The insensitivity of the FL protesters amazes me.

Forget for a second about that poor woman at the center of this controversy. Forget as well ordeal that all involved in this matter are going through. Forget all things Terri for a moment.

Now, consider the final days of those OTHER poor people facing the end of their lives, hospiced, waiting for death to steal them away, uncertain about everything, fearful, doing their utmost to leave this world with dignity. What are THEY facing with these people with their bloody Jebuses (Jesus Christ on a trailer hitch), the wailing and the gnashing of teeth.

What about those good people?

for the other patients in the hospice.

You'd see a meltdown--I honesly don't think they realize there are others inside the building.

.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3357838

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Jennifer Johnson, barefoot and in her pajamas, ran to her grandfather's bedside once a hospice worker said his death was moments away. She got there — one minute too late. Johnson said the chaos outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo is dying kept her from saying goodbye.




So many others in that hospice have loved ones too.

...that were instigated and staged by republican clerks and assistants--they were actually bused from washington for the spectacle. They were shouting and angry and loud. And as usually happens with neo-cons, pretended to be something they were not.

Look closely and you'll probably see some of these morans in the crowd...

I'm interested......

As Democrats we are the ones who ENCOURAGE protest as a way to state our opnions and feelings and be heard by those in power. Should protesters now be sensitive?

Seriously--are we NOT supposed to care about the other patients because it's inconvenient?

It's a hospice, for God's sake.

Tell me you're kidding. That's what the repukes argue for!

bedevil those poor people who are there to die?

Free speech is free speech. The right to assemble and protest should not be tampered with. You can't selectively put halters on it. VERY slippery slope if you do.

we are protesting. the right to free speech is tampered with all the time for left protests.

If they had any decency to them, they would not intrude on the rest of those people with their histrionics and bullshit. Free speech is free speech but those rights should not be exercised to the point of harming other people. Although not directly the equivilent of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater, it is very close.

They are calling the families of patients murderers.

Anti-war protestors are forced to sidewalks, why are people on a hospice ground allowed on the site?

Some dignity is called for.

the way we are. Fair is fair, right?

After all, there's a more compelling reason to get them the hell out of there, the comfort and safety of all the other patients in the facility.

Oh, I forgot. Screaming religious hysterics good. Chanting political protestors bad.

I can't believe you support them

the private property of the hospice?

I'm not arguing for the right to trespass for cripes sakes.

I'm arguing for anyone's right to protest, loud and clear, without the restrictions of Free Speech Zones. And for cripes sakes, I don't have to be politically correct sensitive protester!

is a bit misplaced it seems.

I am much more concern with a President who won't even go near another citizen unless they've been carefully prescreened.

Heck, we can't even get anywhere near the WH anymore to protest. That is a much bigger concern in my opinion.

look as tho these protesters are on the hospice grounds.

Comments by family members of other patients who are there, have said they used to be able to take their loved ones outside and have free access to the hospice. All that has changed with the circus that is going on there.

I do agree that 'free speech zones' are a restriction of our rights for free speech.

You go there with your own loved one in mind and your personal grief.
The last thing you need is to have to go through a crowd of yahoos unrelated to the person in the facility, holding up signs, threatening to storm the place, causing the police to need to check people as they come in, so no whack job intent on grabbing Ms. Schiavo or harming her husband gets in.

I believe in free speech. However, if they want to protest this, they should go stand around the state and federal courts in Florida, or around the SCOTUS building, who have and/or upheld the legal decisions in this case. The patients dying in this hospice, their families and the hospice workers, who are dedicated and compassionate people, have nothing to do with the LAW that is allowing this woman to go to her deserved final rest. Their right to go about their own private moment trumps the First Amendment by a mile. They are not government. They are private individuals in the final moments of their or their loved ones' lives.

Hospices are places of peace and tranquility, for a very good reason. How would you feel about being there and dying, while a show PT Barnum himself could not have cooked up, swirls outside around you?

If there are any places where protestors need to keep their distance, this should be one of them. I agree with you that if they had an ounce of respect, they'd protest the courthouses or governor's mansion or something.

My father died in a hospice, and I can't imagine his last looks out the window at the world being polluted with protestors and Jesus Christ on a Trailor Hitch. I couldn't imagine leaving the hospice in that emotional condition and seeing people calling my family and others murderers. I couldn't stand people making symbolic efforts to bring him water to 'rescue' him from us and from death.

It's amazing what people will do in the guise of piety and sanctimonious religious righteousness.

And right on.

she died at home with us. I cannot imagine what these folk are going through.

protest is reason to express a point against those in power who are wrong or doing wrong.

its not to harry innocent people just trying to get by.

Perhaps you're thinking of people like Operation Rescue...those are right wingnuts.

