Randy Thomas’s blog reminds me that it’s been a year since Terri Schiavo had her feeding tube removed. The story faded out like so many in the media, after building up to a crescendo, and we are no more civilized or developed as a human race one year on. The issue is still as divided now as it was before.
   My good friend and Lucire photographer Doug Rimington worked in a hospice when he was younger and saw the pain people were in. Room after room of human pain and sorrow. And he fell in to the camp that was opposite to mine. Having seen my own mother pass away in 1994 to cancer, I know the experience caused her pain, but we were all brought together even more as a family. The meaning of life became stronger for us. Therefore, I sided with those who believed Terri to be “alive”, finding that the nurses who swore that she was cognizant of her surroundings were unjustly silenced by the mainstream media.
   I respect both sides of the argument. I don’t think any less of Doug because he disagreed with me. He was a bit surprised to find that there were nurses who were silenced, and, to be frank, so was I—though I admit I found those statements on a site connected to Terri’s parents, who wanted her feeding tube to remain in. Therefore, there was bound to be some bias.
   So, in 2006, where are we? We seem to get behind the latest causes as told to us by the mainstream media, and when the story has passed, we don’t seem to care much. Was Terri aware of her surroundings? If not, were those nurses lying under oath? And how come the mainstream media hardly featured those nurses’ statements?
   Perhaps by contrast, New Zealand television interviewed a Kiwi who found herself in a vegetative state and recovered, and she claimed she was fully aware of what was going on while she could not speak.
   I believe we don’t look enough into spirituality and how, when our bodies fail, we are still capable of having awareness. There, too, one finds sceptics who believe psychic abilities are confidence tricks. Instead, as a human race, we overestimate the ego and the celebrity of certain human beings—witness how we treat movie stars by raising them on to a pedestal. And with stories like Terri’s, we underestimate the ability of the human spirit—even though every day we make decisions based on instinct and those undefinable aspects of our lives.
   Our priorities are all mixed up. Whether we agree with Terri’s tube being removed or not, I say we champion the human spirit and will, before we champion ego and idolatry.
   To do this, more of us need to value human life before we pick up another tabloid or weekly talking about Tom and Katie, Brad and Angelina, or some other celebrity.
   Otherwise, nothing will change.

Del.icio.us tags: media | Terri Schiavo | celebrity | mainstream media | MSM | human spirit | life | tabloid Posted by Jack Yan, 12:45  permalink

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