such a time as this

I’ve known about Terri Schiavo for a few years. I first learned of her through WorldNetDaily. My frustration back then was that the mainstream media was turning a blind eye to her plight. She has had her feeding tube removed before. But the media, at that time, was silent on a story which should’ve been a reporter’s dream: a story with legs, with hooks and some real-live hometown heft with the news consuming masses. But in those days the media was avoiding that story like the plague.

Today the media can no longer ignore the story. And so their position is forced into the light, together with their consistent pattern of mendacity and distortion of the facts. It was somewhat different before the whole country knew about it.

In addition to the unmasking of the media, the judiciary has been forced to reveal their positions, all the way up to the Florida supreme court, and then even to the US Supreme Court. What we now know about these judges is that there are some who seem determined to see Terri dead –like Greer– and there are others who are reluctant to demur, and have allowed this tragedy by refusing to even so much as consider the evidence that all of us are reading and watching online and on television every day.

The legislative bodies of both Florida and of the United States have also been measured, with mixed and wanting results. Florida failed to pass a bill which would have not only saved Terri, but would have done much to protect others like her in the future. The gap was three votes. That means if only two people had had the character and courage to vote for this bill instead of against it, this catastrophe could have ended.

And finally, the executive branches of these two governments are being measured. I appreciate the statements made by both of the Bush brothers, and I know that Jeb is very concerned and is looking for any way he can save Terri. But I also believe that he needs to recognize that judge Greer has grossly overreached; he has defied the will of the people as expressed by their duly elected representatives in the Florida legislature by summarily striking down the first bill they passed on Terri’s behalf, and he has slapped Jeb’s hand, literally ordering him to stay out of the issue.

I believe there is a clear and solid case for Jeb to take action in defiance of the Pinellas court. Here is one legally blind judge in one poe-dunk county of the state who has imperiously ordered the elected chief executive of the entire state to back off, stay out. This is tyranny, and it violates the separation of powers doctrine.

The problem for Jeb and for all concerned and interested Americans, especially Christians and supporters of the right to life, is this: at what point do we break with the judiciary element and stand, through disobedience, civil or otherwise, against an evil tyranny? Has that point come? Is it still yet to come?

Those questions are being forced upon us, and this is where the judgment of God ultimately settles on us as a people. There are those who have been arrested for carrying a cup of water over the threshold of the hospice. Whether their effort was successful or not, they, at least, have made it unmistakably clear where they stand. Those of us who blog for Terri, although we have not paid the price of handcuffs and a ride downtown in the paddy wagon, may also claim that we have made our dissent clear. And so it is with anyone in this country who is unafraid to voice his or her opinion in this matter.

Whatever degree of action we resolve to take, of this I am certain: these unjust judges have overstepped their constitutional bounds, and have assumed for themselves broad and tyrannical powers over us. They have, in effect, made kings of themselves. If we speak only in terms of abiding by their rule of law, and never allow for the concept of resistance to their evil, we are acknowledging these judges as our rulers, and in so doing, God’s judgment that has been reserved for them will be ours also.

Yesterday Dawn Eden drew a comparison to the story of Esther. I believe Jeb Bush is our “Hadassah.” It’s now time for Jeb to act decisively, and it’s time for us to encourage him to do so, and to pray that he will have the courage to stand up, and to walk into that rare space in history which is occupied by so few and all great. Jeb never asked for it, but the rescue of Terri Schiavo is his destiny.