THIS is BULLSHIT!!!!!!

SeekingSymmetry · Mar 26, 2005

Have we really fallen so far?

Co0kiezGurl · Mar 26, 2005

Protests Outside Schiavo Hospice Chaotic

Sat Mar 26, 7:57 AM ET

U.S. National - AP
By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Jennifer Johnson, barefoot and in her pajamas, ran to her grandfather's bedside once a hospice worker said his death was moments away. She got there — one minute too late. Johnson said the chaos outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo is dying kept her from saying goodbye.

When Johnson arrived, a police officer demanded identification; she had none. And after a hospice employee cleared her, another officer halted her for a search with a metal detector.

The delays lasted three to four minutes — the last of her grandfather's life.

"It's a terrible, extra obstacle to put in front of a family. ... Everything is about Schiavo," Johnson said. "It's all about her and in my family's case, it cost us dearly."

Woodside Hospice has 70 patients besides Schiavo, whose parents are desperately trying to have her feeding tube reconnected. Dozens of protesters have arrived from across the nation since the tube was removed March 18, and at least 15 have been arrested, prompting a police barricade around the facility and unprecedented security.

Family members visiting patients must pass through a police checkpoint to park, then show identification outside the door before another security screening inside. They also must walk by scores of signs decrying Schiavo's "crucifixion," "torture," and "starvation," plus navigate around hordes of media who have been camped outside.

"To have to maneuver through all of this and have a hostile environment outside when all they want is peace and quiet and to enjoy those few days they have left with a loved one is a horror," said Dr. Morton Getz, executive director of Douglas Gardens Hospice in Miami.

Getz said many people with a family member in a hospice have to make the same excruciating decision that courts have made for Schiavo.

"It's causing a lot of grief and questions in their own mind on whether they did the right thing," he said. "It's unconscionable to have a family member to be near the end stages of life and to get there, you have to walk through signs that say, 'Murderer.'"

Most protesters direct their signs and their chants against the courts and Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, who insists she would not want to be kept alive artificially.

But walking through a hostile environment can only add stress to what's already an emotionally draining situation.

"It probably has the same psychological effect on the residents' families as it does on someone who is walking into an abortion clinic and facing signs and aggressive behavior," said Elizabeth Foley, a Florida International University law professor who specializes in bioethics.

Over the past few days, as Schiavo's parents' attempts to have their daughter's feeding tube reinserted repeatedly failed, signs outside the hospice have grown more desperate. Doctors have said Schiavo would probably die within a week or two of the feeding tube being removed.

Messages compare Michael Schiavo to Scott Peterson (news - web sites), convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in California, and John Evander Couey, who allegedly murdered a 9-year-old girl in Homosassa.

One woman in a wheelchair regularly moves up and down sidewalks in front of the hospice yelling in a megaphone, "We're disabled, not disposable!" and "Terri is a person, not a vegetable!"

Relatives of hospice residents say the clamor — intended to rattle Michael Schiavo — rattles their patience.

"It's a real pain in the neck," said Bill Douglass, whose mother-in-law is a resident. He said the only consolation is that she is "oblivious" to the outside scene.

Police and hospice officials say they are trying to minimize the intrusion on hospice residents and their families, and that the security measures are meant to protect the privacy and safety of all residents, not just Schiavo.

But Johnson, 24, said her 73-year-old grandfather, Thomas Bone, was restricted from moving freely around the hospice grounds during his final days. He died just hours after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed and protests intensified.

"They've taken away hospice's greatest quality, that it is peaceful and serene and quiet and calming — and it's not fair," Johnson said.
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I posted this in the Terri Schiavo thread in the People forum, but thought it might be of interest in this one too, since it's about those protesters outside.

