Life Is Not Purgatory

Rest in Peace
In the early hours of this morning, Theresa Marie Schiavo died after thirteen passionate, protest-filled days of media and political spectacle in a medical, legal and deeply personal drama.

As many of my friends can attest, I have followed the legal case with significant interest ever since the Florida government intervened with bill HB 35-E, giving the governor, Jeb Bush, the authority to issue a one-time stay to prevent the withholding of nutrition and hydration from a patient (with a list of conditions that applied only to the case of Terri Schiavo). Such intrusion by the government into a very private matter that had been litigated since 1998 - and had exhausted every legal option available to them all the way to the United States Supreme Court – was a shocking and terrifying violation of the separation of powers provisions of the both the state and federal Constitutions.

I have read nearly every judicial decision related to the case, and watch in horror as the media and activist groups distort established (even agreed upon by both the Schindler’s and Michael Schiavo) facts for their own agendas.

I feel deep sympathy for her husband, parents, siblings and friends whose private grief has been opened to the intense media scrutiny of the information age. Hope is a powerful thing – and the family clung with all their strength to the infinitesimal hope provided to them by ‘snake-oil salesman’ doctors who promised miracles. They look at the face of their daughter or sister and see what they want to see: a glimmer of life.

By all accounts, Michael Schiavo was a caring and loving husband for the first several years of her incapacitation. He and the Schindler’s lived in the same home and all worked themselves to the bone to rehabilitate their loved one. Every standard treatment, and a few experimental one were attempted but eventually her husband started listening to the doctors – and lost hope for her recovery… this started the feud that prevented both the family and Michael Schiavo from being at her bedside together at her death… the acrimony between the two is palpable.

But this case is no longer about this private matter, it has been hijacked by the anti-abortion movement, religious fundamentalists, euthanasia advocates and every other special interest group that can possibly tie themselves into this incident… and it’s despicable.

With all the backlash in the southern states, like Florida, against the possibility of gay marriage using the rallying cry of ‘protecting the sanctity of marriage’, having these same fundamentalists rally around the ‘sanctity of life’ by inserting themselves in a between a husband and wife, bound in holy matrimony – is a hypocrisy I cannot stand.

Rest in Peace Theresa. It is my sincere hope that the fundamentalist Christians who denied your release from your mortal shell fo so long realize they were denying your just rewards in the afterlife, the Kingdom of Heaven of their own faith.

She deserved better than to die as a pawn of special interests, and as a media spectacle.

Inhumanity
I consider myself fairly politically aware... but even for me, watching Hotel Rwanda was a harrowing experience. I found online this interview with Romeo Dallaire.

Auschwitz, Kigali, Darfur... will it ever end?

Security Certificates
I have posted my thoughts on this before but I feel that with the recent deporation of the holocaust denier Ernst Zundel that it needs to be done again.

I find the opinons expressed by Ernst Zundel to be objectionable, but I do not understand the threat posed by a 66-year old hate monger. Since her was deprted from the United States after his violation of US Immigration laws Zundel was held in protective custody at a Canadian prison on a Certificate under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (aka. Security Certificate) until his last legal avenue was heard and he was deported to his native Germany to face trial and punishment under Germany’s hate crime law.

How much of a threat did this man pose that he was locked away in a cell without a trial? Granted he is a man whose grasp off history is seriously flawed at best and who should have been deported from our country without question, but should we have suspended all of his civil liberties because we don’t like what he says?

The power of a security certificate is too broad, with the only judicial oversight being a single, Federal Court justice. There is no appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, and that is a serious cause for concern…

"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" – François-Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire)

Interview: The Reckoning
So I was in Calgary early this week to attend an interview for a position with a newly-rennovated hotel in Calgary. I think it went exceptionally well with a 45 minute interview with the HR Director followed by a 90 minute interview with the Rooms Division Manager.

My old boss is still holding the position for me out in Kannanskis and will continue to hold it for me until i hear back from all of the leads that are currently outstanding such as:

Another interview in Calgary next Monday at a busy Airport hotel as FOM that may morph into a Director of Operations postion in the near-future. So the employment front is looking up, but it's also almost assured to be outside of Edmonton.

I Admit I Teared Up
I'm not certain how many of you are familiar with the story of Lt. General Romeo Dallaire but I came across this poem while editting his wikipedia entry and it hit me very hard... and I'm not sure why.

PARK BENCH HEADLINES
Have you ever sat with soldiers
in the canteen drinking beers
and listened to their stories
of their courage, strengths and fears?

Have you hung up in the tower
out at Shilo Camp;
and hooked up on a buffalo
and stood upon the ramp?

Did you check your buddy’s parachute
in detail and with care;
and are you wearing jumper’s wings
like Romeo Dallaire?

Did you ever wear a blue beret
or walk upon patrol;
and you came back to Canada
and you never lost control?

Have you hugged a 40-ouncer
in the comfort of your chest
and sat upon a park bench
to ponder, cry and rest?

Yesterday a headline
sent me in a rage;
About a fallen soldier,
It jumped up off the page.

He did his best for Canada,
humanity, you and me.
But demon thoughts of Africa
refuse to set him free.

Join with me and let’s all pray
for this soldier of the blue beret.
God give him peace and a better life
with his family, friends and wife.

Let the media keep away
and be careful what they say;
Show some respect - show some care
for the Canadian hero: General Dallaire.

God Bless Peacekeepers
©Copyright 2003 by Billy Willbond

New Chapters
The nibble that was local has evaporated... and I now have two interviews in Calgary on Monday. So I think it is a safe bet that after March 31st, I will no longer be living in the City of Edmonton.

I’m nervous… actually, bone chillingly nervous.

"Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."
- Agent Smith from "The Matrix"

Nibbles
Almost every job I've ever held has been because I knew the decision maker before I got the job, and apparently is shows. I don't interview well, according to Tony the Regional Director here at the Red Cross, but 'I work a hundered times better than I interview' he also said.

I have an interview in Calgary on Monday morning for an FOM position. I also have another nibble in Calgary from my former boss, and I've been told I'm being headhunted for a position here in Edmonton by a mutal friend of my former boss and I. Then there is my back-up plan, if I don't have a job lined up by March 15th, then I will accept the offer from my former boss and work for him at Kannanaskis... the problem being it's a duty manager position, that will cover peak times, which means no weekends, and therefore no more gaming.

Date Needed
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2005 @ 7:00pm - I have a double guest pass to see Saint Ralph at Edmonton City Centre Cinema. Both my girlfriend and my roomate have other plans... so if you want to go with me just let me know.