At this writing, Terri Schiavo drifts toward death in a world that we can’t fathom. Shadow land? Parallel universe? Or nothingness? Science can determine many things these days, but the distinction between conscious and “out there” is still one that’s difficult to make. Thanks to a family feud, the courts and politicians, we’ve all been laboring through a national news story that serves as a clear example of how public debate in 2005 has deteriorated into little more than a media shouting match. Each side of the debate doesn’t just label the other as wrong. In the Schiavo story, each brands the other side evil.
The usual suspects turn up their shrill volume. Elected officials, legal eagles, church leaders and fringe wackos weigh in, and then we get the dreaded pundits. From the “is-she-for-real-or-in-drag” Nancy Grace on CNN to the fish-faced Shepherd Smith on Fox News, we feel blessed to have a mute button. Even the Michael Jackson case starts to look good.
Then you turn to another ring of the circus and see the newspaper photo of a Kannapolis 10-year-old who was arrested outside the Florida hospice where Schiavo is a patient, and subsequently hear about his charming dad, a professional protester against abortion and homosexuality, not mention a registered sex offender in Florida. These are the folks that make headlines, not thoughtful clergy, the medical community, and the public.
Each side of the debate doesn’t just label the other as wrong. In the Schiavo story, each brands the other side evil.
The Schiavo case has been in the public eye for over a decade, and in itself has had a dramatic backstory that’s made it more than a debate over patients’ rights and the right to die (or live). On one side, you have Schiavo’s husband, who says his wife would never have wanted to exist as she does today. On the other, her parents have fought his assertion in the courts and in the media, contending that their daughter, who has been in a vegetative state and fed through a stomach tube, could be rehabilitated.
Instead of the circus this story has become, the real debate about our individual rights, the necessity of living wills, and how government should not interfere in matters like these are what we should be talking about. Of course, how to handle dying, death and other issues of aging and illness are also subjects most of us try to avoid.
No matter how the Schiavo story will end, lessons need to be re-learned about how debate and discourse is supposed to be conducted. The poisonous climate we live in began during the Clinton years, escalated during the 2004 election, and the air is thick with cynicism. Who will be the people to say “enough”?
Stay tuned.
E-Mail @ Shannon.Reichley@cln.com.
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 5, 2005.