If you ask me...they all need to leave, as it's none of their business anyway...and I'm sorry, but a place like that, and a situation like this, they're just too personal for people to be standing outside with signs like that. Like I said in the other thread where I posted this...if this kind of madness had been going on outside whenever I went to visit my grandmother, who was on the verge of death, I think I probably would have punched someone. It's too hard to deal with in the first place.

element7 · Mar 26, 2005

Thanks for posting that article. Must admit, were it me, my relative/loved one I believe I would be handing out black eyes as well, just out of frustration as it seems common reason is not effective.

forest_pixie84 · Mar 26, 2005

"I think this whole thing is a clever stunt pulled by the government to take people's minds off the oil crises at the expense of her life?"-dad

"I bet they'll do it again"-mom

stephaniesomewhere · Mar 27, 2005

MattInVegas said:

.... I'm just pissed off they arrested an 11 or 12 year old girl on that bullshit charge!
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why aren't you pissed off at the parents for putting thier children in such a situation...I am presuming it was the parents who took the children to the demo and not the other way around?

billisgod420 · Mar 27, 2005

stephaniesomewhere said:

why aren't you pissed off at the parents for putting thier children in such a situation...I am presuming it was the parents who took the children to the demo and not the other way around?

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yeah, the parents shouldnt have put their kids in that kind of situation. i know if i had kids i wouldnt have

lildeadheadash · Mar 27, 2005

People forget that a feeding tube was made by man. All it is doing is trying to cheat death. Even if Terry stays on the feeding tube, she is eventually going to die. Nobody can stop death.If we didn't have feeding tubes, Terry would of been gone a long time ago. She is the one who put this on herself anyways. She was a bulimic. What makes me mad is the media isn't telling anyone this, all they are talking about how is how she needs to be kept alive!

MattInVegas · Apr 1, 2005

stephaniesomewhere said:

why aren't you pissed off at the parents for putting thier children in such a situation...I am presuming it was the parents who took the children to the demo and not the other way around?

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I'm not angry at the Parents, because IMO, they may have been like us. Protesting something they believe in. Hmmm. Anti-War, Anti-Discrimination etc... And wanted thier children to learn something.
I'm angry at the Cops, becuase they ARRESTED the two who were OVER the age of 7, and put the Baby in the Child Haven shelter.
Why didn't the other two children go there too??????
Nope! They were arrested for trespassing.
In this thread, I've read several different accounts on the story. The oldest child, in the story "I" saw, was NOT in her P.J.'s, nor was her Grandfather also a resident of the place. (That I'm aware of...)
This girl was wearing a Striped shirt, and jeans.

WildChild12843 · Apr 1, 2005

Aww man, I hate this whole case. She didn't want to live that way, she shouldn't have to. Her parents have a really strange way of looking at the whole situation. I would never want to see my child suffering like that, I don't understand...

As for the whole protest arrests, these cops need to be addressing the serious crime going on in the country, not stupid shit like this. They just want to start a scene....

Co0kiezGurl · Apr 1, 2005

While I don't agree with the arrests, I think they were right to keep people away from the hospice. There is a time and place for protesting, and this was not the time nor place. The protesters were causing a scene and the cops were trying to keep the place from turning into a madhouse, and keep it peaceful for the other patients there who weren't plastered all over the news, and who were also trying to be with their loved ones in their possibly final days...

MattInVegas · Apr 11, 2005

Co0kiezGurl said:

While I don't agree with the arrests, I think they were right to keep people away from the hospice. There is a time and place for protesting, and this was not the time nor place. The protesters were causing a scene and the cops were trying to keep the place from turning into a madhouse, and keep it peaceful for the other patients there who weren't plastered all over the news, and who were also trying to be with their loved ones in their possibly final days...
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I never thought of it that way. Thank You for pointing that out to my stubborn self. The other residents have a right to peace, quiet and privacy. GOOD point.

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THIS is BULLSHIT!!!!!!

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THIS is BULLSHIT!!!!!!

SeekingSymmetry Phi is Greek to me

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MattInVegas John Denver Mega-Fan

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