I beleive they are plants who give not-a-rat's-ass about the issue, but rather about furthering the neo-con agenda--just like the plants during the recount (nice pic of the hypocrites by the way).

rights of the other patients in the hospice. That is NOT the same thing as protesting government policy. Faulty reasoning there on your part.

his Unfair and Unbalanced Fox News are only making the situation worse and turning the whole thing into a circus. The fact that he is broadcasting from in front of the hospice angers me at the deepest level. Why don't people see this for what it is worth - ratings grabbing with no concern for anybody, especially the others dying inside who are only looking for quiet and peace in their final days. For Hannity to sit there and wave his fingers and hands sanctimoniously (notice how he and O'Leily are always pointing and waving their fingers and hands? Must be an indication of lying) and lie, and put on television one after the other bottom feeding, 15-minutes of fame seeking, low in credibility casual acquaintances of the Shevio's without any cursory background checking amazes me. Mark my words because Fox is only making the situation worse by their presence this whole situation is going to come to a violent end in some way, maybe in a big way. I hope I am wrong!

except their own religious insanity

they are wack jobs

the grand daughter was called because the time was at hand. Her grandfather did not want to die alone. She rushed over, but do to heightened security cautions and other slowdowns due to the protestors... she finally arrived to be with her grandfather, minutes too late. He died alone.

It is ironic, but I think many of the protesters have deluded themselves into believing that they are acting out of care for others... but instead seem to be acting out on their own selfish beliefs (and fear of death) as evidenced for the lack of consideration for how to make their point known/be heard without effecting the end of life for others in the hospice. That is, acting with extreme lack of care for others. In their frenzied self-rigtheousness, they seem unable to "See" this.

I would be willing to bet that many of these protestors are very damaged people. They are likely to be people who have been victims of abuse of some sort: either physical or sexual.

Their lack of respect for boundaries is blatant. I've seen this time and again in those who have been victims of sexual abuse, including one of my own daughters. In some people, when those boundaries of personal space are broken, they are never rebuilt and those people can't tell where their space ends and where other's space begins.

This whole thing is tragic and the feeding frenzy of the press is absolutely disgusting, but nothing new.

and those politicians playing opportunistic calculus (eg if I do this... I will get this much more support... etc.), and "religious leaders" playing fundraising (traditional values coalition dude in NYT yesterday said she was a blessing to them for getting folks to open their checkbooks)... all of these folks are ghoulish.

everyone else, corral them into a 'zone' a mile away so this hospice can care for its other patients

The granddaughter got to visit her grandfather...one minute or so after he died.

The delay was caused by having to go through a metal detector, I.D.'d, etc. due to the protests.

in Dallas and the staff there are pretty much outraged over what is happening in Fla. They see folks who are dying or at the end of life and experience families ordeals on a daily basis. My mother's nurse was practically sputtering with rage.

What would you be doing right now if you felt the same, and as strongly as the "protesters" at the hospice do?

It seems to me that these knuckleheads don't realize that signs and symbolic attempts to get a glass of water to her do absolutely nothing, except maybe make them feel they are "doing something".

If it were me (and I felt as they do), I would have stormed the place with several hundred of my closest friends and gotten her out of there, while there was still hope. There are sympathetic doctors who would have helped treat her.

Sometimes, situations demand that the next step be taken to get the point across. We have become a nation of sheep.

I guess that radical hippie from the 60's is still alive and well within, after all.

instead of protesting outside a hospice. There is no way that I would storm a hospice because I would be afraid that innocent bystanders might get injured. I also would not be calling up the abuse hotline because I realize that Terri Schiavo is not the only person who lives in Florida.

I am old enough to remember when there were signs outside of hospitals that said Quiet Hospital Zone. These people are beyond insentitivity. Free speech does not mean that you can get in someone's face anywhere you want to. It also does not trump all rights for others. In this case it is reasonable to expect that there be some limits on the individuals outside the hospice because their antics are interfering with the rights of the individuals inside the hospice. They have turned a place of respite care into a three ring circus. That said the protestors should be able to assemble outside any government offices or court houses they want to. A good place for them to go to demonstrate would be over to Jeb's house. I am sure he would welcome them with open arms.

cretins. They should be arrested and not allowed to return.

waiting for this poor lady to die! Obscene that Hannity is out there, obscene that every other network has someone outside, obscene that people are advocating violence regarding this case.

I'm guessing they're too medicated to care, hopefully.

Those ignorant protestors should be utterly ashamed of themselves!

Declaring a "Free Speech Zone" as the authorities do whenever bush is in town, is external motivation against protesting. Protest in a visible spot means getting arrested, and there is no other reason than keeping bush in a bubble for such restrictions. Yes, the SS needs to protect against threats, but there are many ways to insure against threats without abridging the right of peaceful protest.

In the circus in Florida, there is a very good reason to keep protesters at a distance. The object of their protest is a cause not Schiavo herself. That cause can be given plenty of free air time from a few hundred feet away. The TV cameras will focus on there people if they were a mile away, because they are the story and it has plenty of visuals.

What is needed here are internal or intrinsic motivations. The kind that find room in a reasonable person's thoughts, and would recognize the harm they are doing to families of other patients unfortunate enough to be losing someone, and a thousand times more so, to be having it happen at this hospital.

As for those getting paid to cause this ruckus: Randall Terry and media, they are ghouls. Just ghouls.

Or are they all lined up and down the sidewalk? I don't and will not agree with BS Free speech zones,although I think they started during the Clinton years.