The results from across the country keep pouring in: Kansas yesterday approved a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman with 70 percent in favor, a typical result and one that closely matches a virtually unreported CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll from last weekend showing 68 percent of Americans holding that view. Early reports from yesterday indicate that voter turnout in the most populated areas of The Jayhawk State was brisk. Similar reports appeared this morning: The issue appeared to bring out more voters than usual for a spring election. State officials said spring off-year elections generally produce a turnout in the 10 percent to 20 percent range. Johnson County reported a turnout … [Read more...]

A new Zogby poll released contrasts with the findings of earlier national surveys on the Terri Schiavo case. When the questions were asked in a way more reflective of the actual situation, the true complexities of the case and the American majority's clearer moral sensibilities emerge. No one with intellectual honesty can say with a straight face that Zogby is part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. But the Democrat-leaning pollster demonstrated the simple effectiveness of asking specific and relevant questions. Here are some key findings, as reported by Life News, the first suggesting popular approval for erring on the side of life: The Zogby poll found that, if a person becomes incapacitated and has not expressed their … [Read more...]

My essay, "Reflections on the Suffering and Death of Terri Schiavo," has been posted at Sharper Iron. The essay is personal, philosophical, spiritual, contemplative, and I hope you get a chance to read it. Thanks, Jason, for the opportunity to post it to your site. But even now in Terri's passing, our eyes are being focused on larger moral, cultural, and political debates to come. Read Bill Sammon's piece in today's Washington Times on the powerful resurgence of the pro-life movement in its crusade to reform the judiciary. The secular liberal political and media establishments looked at this case through radically different eyes than many religiously-motivated and spiritually-attuned fundamentalists, evangelicals, Catholics, and Jews … [Read more...]

I had all but resolved to let the Terri Schiavo story go over the weekend. But here we are again, now facing a two-pronged tragedy. First of all, there's the painful tragedy of Terri's dehydration and starvation, all too graphically described by Nat Hentoff in today's Washington Times. Some who disagree might choose to listen to Hentoff rather than to me, unless it has been deemed that he has also joined the "radical religious right-wing" conspiracy. The other tragedy is the one of near anarchy brought forward so clearly by Captain Ed, that his post is essential reading today for those of the center-right persuasion: especially supporters of Terri's right to live. I agree with Ed that Randall Terry has begun hijacking this case for … [Read more...]

Thinking about a poignant, powerful, complex case that has engaged and deeply moved so many Americans, some words of reflection. I do not want to believe in America in 2005 that: A man could express so little interest in his legally-recognized wife except to ensure that she's dead. A judge could stubbornly cling to the claims that a woman wants to die based on the flimsiest of evidence. People could be arrested for bringing an innocent, helpless, dying woman water to drink. The media would be arrayed against those who urge caution in "erring on the side of life," distorting facts at every turn. That an innocent brain-damaged woman has less standing before a federal court than a convicted murder with a death sentence or an … [Read more...]