Terri Schiavo: Clouding the issue

I have not weighed in on the Terri Schiavo issue yet, but thought I would make a few points about it today. I don't think that this is such a no-brainer issue as some people would like to think. This is primarily because of the complexity of the issue and the fact that many things have clouded the issue.

I would recommend this article on Slate.com that gives a reasonable discussion of the issue. Unfortunately, many of the articles on the subject have been so emotional (and understandably so) that it is difficult to determine all the facts.

Outside of the fact that a woman is being starved to death, I am most disturbed by the MSM coverage of the protests. The MSM would lead you to believe that the only people protesting are militant extreme Christians shouting "fire and brimstone" in front of the hospice. While there is no doubt an element of protesters with extreme rhetoric such as Randall Terry, this picture does little justice to what is really going on.

I had heard about all the crazies protesting, so I decided to search for images on Google to see what was really going on. When I searched for the terms "schiavo" and "protest" on Google, I got a very different story. In fact all of the images were from Carrie Ann Lucas, who runs the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. Here is a quick overview of the coalition:

CCDC was founded in 1990 by a dedicated group of disability activists. CCDC is unique and a powerful voice advocating for basic civil and human rights for people with disabilities. Our work benefits all 500,000 disabled Colorado residents. Our members choose the issues. Founded to insure implementation of the ADA, health care issues soon became paramount. Both health care and ADA implementation initiatives have grown over the years. We began with basic education about the ADA, now house our successful and unique legal program. We began with statewide health care hearings in the early 1990’s, and are now a central voice in health care policy for our community. We played a strong role with our Medicaid agency to insure that necessary budget cuts spared those most vulnerable. We made numerous sustainable improvements regarding access in Colorado. Examples include the State Capitol, Red Rocks Amphitheater; Landmark Theaters and the Regional Transportation District. We have improved and expanded the state Medicaid program. Examples include forcing continuation of de-institutionalization programs; consumer directed care, and continuation of a highly respected disability advisory committee within the Department. We take pride that our initiatives have saved the taxpayers millions of dollars, while benefiting our members. Since 1990, we have been the sole organization uniting people with all types of disabilities across Colorado that is run exclusively by people with disabilities.

That doesn't sound like an ultra right-wing fundamentalist group to me. I then took a look at the pictures from the Schiavo protest.


I have no idea what the religious beliefs or political affiliations are of these people protesting. But they don't look like extremists to me.

So why have we not heard more from people like Carrie Anne?

Update: Instanpundit echoes many of my thoughts here. Having known Randall Terry, I agree that he should be shunned and not given a platform to speak from. I can think of few worse spokesmen for the pro-life movement than Randall Terry. It is hard to not get the impression that for all of Randall's talk of issues, that at the end of the day, Randall is all about Randall.

Update: Michelle Malkin has likewise found the same biased reporting on the Terri Schiavo protests.