Terri Schiavo Passes

My condolences to all sides of Terri Schiavo's family. To her husband, her parents, her friends and her siblings.

As I have said from the beginning, I regret that your family's wrenching situation has been made the focal point of media and political frenzy. I know there will be many who continue to use the memory of Terri to manuever - and I regret that your trying ordeal will continue to be paraded around for political gain.

I send special love and support to Michael, who has been cruelly demonized by many in the media and in politics - for very bravely withstanding threats and the full force of the state to carry out what his wife wished for herself.

I hope that everyone who has been moved by this situation - from whatever perspective - continue to dig deeper. To discover why this woman's tragic situation became the flashpoint in society to the extent it did. What was really going on:

Scientifically - the actual medical conditions she had, the science to what happened to her brain, the need for science to advance through things like stem cell research, not to be obscured with superstition. Further, why is science and truth so important to moving history forward - past all the oppressive divisions of today. And why is science such a danger to those who want to promote moral absolutism and an extremelely vicious version of fundamentalist Christianity as the law (the vast majority of Christians do not go for this themselves).

Politically - why men as far up in the state structure as Tom Delay would say that "One thing that God has brought us is Terri Schiavo." Why did this man treat this situation like an opportunity? Why he was able to snap the entire Congress and President back into session and pass an unconstitutional law? Why are figures so high up in the state structure, very human authorities, not challenged these days for speaking in openly religious terms regarding their political ambitions?

Morally - yes, humans need morality, but, NO, conservative fundamentalist Christians do NOT have a monopoly on morality. People are deeply alienated by this atomized, impersonal society, and every day we witness or hear about things which wrench our hearts and we ask ourselves how it is that people live this way, treat each other the way they do, and whether it could ever be any different. We NEED morality - but we DO NOT NEED traditional morality which is based on the oppression of women, relations of master and slave (or wage-slave), racism, and deep oppression and inequalities. We need a morality which flows from, and helps guide us to, a world that liberates humanity from traditions chains - where mutual respect flourishes. Where there are no more men oppressing women, no more white people lording over non-whites, no more class of capitalists forcing everyone else to toil for them and no more one country trying to run the globe.

Culturally - Many have marvelled and scratched their heads trying to understand why SpongeBob, the DaVinci Code, or gay marriage become such cultural battlegrounds - time to start really understanding the high stakes involved. What kind of a society are we going to have???