Requiem

While Terri Schiavo’s body has finally given up its stake on breath, has finally caught up to a mind and a spirit that had long ago vanished, it doesn't seem likely that this end will bring peace.

In what is probably a smart move, Michael Schiavo has ordered an autopsy to determine the extent of his wife's brain damage and, perhaps, to put an end to the unsubstantiated rumors that he was a wife beater (charges that Fox News anchors in particular liked to pry from the mouth of Bobby Schindler, who gave them up as reluctantly as he would his teeth, which should tell you he may have a conscience).

But in an act of what looks to be selfishness and vindictiveness, Terri’s husband has refused to allow her parents to take care of the burial. Instead, she will be cremated and buried with his family in another state, and her ashes will be buried in a ceremony in an undisclosed location, so, as Schiavo says, the Schindlers do not attend and turn it into a media circus.

I haven't questioned anyone's motives much throughout this sensitive ordeal; after all, the law is the law. It's here, essentially, so that we humans have to make as few common-sense decisions as possible. But now I wonder. While I suppose I could buy that Michael doesn’t want time in the media spotlight (he’s been amazingly absent from any kind of media coverage and has only spoken through his attorney), I can’t fathom what my life would be like as a parent deprived of a final ceremonial farewell with my child. Of course, I'd not behave like the Schindlers, either, who have now sold their list of supporters to a direct mail marketing firm!

Couldn't Michael Schiavo do the kind thing? Couldn't he have his private ceremony and then remand his wife's body into the custody of the family she'd had for much longer than she'd had him? I have to wonder aloud.

No matter how the end of this unhappy ending plays out, it has certainly given us some food for thought. Of course we'd have to be able to think—and swallow.

Lest we forget the politics, Tom DeLay is here to remind us that these are dangerous times in the land of the free. Our penalty for having a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, state laws, and the fair and impartial judicial system is that when it fails to follow the moral teachings of the Religious Wrong, it comes under some frightening scrutiny.

House Republican Leader Tom DeLay condemned the state and federal judges who refused to prolong [Terry Schiavo’s] life, and he warned that lawmakers "will look at an arrogant and out-of-control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president.” (Get the full story here.)

This is the language of authoritarianism. And we should be very afraid. Because if we are to be the shining example of freedom for all the world, we will have to beware our apes.