Last week, Diane Coleman and I attended and participated in the Second International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, put on by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC). We were optimistic about attending based on our experiences with Alex Schadenberg, E.D. of EPC. We attended an event of EPC last year in Winnipeg with members of the Canadian disability rights community which focused on the issues of assisted suicide and euthanasia – and stayed focused across presenters.
Last week’s event was a disappointment and discouraging in terms of the feasibility of a coalition. There were simply too many representatives of organizations (Christian/prolife/conservative) that couldn’t resist bringing in other parts of their agenda.
What made this even more disappointing was that these presenters, who couldn’t stick to the shared agenda, did so knowing two things:
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The successful coalition in the United Kingdom: Dr. Peter Saunders, founder of the Care Not Killing Alliance in the U.K. described how their successful coalition worked. Everyone in the alliance stays on message. The major spokespersons of the Alliance are from the political left and the disability community. The E.D. of the coalition is an atheist, pro-choice, left-wing member of Parliament. They’ve managed to hold the line on legislation in the U.K. in the face of sympathetic coverage of assisted suicide and a well-funded pro-euthanasia movement.
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There were opponents in the audience. At least two attendees were from the other side – the pro-euthanasia movement. Their task, naturally, was to gather information to help themselves in their own advocacy.
For me, things came to a head on the first day when a representative of the LaRouchePAC stepped up to the audience question-and-answer microphone. He read a piece of crap he called “research” that labeled Obama’s health care plan (what we know so far) as a “Nazi plan.” To my disgust and horror, over half the audience broke out into applause over that.
I took Alex aside and told him that he had no idea what just happened and how bad it was. The LaRouchePAC is one of several entities attached to Lyndon LaRouche, conspiracy enthusiast. Pretty much no one of any political stripe who wants to be taken seriously becomes associated with the man or his group. (BTW, the guy from the PAC got in for free with a “media pass” – probably from his home printer, and then did the un-journalistic move of leaving promotional materials. He also didn’t ask any questions. Maybe this gives you an idea of the ethics – or lack thereof – in how they operate.)
Alex let me take the podium in response. I can’t remember everything I said, or the argument I had with the guy from the PAC. But I knew it wouldn’t be enough, especially with repeated exposure to material that had nothing to do with euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The next morning, after a brief intro of my own history – my birth and issues related to hydrocephalus growing up, I departed from my previously planned presentation, explaining that events of the past couple days had made it obvious that I needed to address serious threats to any participation by NDY in a coalition. The following is an attempt to construct my remarks from memory and notes. I am sure that parts of it are verbatim and that it doesn’t depart from the factual content. (If I get the DVD or transcript, I will no doubt find that I departed from the remarks as spoken in ways that make me sound more eloquent than I was.) For what they’re worth, here are my remarks, as best as I can recall:
“I think that a broad-based coalition is not only a good idea, it’s a necessary one. Having said that, I also have to say I’m not sure I’ll be back here. I signed on for the idea that we could all stay focused on assisted suicide and euthanasia. Yet I’ve been made to be associated with presentations that included discussions of stem cells, abortion and Roe v. Wade. I, too, have passions. I could have gone on a rant on the cost of George Bush’s war of choice in Iraq, which also dug our country into a hole budget-wise. Resulting draconian budget cuts in many states to support services for people with disabilities are a real issue – and I could have made a plausible argument for tying that to the issues we are supposed to be focusing on.
Most troubling was what occurred yesterday when someone came in from outside. Reading from a so-called “analysis,” an outsider came in here and presented a bunch of de-contextualized quotes and called it something like “Obama’s Nazi Health Care Plan.” And over half of you applauded. I don’t know why you applauded, but it’s clear none of you knew who or what you were applauding. I do – I read the so-called “analysis.” That “analysis” comes from a group that doesn’t deserve the dignity of being called “fringe” – the group has a history of latching onto one cause after another for the sole purpose of raising its own public profile and political clout.
