Flickinger Trumps His Last Tripe Attempt....

This time around, in a local conservative newspaper of Washington County, called the Observer-Reporter, Flickinger once again, this time using the Declaration of Independence as his basis of opposition, takes on "right to life" for Terry Schavio.

It's filled with juvenile comparisons, and this glaring contridiction.....

"Terri Schiavo has been blessed with the God-given right to life. Vegetable or not, as long as she can sustain her own life, she has the right to that life, and anyone who tries to take it away is guilty of murder. If Terri's husband, Michael, is successful in killing his wife, by removing the feeding tube, he should be charged, tried, and convicted of murder."

Just two quick points to this hollow grandstanding...

1. Has anyone told Flickinger that "Terri can't sustain her own life?"

2. If Michael is to be charged, tried, and convicted of murder, are all of his accomplices consisting of the doctors, county, state, and federal judges, including the Supreme Court of the US, who have rejected and denied this case, have the same fate?

Let's be straight here. No one wants to see anyone die. But for anyone to make contradictory and frail comparisons to make a point for life, when so many learned people have first-hand knowledge of the case have decided otherwise, is themselves, a dizzying display of the phrase "a few bricks shy of a load."

Unfortunately, the full text is not available on-line at http://www.obsrver-reporter.com If anyone finds, if anywhere, where Flickinger has placed this full piece of nonsense, let us know.

OP

This is my rebuttal letter to the editor on Flickinger's piece. Oh, btw, as in other op-ed's, he's no longer being described as a former anchor/reporter, or even writer. Just as a citizen(It's a loose interpretation.)

If only the resident from Canonsburg would have had a bit more comprehension skills (The ability to live March 27th) he would have been able to read the very next sentence in the Declaration of Independence from which he launches his premise. It states, “-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Therefore, the courts, and the judges derive their power from the people. If as Flickinger foolishly suggests, Michael Schiavo should be arrested, tried, and convicted of murder, then shouldn’t the same foolish punishment be placed on the county, state, and federal judges, who have either denied or rejected the feeding tube argument? After all, according to Flickinger, all men are created equal. Or, does Flickinger’s limited understanding of “Created Equal” vary under his definition?

Maybe this resident of Canonsburg needed to do more research on this topic. If he had done so, he would have discovered that President Bush, while flying back to Washington on AF-1, at the cost of $34,000 per hour, to grandstand in favor of the Schiavo bill, a child of 6 months in Texas was having his feeding tube removed per the bill that then Governor Bush signed into law in 1999. It stated that hospitals could withdraw life support from patients, over the objections of the family, if they consider the treatment to be non-beneficial. The mother in Texas cried for her child, but Bush only signed legislation for Schiavo. Tell me, where was Right’s compassion for the Texas child?

Flickinger, with a little diligence, would have also found that back in 1988 freshman Congressman Tom Delay pulled the plug on his 65-year-old father after a freak accident left his Dad in a vegetative state. You mean Delay never heard of a ventilator, and Flickinger wasn’t outraged as he and Delay supposedly are about Schiavo being in a vegetative state? Exactly when did either error on the side of life?

Or, if this Canonsburg resident would have had enough wherewithal, he could have referred to most any internet site and found the most heinous case involving Terri’s Schiavo’s dad. Robert Schindler, Terri’s dad, played God by letting his own Mother die when her kidney’s failed one week after contracting pneumonia. Terri’s dad obviously never even considered dialysis, and Flickinger never climbed on his soapbox to protest 7 days verses 15 years.

Let’s get one thing straight. No one with common sense wants to see a mentally unaware individual die by another’s hand, but decisions must be made. According to States Rights, they are done so on a daily basis. Republican’s are supposed to favor States Rights. Therefore, to use the Schiavo case as a platform for grandstanding, you need to look no further than the hypocritical acts of President Bush, Tom Delay, and Terri’s Schiavo’s father. As for Flickinger’s narrow-minded view filled with juvenile comparisons worthy of only sophomoric thinking, he included a glaring contradiction. He stated, “she is in a vegetative state, but as long as she can sustain her own life, she has the right to that life.” Evidently, no one has told this naïve individual that Terri can’t sustain her own life. While Flickinger attempts to reconcile his two separate but unequal contentions, he needs to contemplate what Right Wing George Bush, Tom Delay, and Robert Schindler actually did.