I hate to add to to the overwhelming amount of press the Terri Schiavo deathwatch is getting, but I do have a few things to say.

**As I am writing this, NBC is breaking the news that Terri Schiavo has died.May she finally rest in peace.***

First, why aren't we focusing on the fact that this woman had a severe eating disorder that caused the heart attack that led to the brain damage she suffers from today? We only hear about the political fight over "right to life" by the same people that pushed for a contradictory law in Texas in 1999 signed by then Governor George W. Bush. As Governor, Bush Signed Right-to Die Law.

Second, hasn't the opportunity to feed their daughter passed? What was the relationship like between Terri and her parents, and her husband? Her family has slandered him, his new girlfriend and children can not leave their house because of death threats, but who really has her best interest in mind? If she was starving herself and overdosing on laxatives then she had serious issues that we aren't aware of, and honestly, we don't need to know. Her privacy is what has been denied. If you were Terri, would you want the pictures that are on television of her all slackjawed and disabled viewed in public? She had an eating disorder, chances are she was a little sensitive about her appearance.

Third, Tom DeLay let his father die. He denied him life support. What are his intentions?

If human life is so important, why is George Bush such a big fan of the death penalty? Why does he care so little about the civilian casualties in the Iraq war? The casualties cannot even be estimated because of the destruction and the fact that the red cross and other organizations aren't allowed access to count heads.

If starvation is such a cruel way to die, then why has malnutrition doubled since the US occupation of Iraq for children under 5 years old?
If life is so precious why is George W. Bush the only president in history to give the green light for the use of nuclear weapons in war, namely Iraq?

Finally, why isn't the media telling us what is really important? Because The Media Panders to the Right, thats why. Because we don't get to hear the important stuff or see people protesting war or our government on television unless it gets violent or to show dissaproval. In fact, the people we see on television showing their "support for Terri" are creepy and scary.

"TV coverage of the protesters outside Terri Schiavo's hospice has tended toward the softball. Many viewers weren't told that the "proud father" repeatedly interviewed about his 10-year-old son arrested at the scene is a convicted sex offender. And many viewers may not realize that Randolph Terry, identified as a "family spokesman" for Schiavo's parents, is an extremist who advocated death for physicians who've performed abortions."


It turns my stomach to see people outside of Terri's hospice with signs like "Are the Jews Next?" and to see parents with their mentally retarded or disabled children propped up with signs that say "Would you kill me too?" Yes, if I had to, so stop asking.

The majority of the US approves of Euthanasia and maybe we should be focusing on ways that are not cruel, like removing a feeding tube and watching her slowly perish, but offering a more humane, dignified way of putting people down, so to speak. When I put my dog to sleep it was very gentle, very peaceful and his suffering ended quickly. Why should it be different for humans?

Either way, Terri has died, and now we can allow the media to focus our attention back to Michael Jackson and whatever sensational story they can come up with.

I have been following Condoleeza Rice's travels across Asia as the new Secretary of State. I wonder how she handles the stress of her job. It can't be easy working in politics on such an international level. Long hours, travel. If it were me I would probably get sick. Most women suffer from some sort of somatic illness, whether it is an irritable bowel or migraines. We communicate through our bodies. It is something we taught, I think, through the generations of repression, women learned how to communicate all of their anger and sadness through sickness. It was acceptable for a woman to be sick and frail. Now in more modern times, women are still communicating with their bodies because we haven't learned how to behave any other way. We have the opportunity to share our feelings in so many different ways but we are still caught up in some emotional trap, for example, trying to be superwoman. We want it all- family, career, money, health, beauty and lots of material possessions. If we are sick we are weak and so we take lots of medicine and we work long hours and we suffer to be like a woman in a magazine staring at us, smiling, saying, "I do it, why can't you?"

I have a lot of respect for woman that can strike some kind of balance in their lives. I don't know if men feel that same pull as women do. We are not just partners in a committed relationship, we are daughters, sisters, friends. With that comes a lot of responsibility and pressure from the people that we love the most. Finding that balance is not easy.

So when I look at truly powerful women, I wonder if they have any kind of somatic illness. I wonder if they have migraines that make them crawl under the covers with the shades drawn. I wonder if they have TMJ or grind their teeth at night thinking of all of the things they left undone. In the case of Condoleeza Rice, I wonder if she is constipated. I wonder if she eats enough fiber, if she follows a specific diet, if she works out. I wonder if she really is stressed with her life or if she just remains focused on her career, working for President Bush, so that she doesn't have to think about meeting a nice man or woman to spend the rest of her life with. She doesn't have to worry about having children or hanging out with her friends because she is work. She is a well-trained machine of political power and all else is second or lower.

Women are born multi-taskers and it is only fitting that we feel so many things in so many different ways, not just emotional but physical too. I wonder though about the toll that the stress that comes with such a high profile life does to someones stomach. Maybe she has alot of assistance the way hollywood mothers always seem to have three on-call nannies for one child. Maybe its harder to be a regular jill-schmo who has to travel 2 hours on the subway every day, work nine hours, and come home and feed her cats/children/elderly relatives and still maintain a social life.

It makes you wonder what condition the assistant to the Secretary of State is in.

Hey everyone,

Here are the links to the articles I mentioned in my audioblog posting.

Va. Cancer Patient Selling Flag on eBay to Cover Cancer Treatment.

Your Money or Your Life.

Here are some other interesting articles found on The Nation website.

Life Without Health Insurance is an article about the growing number of people between the ages of 18-25 without insurance. What do you do when you finish college or are no longer covered by your parents' insurance?

Desperately Seeking Health Insurancehas three examples of patients that waited so long to see a doctor and their health problems compounded. Also looks at the financial and emotional damage caused by expensive healthcare.

Medical Bills Figure in Personal Bankruptcy looks at people that file for bankruptcy to pay for medical bills despite having insurance because if high copayments and looks at the rise in bankruptcies for senior citizens that charge their prescriptions and can't afford to pay the bill.

This is Part 2 of my conversation on expensive healthcare.

Part 1 of my conversation on expensive healthcare.