Whispers in the Wasteland

Did She Really Say That?

There are those situations when you do a double take on something completely unexpected. The late Douglas Adams described that feeling in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when you're tooling along the highway at 70, and suddenly, the hoopy frood that you are -- isn't, and you mistakenly shift into first gear. Yeah, sorta like that.

Well I was cruising the Internet on high-speed DSL, and I fell right over the following comment by Connie du Toit regarding Terri Schiavo, her feeding tube, and Terri's husband who wishes to remove it:

The relationship between a husband and wife is SACRED.

Really!

Well, some coincidences are more improbable than the phone number of an Islington flat, but in this case, I'm a long time (but infrequent reader) of Mrs. du Toit and her husband Kim. Before Connie agreed to the Sacred and Holy Nuptials when she adopted "du Toit" as a symbol of her submission to the oppressive male dominated society, Connie was affectionately nicknamed "Liberal Rubbish Girlfriend"^[1]. Indeed. But perhaps Dubya's lesson that conservatives could be compassionate sunk in. As Kim proselytized for the right to bear arms, she converted from an anti-gun fanatic to a pro-gun fanatic. After that religious conversion, she was "liberal rubbish" no more, and of course "girlfriend" turned into "wife."

Did I say religion? Connie and her husband Kim are atheists. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But if you trot over to trusty ol' Merriam-Webster, you see a funny sense about the word "sacred" -- holy, worship, deity, etc.

But after a bit of fun over the primary sense of the word, one can readily acknowledge the secondary sense, that is: "very important." But it's much stronger than that -- the words M-W uses are "unassailable" and "inviolable."

That's funny, because in her bio -- excusing the fact that she's in her second marriage (and Kim's third)^[2] -- Connie writes, "We're all entitled to a 'starter marriage' which fails miserably." Unassailable? Inviolable?

I suppose that over time, both might have found religion, but in the same article I tripped over I discovered that Kim refers to Terri as "The Florida Vegetable Woman." I guess not. And maybe Dubya's lesson in compassion hasn't sunk that deep.

I doubt that Christopher de Vinck would agree with that sort of characterization:

"Well, I guess you could call him a vegetable. I called him Oliver, my brother. You would have liked him."

Now I have a secret life, heretofore unrevealed, of lurking in a Paleo-Conservative mail list that reveres one of the intellectual founders of modern conservatism (no, no, not the one with the secret handshake, I said "paleo"). They've got this litmus test that infallibly determines whether one is a Jacobin. For those who don't know, Jacobins are not the squirrels that Cosmo the Wonderdog chases, they're those radical leftists in the French Revolution who turned the world on its head. That test is whether you like Abe Lincoln. No word yet on Tommy Jefferson who actually admired the progress of that revolution. It's silly actually (the test is, that is). It represents the Southron influence on the Paleo strands of conservatism and libertarianism. They don't like Abe.

But it has been suggested that there is dividing line based on Terri Schiavo's case (by someone who has unfortunately chosen the handle Zippy):

"I think the Schiavo case is forcing us to choose which side of the chastity-life line we are on. Those who choose to affirm the dignity of life - even of a life that the person himself does not want to live - are on one side. Those who choose to equivocate and play with interpretations in order to affirm death are on the other."

This is not so silly.

As an atheist she's usurped the word sacred in a fashion that she has no business doing. She is either unaware that sacred has a different meaning to religious folk than it does to her, or she seeks to exploit that double standard in meaning to her own advantage.

Let me explain. In a religious sense, a marriage is two flesh made one flesh. For that marriage bond to be sacred there must be in some sense -- in some fashion -- true that its composite parts are sacred as well.

Terri's marriage is sacred. Terri's life is sacred. To use the sacred marriage bond to advance Terri's death is to have it both ways: Terri's life is sacred and it is not.

And I should not have to mention to Connie that the jack-booted thugs of the government do step into the inviolable marriage in the case of spousal abuse. But then I would the get the libertarian sturm und drang about individual rights, their fists, and my nose. Sadly forgotten in the libertarian cornucopia of individual rights are the rights of the weak and helpless. They're not sure if fetuses rate rights yet. Unfortunately, Terri was unable to escape her failing starter marriage^[3]. Might Terri's marriage fail to reach the heights of inviolability by Connie's own standard?

I need not hum Deutschland Uber Alles to prove the point. Diane Alden, whom the du Toits may have encountered through her piece "Moms With Guns", has extensively documented the slippery slope on euthanasia and the Weimar Republic in "Futile Care: The Terri Schiavo Case". But it need not be forgotten history, such things repeat and it does, in this case Netherlands.

And at this point, I'm sure Connie -- if she bothered to read this -- is probably completely exasperated that we pitchforkers refuse to acknowledge her point about the Sacrament of Marriage. It's been considered.

But the first question is whether Terri has a right-to-die regardless of whether her "husband" speaks for her. This begs the second and most important question, whether Terri has any rights at all. Has Terri lost her humanity? Auschwitz beckons.

Notes:

[1]"Whereupon my wife (bless her heart) said sweetly, 'I’d rather teach my son macho self-defense, than encourage him to be a quivering victim.'

"This was an interesting statement coming from my wife (not to mention, of course, a devastating put-down). Interesting because when we first met, she was a resident of Beverly Hills CA, a place not known for its conservatism, and she had been a Hollywood agent, in an industry renowned for, well, Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen. Indeed, when we first started dating, she announced to me in no uncertain terms that she hated guns. My nickname for her at the time was 'my Liberal Rubbish Girlfriend.'"

http://www.kimdutoit.com/latl/LAL2pf.htm or
http://www.kimdutoit.com/dr/latl/latl.php?id=P75

[2] From http://mrsdutoit.com/bg/Bio.htm and http://www.kimdutoit.com/bio.htm. I note that Kim acknowledges the contradiction: "values the sanctity of marriage, but is married to his third wife."

[3] Various sources report the allegation that Terri was abused by her husband. I choose to link to the Schindlers' side of the story as reported by Fr. Rob at Thrown Back (scroll down to Part II)

[The original essay was authored on 2003-10-25. The original and related essays are found here and here and here]

Posted by Bob at October 31, 2003 10:15 AM