Five years ago the beginning of the end of Terri Schindler Schiavo’s life was transforming America into two battle camps, which fought bitterly over to preserve the life of who Terri’s father Robert Schindler told me he lovingly called his angel, Terri or to let government let her be starved to death.

 

Yet after five years should America just simply move on? Would you simply move on if it were your child who suddenly was incapacitated and went through Terri Schiavo’s experience?    It is an interesting question because there are those in the media and even probably in your office, your neighborhood or even your family who have said, just let the “poor woman” rest in peace.

 

Well, I don’t think America can do that because “move on” could have been said about just about any innocent person who was taken to a cross to crucify or to a tree to lynch or about an innocent young child who was taken from her home and murdered – as was the case of 9 year-old Jessica Lunsford, the Florida child who was abducted and murdered in 2005. What if her neighbors had intervened? What if they had done something when they suspected there was danger present instead of just “hoping” someone else would or that nothing bad would happen?

 

If the American public had grown tired of the news and just simply moved on, then the citizens in at least 18 states would not have actively advocated passage of a “Jessica’s Law” to protect other children. Do we not owe Terri Schindler Schiavo a similar advocacy on her behalf even though the act of taking her life was in full view of the public?

 

Has life really become so cheap in America that we would rather just be tired of confronting the truth about what happens to the innocent who are taken before their time? 

 

There are some who claim that the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution are inappropriate places to establish a right to hydration or nutrition… in other words food or water. There are others who claim that the Constitution is a “living document” and therefore should accommodate new rights, chief among those the right to life and therefore once born the right to live. In each case, they are human lives; Americans, examples of our own family members who may have been taken from their families, literally ripped from their loved one’s arms and silenced for eternity. It happens daily.

 

I have spoken to varying religious leaders and followers of the Christian and Jewish faiths and in each instance I have found the embodiment of a rich tradition for respect for life and the essence of preserving it. So as we travel through the holy seasons for the Judeo-Christian faiths what must we be thinking as we sit in a church pew or synagogue of our own commitment to a “Culture of Life?”  

 

Over the next several months should we simply choose to not remember because it is out of our immediate 72-hour window of what is important in our defined window, our bubble of life? Do we ask why didn’t the first Christians just simply move on after Jesus was killed? Should Jesus have said to his disciples, Paul, Matthew, and Simon... "Today and for the next couple weeks, let's just wait and see what develops...because today...I'm just not feelin' it."

What about the Holocaust and its millions of victims? Are those of the Jewish faith who say, “We must always remember!” misguided and should instead be saying, “It happened…Let’s just have closure.” The answer is obviously no…and no again. Life, and the Culture of Life that embodies it, are precious and cannot be offered away as yesterday’s news.

 

In America there are a lot of solid well-intentioned people and families of faith who never truly heard the truth about how Terri lived nor the reality of how she died. What they do know and do fully understand is that there was a great deal of controversy about what Terri, a devout Catholic, wanted and whether a loving family – a mother and father, a sister and brother – who were willing with all of their heart and spirit to take Terri into their loving embrace, keep her secure and safe, and love her smiles, her glances, her life, because she was not dying, was not terminal, was not at the end of her life and was not a burden.

 

A few years ago I had an opportunity to speak in Washington D.C. alongside the Schindler family at the launch of their beneficial Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation. Americans joined with the Schindlers in wanting desperately to move past any hate or any division or any anguish that conflicted millions of Americans in standing up for this just cause to protect life. What I felt then in hugging the family members was a deep respect and a new partnership in sharing a life mission and a ministry of life with them. Their family spirit as well as the Foundation’s is a commitment that is based on having compassion for Americans who are still going through what the Schindler family experienced for nearly 15 years.

 

I have to go back to the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence because if it is not stated as a basic right for every American to know with clarity that the final destination of their life travel is protected and cannot be interrupted through public or familial disputes, misunderstandings, cover-ups, etc… then our life is expendable and is truly determined by whomever either shouts the loudest, has the deepest financial pockets, or is able to get to the courtroom first; and finally by the luck of the draw either your life is preserved or your life ends prematurely.

 

Let us show that America has not grown tired. It has grown stronger because millions of Americans still desire to bring clarity and certainty to their family’s decisions. The Schindler family has not grown tired. They have grown stronger because Terri’s legacy is not enveloped in hateful brickbats being tossed back and forth but rather has become a legacy of insuring that the tens of thousands of families who may be facing the Schindler’s former or similar medical dilemma are not left alone, shut out, isolated and forced into making life ending decisions that reflect medical expediency not moral integrity.

 

Kevin Fobbs is founder and president of a policy organization called National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), www.nupac.info that supports conservative colorblind solutions to universal issues and domestic policies that impact urban America.   Fobbs served as director of government and civic affairs for Soul Source, a Christian news magazine, and host of The Kevin Fobbs Show www.kevinfobbs.com.

 

Fobbs is predominantly known for his conservative views and values including his support for life and for championing Terri’s Day to honor Terri Schiavo with a day of national remembrance. Kevin has written his Community Concerns column for the Detroit News. He also discusses issues of faith, family and freedom in his columns for various conservative groups or websites, including Renew America (Alan Keyes' website), Commentary Today, Free Republic, and Liberty Post