I really didn’t want to write this kind of post, but with some of the building noise related to Terri Schiavo, it’s become pretty clear that silence isn’t an option. Wednesday, March 31st is the fifth anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s death. I already had something planned for the blog that was bound to make some people unhappy, but very different than this post. (That other post will be published on this blog – on Wednesday at the latest.)
Last week, the show “Family Guy” opened with a short piece titled “Terri Schiavo – the musical.” Sorry – no link. It was offensive and inaccurate.
Of course it was. No shocker there. I decided years ago that I didn’t want to watch the show. For me, the real problem was that – out of four shows that I watched – two of them contained “gags” revolving around the humorous side of adults having sex with kids (or attempting to). I don’t see the humor in those kind of “gags.”
There are people I know who like the show and have told me I should watch it because there is material on the show I would find funny. Based on my limited experience with the show, it’s kind of like telling me I should go grope around in an unflushed toilet because someone dropped something really good to eat down there and I’d enjoy it.
Predictably, the Schindler family reacted. I guess I don’t blame them. But in a press release they included this:
The Foundation is calling on all disability rights organizations and pro-life organizations to join us in admonishing the producers and writers of The Family Guy.
To my knowledge, no disability rights organization, including NDY, has chosen to join them.
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by June Maxam at North Country Gazette. In her article “Where Are They Now?” Maxam lists the national disability groups that were involved in fighting the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. She then suggests that the “silence” from the disability community on “Family Guy” is “condoning and advancing the prejudice, bigotry and hatred of the disabled.”
The fact is, we’re busy with real crises – and the “Family Guy” skit doesn’t come close to being a “crisis.” NDY is directly involved with coalitions opposing assisted suicide and euthanasia in 4 states, active in a major “futile care” case in one other, involved with a developing court challenge over guardianship limits in another state, providing technical assistance to disability advocates on state legislation, and monitoring the media for grossly inaccurate reporting on the Final Exit Network and individual homicides of people with disabilities. On top of that, we are working with other national disability groups on other disability rights issues through a national network of advocacy organizations that are run by people with disabilities. The majority of our work isn’t that visible -we’re seeking change, not headlines.
On the state level, every disability advocacy group is fighting looming draconian cuts to life-sustaining services – cuts which, if implemented, will result in early and unpleasant deaths for many people with disabilities through an indirect, backdoor euthanasia via neglect and abandonment.
Which one of these things do the Schindlers and June Maxam want us to put aside while we go support the Schindlers in their outrage over this show? It’s not like this is the worst thing the show has ever done – I think the bits I saw that turned me away were on an even lower level than the crappy piece on Terri Schiavo. If a show that features gags around sexual innuendo and kids remains on the air and has no trouble finding or keeping sponsors, outrage over this skit won’t scare them away.
Speaking of disability advocacy, tomorrow the Family Research Council is hosting a panel on Terri Schiavo’s death. Bobby Schindler is on the program, which describes him as follows:
Robert Schindler, brother of Terri; full-time pro-life and disability rights advocate
I’m sure the Family Research Council loves the conflation of disability rights and “pro-life.” That’s one thing they have in common with prominent “lefty” bioethicists. No one in the actual disability rights community appreciates it, though. And we don’t appreciate the description of Bobby Schindler as a disability rights advocate.
During the fight to prevent the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, the Schindlers showed little understanding of disability rights – or of the potential importance of the involvement of national disability rights organizations in the debate. Surrounded by their prominent prolife supporters, they almost never mentioned the disability rights organizations supporting the struggle to save her life. If they’d made a habit of mentioning that, it would have been harder for news organizations – Fox, MSNBC, CNN, the networks, etc. to pretend this was all just one more battle in the “culture wars.” Unfortunately, framing the fight in terms of the culture wars suited “handlers” like Father Frank Pavone and Randall Terry just fine.
I wish I could say that I have any evidence that the Schindlers have any better understanding of the disability rights community and disability rights issues today than they did back then. I don’t. They are not involved in any of the battles mentioned above – and play almost exclusively to Christian Conservative audiences.
I don’t blame the Schindlers for whatever decisions they made back then – they were desperate, exhausted, grasping at whatever straw presented itself. They lost a daughter and a sister in a long, drawn-out nightmare.
But it’s a little hard to swallow the claim that Bobby Schindler is a disability rights advocate. When the Schindlers ride into town, the “culture wars” ride in with them.
And at the Family Research Council panel tomorrow, the topic will be the “culture wars,” not disability rights, since there is no one from our community sitting on that panel. –Stephen Drake