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Praying in Protest?

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Karen Webb

This Terri Schiavo case is bringing out some rather strange and disturbing things. Today I heard an interview on NPR where someone said they were “praying in protest.” I had always thought, and I have read every scripture on the subject, that prayer is talking to God, so does this mean people are protesting something God is doing or hasn’t done, like maybe waiting 15 years to heal Terri Schiavo?

Then the guy said their prayers would be heard from Miami to Washington, DC. I was under the impression that the Bible is rather specific about praying for the approval of men, and I thought only God needed to hear it. Maybe God lives in DC or Miami?

I have a great deal of sympathy for the family. When my Grandfather was on life support, we had to wait until everyone was okay with letting him go. We spent days trying to get my husband’s niece to let go of her dad last year, and it had more to do with her guilt than his condition.

I was ready to let my dad go long before some of my other family members. I lay on a cot many nights in his hospital room. Fifteen years is a long time, 2 or 3 was more than enough for me. I didn’t consider it a burden, but I was so tired of watching him suffer mentally, if not physically.

He would sit up several times a night and I would sit next to him and he would tell me how useless he felt and how he hated that we had to take care of him. Dad was in home Hospice and we fed him only if he wanted to eat and toward the last he didn’t need or want it because his body was shutting down. He would not have wanted a tube.

Today Terri’s mother said Terri is hanging in there. I have no idea how she knows that. I don’t know Terri, but if I actually knew what was happening around me and couldn’t speak what I wanted for 15 years, I can’t imagine how frustrating that would be. I don’t even want to think about it.

I wonder who is paying for her care. I am pretty sure who isn’t paying for her care. It isn’t an HMO or insurance entity that donated a lot of money to the GOP, or the tube would have been out long ago in order to save them money.

It is amazing to me that Tom DeLay would be so interested in one woman when he isn’t even slightly interested in the number of US soldiers or Iraqi civilians who have been killed in the last two years. He isn’t interested in providing health care for all Americans, either.

I wonder if anyone knows how many people, including the baby in Texas last week, have had their life support cut off or their feeding tubes removed because no one could pay for it. If she were the daughter of a garbage collector and was on Medicaid or Medicare, she would have been dead years ago and Bush and Tom DeLay wouldn’t have cared.

Speak up or they assume you agree!!!

Karen Webb
Moore, OK

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION