Steve's Soapbox

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

KXYL Spoon feeding: Terri Schiavo, & ACLU

You'd think with the KXYL Talking Heads and some of their callers bashing the ACLU, they would give their audience both sides of the case and other points of views (like the press release below). Isn't it very telling that the local talk radio hosts stopped using call in guests because maybe the guests agreed too often with the progressives in this community ! Too much light ?

Terry Schiavo - Statement of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, March 18, 2005
CONTACT:
Kimberly Lavender at 305-576-2337 ext. 16
Howard Simon at 305-576-2337 ext. 14 or cell at 786-208-7103
We believe that Congressional leaders, including Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader Tom Delay and Tom Davis, Chairman of the Committee on Governmental Reform, acted inappropriately by attempting to interfere in the legal proceedings involving Terri Schiavo by the issuance of four Congressional subpoenas.
 The issuance of subpoenas is nothing more than an attempt to circumvent the decisions of the courts – both state and federal – over seven years of litigation that has involved numerous appeals in the state and federal system. All have resulted in court orders directing that Terri Schiavo’s wishes be observed and that she not to be sustained on artificial life support.
 The American public should reject the efforts of politicians attempting to use the machinery of government to override what courts—by “clear and convincing evidence”—have found to be the wishes of an individual.
 If Congress can intervene in the Schiavo case, it can intervene in any case with which those in control of Congress disagree with the intensely personal judgment of a family to end extraordinary life sustaining measures for a family member who is in the end stages of a terminal illness or who has suffered a catastrophic accident with no hope of recovery.
Politicians have no business interfering in these intensely personal decisions that are faced by families every day, and the courts have a very limited role in all of this -- to determine the wishes of a patient then get out of the way -- even if those wishes involve the refusal of life sustaining treatment and the consequences involves hastening death. 
 Howard Simon
Executive Director
 Randall Marshall
Legal Director
 Rebecca Harrison Steele
Director, West Central Florida ACLU Office