Actually, more than one of us women has wondered the following about the Schiavo case:
Far from reflecting an “angelic” repose, those home videos from 3 years ago are revolting and humiliating. Terri Schiavo evidently took great pride in her appearance. We’ve wondered if she’d be horrified that the whole world has been pummelled with images of that vacuous, hideous, infantile grimace which her parents interpret as cognizance.
We’ve also wondered about her parents, what motivates them to “hang on” to a daughter who in our view, left them a long time ago. As mothers of adult children, we can’t imagine seeing our own bright, funny, loving kids reduced and degraded in that way.
We’ve also wondered about the motivation of the radical Right: why have they latched on to this case, rather than that of the Houston infant who was pulled off life support last week?
Finally, and I claim this for myself as the lone Pagan among my near and dear: if the Religious Wrong is so convinced that heaven awaits, why are they so hysterical about the Roll Up Yonder being called for Terri Schiavo?
Well, answers are slowly leaking out of both the mainstream and alternative media.
First, we are not alone in wondering what Terri Schiavo would have thought of those videos: her brother-in-law shares our opinion that she would have been “so upset to have the world seeing her that way”.
We are also not the only ones wondering about the Schindlers’ media manipulation and obsession with publicity. From the same article quoted above:
Scott Schiavo said he felt sorry for Mrs. Schindler, who he said was always close to her daughter, but not for Mr. Schindler, who he said thrived on the attention. If it were not for the father, he added, “this could have been resolved a long time ago.”
Finally, what’s “in this” for the Religious Wrong? Well, in a word, money.
According to the New York Times, Conservative organizations have been raking in a bundle because of the Schiavo case, and not just to fund her parents’ endless stream of lawsuits. According to the article, at least one such organization plans to spend any surplus on “conservative causes”.
As to the question of why the Religious Wrong rend their collective clothing over a soul’s imminent ascension from earth to heaven: Conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks asked the same question in his column this morning.
That Terri Schiavo seems to be slipping away now, during Easter weekend, is unfortunate for a number of reasons.
First, some of us women are of the opinion that her suffering should have ended a long time ago.
Second, if she does pass on this weekend, then the Religious Wrong will interpret this as a sign of her sainthood.
She’ll probably remain a political “cause”, perhaps even to next year’s midterms and beyond, but the symbolic coincidence would make her manipulation by the Right even more unendurable.
Lastly, some of us are wondering why the medical community – and the so-called Right-to-Lifers – aren’t doing even a little tub-thumping about the dangers of eating disorders, especially in young women, and our national obsession with thinness.
It seems the ultimate irony that Terri Schiavo, who starved herself into a coma 15 years ago, is now the subject of a massive PR campaign around “eating”, if that’s what you call getting your nourishment through a tube.
The whole thing is enough to make a rational being sick.