Some people actually knew Terri Schiavo when she was a person.

The rest of us knew her only when she became an "issue."

The Pro-Abortion ? excuse me, choice ? people wanted to let her die. Her life ? excuse me, death ? was a tool to be used to promote their cause.

The "Right to Die" people wanted to let her die. Her life ? excuse me ?

death, fit their cause.

Liberals wanted to let her die. Conservatives wanted to let her be.

Everyone on radio and TV seemed to know all the rights and wrongs, all the ethics. The husband is good. The husband is bad. The parents are good. The parents are bad. It all sounded so easy.

If Terry Schiavo is an "issue."

Let's not forget that she was once a person, with a beginning. And loved and liked and cried and laughed and took springtime walks and enjoyed all the beauty and bounty of the world God created. Bright sunshine and starlight and full moonlit nights, blue sky and cool clear water and seed-bearing plants and trees that bear fruit with seed in it, the change in seasons, sunsets and sunrises, beaches and birds that are fruitful and multiplied. All nature. And she knew of her own self, created by God.

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment.. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. If we don't think of ourselves as "issues," how can we reduce our neighbor to one?

--Mike Fulford