Remember Terri Schiavo

By Nancy L. Cox

WCFS Senior

Eleven score and six years ago,

Our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,

Conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ALL humans are created equal.  That there is no difference between, black, white, healthy, sick, strong minds mentally handicapped, born or unborn.

Each is given the right by God to live until He says and not until man says. 

Now we are engaged in a great spiritual war for the very heart and soul of America,

Testing whether that nation or any nation,

So conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

We grieve with the family of one of the many innocent who died in this fight.

We are called to dedicate our lives to this fight for life,

And to remember those who have given their lives that this nation’s innocent might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot force what is right.

The innocent souls, who have died, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or to detract.

The world will little note nor long remember what I write here,

But we shall not forget Terri Schiavo, and what they did to her.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-

That from these innocent dead we take increased devotion,

To that cause by which they were deprived of their freedom and God given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-

That we today highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that great revival such as none have seen before will break out all across this great nation-

And that this government of the people, by the people, for the people,

Shall not decide who is fit to live and who is fit to die, and that freedom of its citizens who are not condemned criminals but innocent people and helpless babies, shall not perish from the earth. 

 (Adapted from The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln, November, 1863, by Nancy Loraine Cox, April, 2005)

America mourned when Terri Schiavo died. We did not mourn because we knew her well, and she was ready to go, rather we mourned because an innocent woman, who was mentally handicapped, was starved to death like an animal. The worst criminals in this country are not treated so inhumanely. If you mistreat your dog by starving it you are called a criminal, but according to the court system in this ‘free’ country, a ‘husband’ can starve his ‘wife’ to death because he says her brain is a vegetable and she would not want to go on living that way.  Are we becoming as Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s where the state can end another human beings life and call it a mercy killing? Oh, that’s right, I forgot she wanted to die, or according to the doctor, she was already dead, they were just putting her out of her misery.

Oh I’m sorry, I forgot something else, Terri wasn’t suffering. Since when does a starving person not suffer?  Since when is adultery the definition of a caring husband? Michael Schiavo was in blatant adultery, fathering children from another woman. He should have been put in prison instead of being aloud to murder his innocent wife. I pray that God will show him his sin and that he will repent before it’s too late.

May God have mercy on those who killed Terri, may they come to the saving knowledge of His forgiving grace. May we who mourn for the loss find Christ’s comfort and I pray we will forgive those who sin against us as we are forgiven of our sins. I pray this will cause Americans (Christians especially) to wake up to the corruption around us, and take a stand for what is right, good and just. 

When Terri Schiavo died, when the Supreme Court ruled to legalize abortion, we did not lose the war, but we lost some battles. In the end we shall have the ultimate victory over sin and death, for Christ is the eternal flame that shall never be put out. Christ is the final victor over Satan and his lies. 

“I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And when the thousand years re-expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they   went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Rev.20:1-4, 7-10.

“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.” Ps. 61:1-8.