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Terri Schiavo's life and death struggle is nearly over. For 15 years, Terri has lived in a world that only she was privy to, while her consciousness, reality, and reason were debated around her and across the United States.

After 15 years, dozens of judges, scores of doctors and specialists, a flurry of legislative bills, the president and Congress convening on a Sunday night--everything but God Himself intervening--those with the power of life and death over Terri Schiavo chose death.

Terms like "PVS" (permanently vegetative state), "minimal consciousness," and "liquefied cortex" became familiar among the public, as did real-life heroes and villains in a real-time Shakespearean play.

But hey, so what? There are thousands of people who go through this every day, right? We have been "mercifully ending people's lives" for years. That's what a hospice is for.

I do not want to go down the road of blame in regard to Terri Schiavo and her still-legal husband, Michael Schiavo. Nor do I care to condemn the ruling judge in this continual heartbreak, George Greer. Neither will I blame the Florida Legislature, Jeb Bush, the U.S. Congress, nor God.

Here's what I do know: There is not a single person who stands on the face of the earth today that can tell you what Terri Schiavo's wishes were regarding the situation she tragically found herself in. There is no proof. There is no paper that tells us what it is. We will never know.

We have the words and demands of Terri's estranged husband Michael, who called for her death, as compared to the words and pleas of Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who begged for her life.

When legitimate questions were asked as to the actual awareness of Terri and her quality of life, the laws that govern a compassionate society deemed it "merciful" to starve her to death, something you could not legally do to a dog, one of God's most innocent and non-human creations.

The mainstream media have trumpeted Terri Schiavo's death like some clarion call to ideological arms. Editorials and stories abound within the pages of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. These stories essentially look to pacify a concerned yet media-manipulated public regarding the questions that surround Terri's tragic life and excruciating death, and excoriate the Republican Party for trying to give her a final chance at life.

These colossi of secular liberalism view the fight to save Terri Schiavo as a battle between good and evil, the evil here being the "Christian right." They further view this as a blow, in particular, to George W. Bush and his "moral values" base.

But as with everything today, the struggle over Terri Schiavo's life was poisoned with politics. Witness the forged "talking points" memo that was supposedly written by Senate Republicans regarding Terri Schiavo, but in reality was penned by someone on the left side of the Senate aisle and distributed to an eager media.(web site)

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