Face it, most of them didn't want to be confused by the facts, relying instead on what "they say" or what so-and-so said. Ann Coulter brings up those stubborn things — the FACTS:

"There are a lot of telling facts, but two big ones are:

• The only family member lobbying for Terri's death is her husband, who is affianced to a woman he's been living with for several years and with whom he already has two children. (Today's brain twister: Would you rather be O.J.'s girlfriend or Michael Schiavo's fiancée?)
  
  
• Terri's husband has refused to allow her to be given either an MRI or a PET scan, which are also known as: "The tests that could determine whether Terri is even in a permanent vegetative state."
  
  

Other than that, I have nothing more to say myself. Current warnings by our contemporary moral and cultural sentinels having been ridiculed as "crackpot ism," my only recourse is to President Andrew Jackson, who once said in a kind of Executive Order, "LET THE JUDGES ENFORCE THEIR DECISIONS." And so, here are some more of his thoughts:

"May the Great Ruler of Nations grant that the signal blessings with which He has favored ours may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost." — Proclamation, December 10, 1832

"For myself, fellow-citizens, devoutly relying upon that kind Providence which has hitherto watched over our destinies, and actuated by a profound reverence for those institutions I have so much cause to love, and for the American people, whose partiality honored me with their highest trust, I have determined to spare no effort to discharge the duty which in this conjuncture is devolved upon me. That a similar spirit will actuate the representatives of the American people is not to be questioned; and I fervently pray that the Great Ruler of Nations may so guide your deliberations and our joint measures as that they may prove salutary examples not only to the present but to future times, and solemnly proclaim that the Constitution and the laws are supreme and the Union indissoluble." — message to Congress, January 16, 1833.

In a veto message to Congress, May 27, 1830, Jackson said, "[If] in stating this difference I go beyond what the occasion may be deemed to call for, I hope to find an apology in the great importance of the subject, an unfeigned respect for the high source from which THIS BRANCH OF IT HAS EMANATED. . . .

"Diversity of sentiment among public functionaries actuated by the same general motives . . . is an incident common to all Governments, and the more to be expected in one which, like ours, owes its existence to the freedom of opinion, and must be upheld by the same influence. Controlled as we thus are by a higher tribunal, before which our respective acts will be canvassed with the indulgence due to the imperfections of our nature, . . . all that our responsibility demands is that the public good should be the measure of our views, dictating alike their frank expression and honest maintenance . . .

"The document in which this principle was first advanced is of deservedly high authority, and should be held in grateful remembrance for its immediate agency in rescuing the country from much existing abuse and for its conservative effect upon some of the most valuable principles in the Constitution."

President Jackson here goes on to refer to the "SYMMETRY AND PURITY OF THE GOVERNMENT," and alludes to Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana, about which Jefferson at first had mixed feelings, due to his own principles of limited Federal powers. President Jefferson did the Right Thing, and the "symmetry and purity of the Government" were not destroyed by a bow to the general "public good."

THE PUBLIC GOOD HAS NOT BEEN WELL-SERVED IN THE TERRI SCHINDLER FIASCO.

Andrew Jackson went on to speak of "the necessity of guarding the Constitution with sleepless vigilance against the authority of precedents which have not the sanction of its most plainly defined powers; for although it is the duty of all to look to that sacred instrument instead of the statute book, to repudiate at all times encroachments upon its spirit, which are too apt to be effected by the conjuncture of peculiar and facilitating circumstances, it is not less true that the public good and the nature of our political institutions require that individual differences should yield to a well-settled acquiescence of the people and confederated authorities in particular constructions of the Constitution on doubtful points."

"Not to concede this much to the spirit of our institutions would impair their stability and defeat the objects of the Constitution itself," he said.

LATTER-DAY PUNDITS HAVE MUCH TO SAY ABOUT A [BOGUS] SUBORDINATION OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH TO THE JUDICIAL BRANCH, BUT NOTHING ABOUT THE SYMMETRY AND PURITY OF A GOVERNMENT "OF THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE."

Lincoln's name has been removed from some of our public schools. Washington's name likewise. Now a California public school superintendent is intent upon removing Jefferson's name from another school building. These are not the root cause but the symptoms of a nation in denial and circling the drain.

President Jackson, our first Chief Executive from the Heartland west of Appalachia, summed up the complex quite simply:

"I have urged you to look back to the means that were used to hurry you on to the position you have now assumed and forward to the consequences it will produce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the condition of that country of which you still form an important part. Consider its Government, uniting in one bond of common interest and general protection so many different States, giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of American citizen, protecting their commerce, . . . defending their frontiers, and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth.

"Consider the extent of its territory, its increasing and happy population, its advance in arts which render life agreeable, and the sciences which elevate the mind!

"SEE EDUCATION SPREADING THE LIGHTS OF RELIGION, MORALITY, AND GENERAL INFORMATION INTO EVERY COTTAGE IN THIS WIDE EXTENT OF OUR TERRITORIES AND STATES.

"BEHOLD IT AS AN ASYLUM WHERE THE WRETCHED AND THE OPPRESSED FIND A REFUGE AND SUPPORT. LOOK ON THIS PICTURE OF HAPPINESS AND HONOR AND SAY:

"WE TOO ARE CITIZENS OF AMERICA."

Enough said, you judges?

RenewAmerica analyst Curtis Dahlgren also writes a column for RenewAmerica.

© 2005 Curtis Dahlgren

The views expressed by RenewAmerica analysts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.