Look at the non-stop media
coverage. Look at the op-eds. Look at Congress. Even President Bush flying up from Crawford
to sign a piece of legislation. The only thing bigger was 9/11. What is all the
furor about? I think Terri's plight has become the perfect storm.
We have the convergence of just about every issue that divides conservatives and
liberals: judicial activism, sanctity of life, euthanasia, federal versus state rights,
strict constitutionalism, personal rights, privacy concerns, even health care reform.
And it is all jumbled up, with liberals claiming the need for State's rights, while
conservatives wishing to override laws. It overshadows Judge Moore's similar standoff
the way the second air assault overshadowed the first World Trade Center truck bomb. And it
was equally unexpected.
Is this a good thing? We lost 3000 men and women on 9/11 and the U.S. military lost another
1600+ in conquering Afghanistan and Iraq. A tragedy, perhaps.
To quote Lincoln, "we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave
men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or
detract." But because of that sacrifice, the Middle East has changed, maybe
forever. Terri, a single imperiled soul, is having the same effect on America.
Terri is doing what 100,000 marchers in D.C. never accomplished in 32 years of annual
protests to Roe v. Wade: bringing the pro-life cause to every television and
newspaper in America and holding them captive for a week.
But to what avail? Is this just another O.J. Simpson farce, another courtroom circus full of
sound and fury signifying nothing? Is this just another Judge Moore tragedy, a justice system
attacking itself?
No. They didn't get President Bush and 240 Congressmen out of bed.
They didn't get 49 Senators worried about their re-election chances. They didn't force an issue to the
Supreme Court that had been rejected twice before. In other words, they never captured the
simultaneous attention and action of all three branches of the US Government, and on a Sunday, late in the night.
Terri, poor dumb, paralyzed, brain-damaged Terri, did all of those things.
That is, Terri has done something Nelly Gray has spent half her life trying to accomplish,
something Gary Bauer still dreams about, something James Dobson has been demanding since
talk radio was invented. And she did it, apparently, without even noticing.
Don't deny the facts, don't minimize the effect, and don't rationalize the circumstances.
This is nothing short of miraculous.
And now I will let you in on a secret: Miracles mean something. That's why keyboards
around the US are burning up with copy. That's why the television shows nothing
else but Terri's poor tortured face. That's why foreign papers are carrying the story far
beyond our humble shores. Everyone wants to know what it means, everyone is bursting
to share "the answer" to this peculiar chain of events. And the "meaning" seems to
just elude our grasp.
Why do I say that, haven't every one of the op-ed columns come to a compelling conclusion?
Indeed they have, and you will note that no two of them agree. In fact, the conclusions
reached by each writer are often quite predictable. Terri has become a blank page, and we read into
her empty expression every hot emotion in our veins, we hear in her poignant silence
the clamoring din of our own words. It is no longer
Terri's bondage to arbitrary judges/husbands/parents being discussed, but our own bondage
to arbitrary fate. It is no longer Terri's salvation from dehydration
being debated, but our own salvation from dispirited materialism. No wonder the air is
thick with words!
The story told in the book of Job,
bears an uncanny resemblance to Terri. Like her, a
series of most unfortunate tragedies befell Job. Like her, his spouse suggested death.
Like her, his staunchest friends turned into his most bitter enemies, all the while claiming
to be most concerned about his welfare. Like her, all the issues seemed topsy-turvy, and even
when God weighed in with an opinion, nothing was resolved. Like her, a miracle occurs,
and the meaning eludes everyone but him. The story has remained controversial for three
millennia, perhaps because, like her, it is more than a miracle, it is a mirror.