death

Waiting can be a source of trepidation for writers. Empty time that must be filled. Especially when the wait is for death.

My wife’s dad moved yesterday into what most of us would call a nursing home. The place is owned by Jane's childhood friend, a good man making a living in the hard business of caring for the dying. It is a growth industry.

This Sunday’s New York Times featured a story about the widening gap between food demand and supply, pointing to three interrelated explanations. Oil prices, population growth, and climate change. What’s even scarier is the wave of new public policy designed to make each of these problems worse.

The world may be going to hell, but at least we know who to blame.

If you were with us on Christmas Day you heard the story of Betsie Gallardo, who, unless something changes quickly, is going to be intentionally starved to death in a Florida prison after being convicted of spitting on a cop.

In fairness, the State did not decide simply to starve her; instead, the Department of Corrections (DOC) first chose to withhold any further treatment for her inoperable cancer…and then they decided to starve her to death.

Her adopted mother is trying to get her released on humanitarian grounds; the DOC recommended in October that she be allowed to go home and die, the Florida Parole Commission refused.

Governor Charlie Crist chairs the Executive Clemency Board, who could also agree to let her go…and so far, they’ve also refused to take action.

Funny thing is, the Governor and his Board have been more than willing to step in when other Floridians requested pardons and commutations, even in situations that seemed a lot less dire.

Today, we’re going to look at that history—and to be honest, as with many things in the Sunshine State, from the outside…it all looks a bit bizarre.

There are many gifts to be given and received this holiday season; some that you can wrap and put under a tree, and some so intangible and ethereal that they cannot be held within the boundaries of paper and ribbon.

Instead, they exist within the boundaries of our hearts.

Among those intangible presents, few matter more than the chance to be with those we love—and at the time of our death, it’s the most important thing of all.

We have a chance to bring all of this to a dying woman and her family—but the only way it can happen is if we convince the Florida Department of Corrections not to kill her first.

It’s not a tale of light and joy—but if we get lucky, there could still be a happy ending.

In the Great Death Panels Debate, there is no difference of opinion about whether we as a culture must be able to manage the economics of death more effectively. All sides agree on the need. Health insurers can't survive if they ignore the issue. A taxpayer-funded American Health Plan will not be able to ignore it either.

Republican abuse of this issue for political gain seems an almost criminal exploitation of public ignorance. Free-market thinkers here in North Carolina should be embarrassed by their role in obfuscation. A lyin' game of gotcha played at the cost of clarity.

Any thinking person knows we have to come to grips with the real cost of long lives and slow deaths. The only question is who drives the agenda.

The American Health Plan I want deals with death honestly.

Elizabeth penned a column for Newsweek that was published on its website this afternoon. Her thoughts are candid, especially when Elizabeth shared her vulnerability with readers this way:

And when he died, I cried. I know I cried not just for him, but-filled with fear-for myself as well. The diagnoses of our cancer recurrences ("recurrences" being one of those misnomers we simply endure) tumbled out upon one another by days, and I felt-and feel- connected to a man who loved what I loved, although we came to nearly every argument from opposite corners of the ring.

A little more after the jump

I listened intently to the latest Presidential speech. I was astounded by how adolescent the President must think the American people are and at what low regard he holds his fellow citizens.
I therefore took a few of his remarks to reply to myself. It is somewhat tongue and cheek, but the subject is as serious as life and death itself. This Presidents leadership of this country has caused untold suffering in our country, Iraq, the Middle East in general and throughout the world.
In President Bush’s quest to secure oil, establish greater U.S. dominance in the world and secure his place in history, he has taken our country to an unjustified war of aggression and occupation in Iraq while abandoning our legitimate pursuit of those who attacked us from Afghanistan on September 11, 2001.