WWtheBS

I know you're fond of asking the WWJS question, Bush: What would Jesus say? I myself am more inclined to ask, What would the Buddha say? In actual fact, I think that both of them would speak out of compassion.

I'm thinking still, of course, about the unfortunate Terri Schiavo. And I believe that both Jesus (at least the one that I was brought up to believe in) and the Buddha would say, Well done, Judge James D. Whittemore of the U.S. District Court. A fair, and just, and humane, and sensible decision. They would say, Everything that should have been tried has been tried, it's time for the state, and the federal government, and the justice system to let this woman go. She has suffered long enough in their wrangling hands.

To her parents, surely, they would offer deep compassion. It is no small thing to lose a child to tragedy. And they would add, both of them, let your daughter go. The Buddha, I know, in his infinite compassion, would add that their attachment is only adding to her suffering, and to theirs. Their inability to accept the simple truth about their daughter's condition has become an obsession, even an addiction. And the addiction--as addictions tend to do--is turning love into emnity, compassion into rage and hatred, acceptance into denial, and reason into absurdity. As of now, it is likely to drive them into further appeals and further pointless pain.

Time to let go, I say, and I believe that both Jesus and the Buddha would back me up. And, as the AA folks would add, time to let God.