Is "America" a hypocrite?

Published on March 31, 2005 By KarmaGirl In Politics

I love America, and I think that what we do is typically right. However, there are things that happen that make me wonder if we do things in a "do as I say, not as I do" type fashion.

In another JU article: https://forums.joeuser.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=120&AID=68063#530308 It was commented on how it is interesting to see how Americans were viewed in relation to the Vietnam war. In a museum that they visited, they saw that America was viewed as "puppet masters" by the Vietnamese. I was too young to know what happened in that war, but I still always wonder how the rest of the world views us. Which makes me wonder how we are currently being viewed.

I have seen a few international articles that are calling us hypocrites. It's not about the war that we are currently in- it's about what happened to Terri Schiavo.

We are telling the world that we need to treat everyone as equal. We have stated that it is wrong that in other countries men basically "own" their wives and that it is wrong that they have the right to torture or kill their own wife........... Yet, for some reason, we allowed a man to legally starve his wife to death.

People will say "but, this is different!" But, I am having a hard time seeing a clear distinction. This man had total control over his wife's life, and he ended it by starvation. People can say "she wasn't in pain", but how d we know? Are we going to be pompous enough to claim that we know enough about the brain to be 100% certain?

I'm interested to know how our fellow bloggers around the world view this.

Comments (Page 2)

kingbee

on Mar 31, 2005

if people in other countries are concluding that michael schiavo was 'allowed' to starve his wife to death it's because the story they're getting is being misreported as badly outside the us as it is domestically...or they're being told the facts but choosing to ignore them in favor of the kinda nonsense that's been trumpeted everywhere else.

anyone who claims not to know that once michael schiavo agreed to let the court act as terri's surrogate he had no more control over the ultimate result than did the shindlers is doing nothing more than contributing to the tragedy. why did he do that? because the schindlers--noble loving parents that they are--were pissed off cuz he wouldnt share the money he was awarded for loss of consortium and took it out on him by maliciously accusing him of not acting in his wife's interest.

people who are so desperate for $150k that they drive a wedge between their daughter and her husband are hardly ideal parents.

KarmaGirl

on Mar 31, 2005

anyone who claims not to know that once michael schiavo agreed to let the court act as terri's surrogate he had no more control over the ultimate result than did the shindlers is doing nothing more than contributing to the tragedy.

So...that is the reason that he wouldn't let them be by her bedside?

And, it doesn't matter anyway. She died by starvation. Her husband, the courts, our country allowed this to happen. Should we starve anyone to death on purpose?

trueandfree

on Mar 31, 2005

The guardianship laws in this country are a mess. It depends on where you are and who the judge is, its that simple. The battles are silently raging in courtrooms all over America. This one just happend to be on TV. Still don't make it right in one place and not the other. We have to draw a line somewhere. We are better than this...

kingbee

on Mar 31, 2005

Should we starve anyone to death on purpose?

people who have their ventilators disconnected die of strangulation. should we smother them to death on purpose?

florida, texas and a number of other states consider intubation an equally artificial means of sustaining life.

people have feeding/hydration tubes removed every day in the us. the real outrage is those who made this whole thing into such a circus work tirelessly to oppose a more humane alternative.

KarmaGirl

on Mar 31, 2005

people who have their ventilators disconnected die of strangulation. should we smother them to death on purpose?

It doesn't take a person on a ventilator 2 weeks to die slowly. If you did that to a dog, you would be put in jail. We don't know enough about the brain to know what she felt and what she didn't. There are plenty of people who can't feed themselves, does that mean that we should just allow all of them to die?

people have feeding/hydration tubes removed every day in the us

can you provide some cases or specifics with that? How many people are purposely killed in the US like this?

Moderateman

on Mar 31, 2005

#20 by kingbee
Thursday, March 31, 2005

kingbee, your a better man than this, your argueing for arguements sake.... no where has anyone said that terry would want to starve to death.. also for someone that fought so hard to live {13 days} against turning off a switch and dieing quickly, come one man where is your heart?

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!