Tom Delay quote:
Mrs. Schiavo's death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo's friends in this time of deep sorrow.
This can be interpreted as a threat. If Delay did not intend it as such, he must clarify it immediately. If he stands silent, we know what he believes, where he stands, and what he intends for the future. If he stands silent, he is a punk-ass bitch thug and I look forward to seeing him and his ilk crucified by both conservative Republicans and Democrats alike.
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Liberal opposition to capital punishment takes many forms. Some think capital punishment is cruel and unusual punishment and goes against the constitution. Some believe even more fundamentally that NO government ever has the right to take away life. Some think it is useless and wasteful because it is not an effective deterent. Some think we have a systematically flawed legal system because only poor folks receive capital punishment.
And so since when does moral conviction justify threatening those cursed with making difficult decisions? I do not doubt Al Queda's moral conviction, nor that of the Taleban, yet I think they are dead wrong in how they choose the exercise it.
The Terri Schiavo case need not be cast as a disagreement between those with moral and religious convictions versus those making pragmatic judgements. One can make an equally compeling argument for allowing Schiavo to die from a religious standpoint - that she has earned the right to die and experience the afterlife, and that we have no right to keep her in a persistent vegetative state because we are uncomfortable removing a feeding tube.
I won't get into the legal details of the matter, but it seems to me that DeLay's position doesn't care about Schiavo's right, nor the court's jurisdiction, nor any legal issues when it comes to his own "moral conviction." Even if Schiavo had a living will that said I don't want to live in this state, please remove the tube - DeLay's position would be - "SHE doesn't even have the right to decide that - life and death is in the Lord's hand, and that's it." This of course, conveniently neglects modern science and artificial prolonging of life and groups it under the Lord sustaining life...
So I agree with you that I do not doubt for a second the moral conviction that underpins his actions, but his choice of tactics is abhorrent and threatening to me, and I think most American's sensibility of a just and civilized society.
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