Death and Dying.
Terri Schiavo is dead and the pope is dying.
I don't know why I should feel particularly affected but I do.
Terri Schiavo was not dying. She was reduced to a status which can only be compared to that of a new-born child. Like a new-born child she could feel, smell, taste but she could not react. What would happen to a new born child who was placed in a corner and forgotten?
Despite the pain that starvation and thirst entail, was she perhaps happy to finally escape the prison that he body had become? The boredom of being shut in a room and unable to communicate.
And again was this purely a question of money and power?
An American writer was recently diagnosed as having cancer. She is uninsured and cannot afford therapy. And that in the richest country in the world. A country that spends millions on a defence budget, millions on aid for overseas countries.
Why must health be a question of personal wealth?
And as her writing friends gather around and raise money for her therapy, I wonder what has become of a society where one job cannot pay for life's necessities: food, drink, a place to live, medical care, education.
In the Vatican City, a man lies dying. A powerful man, a conservative man but despite his standing on a number of issues, a good man. Yet a man nonetheless. And in his shoes will follow another man, equally conservative, equally opposed to women in the church, equally opposed to the marriage of priests. Because of course this man had something that neither Terri nor the writer had / have: the time, the money and the power to ensure that his will will continue long after his death.
All the cardinal posts have been filled with conservative men. The King is dead, long live the King.
And around the world, the voiceless and the poor will continue to die quietly, a silent scream in the darkness of greed and shortsightedness.
I don't know why I should feel particularly affected but I do.
Terri Schiavo was not dying. She was reduced to a status which can only be compared to that of a new-born child. Like a new-born child she could feel, smell, taste but she could not react. What would happen to a new born child who was placed in a corner and forgotten?
Despite the pain that starvation and thirst entail, was she perhaps happy to finally escape the prison that he body had become? The boredom of being shut in a room and unable to communicate.
And again was this purely a question of money and power?
An American writer was recently diagnosed as having cancer. She is uninsured and cannot afford therapy. And that in the richest country in the world. A country that spends millions on a defence budget, millions on aid for overseas countries.
Why must health be a question of personal wealth?
And as her writing friends gather around and raise money for her therapy, I wonder what has become of a society where one job cannot pay for life's necessities: food, drink, a place to live, medical care, education.
In the Vatican City, a man lies dying. A powerful man, a conservative man but despite his standing on a number of issues, a good man. Yet a man nonetheless. And in his shoes will follow another man, equally conservative, equally opposed to women in the church, equally opposed to the marriage of priests. Because of course this man had something that neither Terri nor the writer had / have: the time, the money and the power to ensure that his will will continue long after his death.
All the cardinal posts have been filled with conservative men. The King is dead, long live the King.
And around the world, the voiceless and the poor will continue to die quietly, a silent scream in the darkness of greed and shortsightedness.