I’d hate to think that it was the “Nazi” allegation you were applauding. It’s a comparison that discredits the person who invokes it – along with whatever cause or organization they’re associated with.
Please bear with me for a short story. For personal reasons, not religious, I find mezuzahs on the outer door frames of the house very comforting. Last year, Diane and I purchased a house. It has mezuzahs on every outer door frame. The previous owners were two people who met and married in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. Soon after, they were among the millions of Jews taken to Concentration camps. They ended up in different camps. Miraculously, both survived. Even more miraculously, they found each other again. They moved to the States, lived and raised children.
These were but two of the victims of the greatest crime of the 20th Century. Thinking on them, have a care when you invoke or applaud Nazi comparisons. When you invoke the systematic, routinized extermination of millions of men, women and children in response to vague fears about a health plan, you turn off and offend the majority of the public. It offends me. (And, btw, I feel the same way about the use of the term “fascism” by some critics of the Bush administration – and I wasn’t a fan of that administration by a long shot.)
I’d like this U.S. coalition to work, but I’m not convinced it will. There are people here I’ve worked with before and would like to again. But there’s also a track record of ignoring or rendering invisible the very people that so many groups are eager to “protect” and “speak for.” It happened in the Robert Wendland case, in the fight for Terri Schiavo’s life and in the debate over the film “Million Dollar Baby.” In each case, there was heavy involvement by disability groups – court briefs, op-eds, protests. But in each case, those voices were overrun by “culture warriors” with our “allies” as willing to pretend we didn’t exist as our opponents. You can’t blame it on a “liberal press” either – Fox News was as guilty as anyone else in terms of pretending we didn’t exist.
The outcome of that exclusion, of course, is harmful to the issue this conference is supposed to address. The American public remembers the Schiavo struggle as a chapter in the “culture wars.” And to the extent that we’re remembered at all, there’s a vague notion that we were “tools” of the religious right.
That also makes it harder for us to get organizations and activists to exert energy. “Why should we?” they say. All that work and no acknowledgment and little or no impact. That’s a reality of getting people with full plates to add one more thing.
So with that context, I repeat that I’m not sure that I will be back. What we bring to the table are disability activists and mainstream disability organizations. If they see a coalition dominated by groups bringing other political agendas into the discussion, they will be increasingly difficult to pull in.
Note: all of this occurred before the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Tiller was famous – or infamous – as one of the few doctors willing to openly provide late-term abortions. He was shot down while serving as an usher in church – a traditional place of sanctuary.
While most organizations opposing abortions have given what seem to be sincere statements of condemnation, there’s a glaring exception to that rule.
Yesterday, Randall Terry made the following remark regarding the murder of George Tiller:
“The point that must be emphasized over, and over, and over again: pro-life leaders and the pro-life movement are not responsible for George Tiller’s death. George Tiller was a mass-murderer and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed.”
That is Randall Terry saying that basically, Tiller got what he deserved. Not that I ever doubted it, but it once again confirms what a violence-promoting piece of crap this man is. It’s also the reason Terri Schiavo was doomed when this vermin stepped up and treated the fight for her life as his personal show to stage-manage.
Until pro-lifers can shake the taint of this violence (loudly and permanently denouncing Randall Terry would be a good start), they’ll only succeed in chasing people to the other side when it comes to issues like assisted suicide and euthanasia.
That may seem unfair to pro-lifers who consistently and sincerely abhor violence. But, as Rita Marker said at the Symposium, there is a commandment she discovered that is very important to understand:
“Life ain’t fair. Get over it.”
And it ain’t fair that some of the players last week just couldn’t seem to grasp the importance of leaving their excess baggage at the door. But even if they don’t get over it, we will – even if that means doing our work outside of a coalition that has members who don’t care enough about the issues of assisted suicide and euthanasia to exercise the necessary discipline needed to win with an effective coalition. –Stephen Drake