- In a country where pet obesity and soda-guzzling toddlers
are the health problems du jour, it might seem hard to believe that starvation
in America poses a far bigger threat than overindulgence.
-
- But a deeper look at the daily headlines suggests exactly
that. The famine at hand is not about the absence of physical and material
nourishment. We are a nation that has been weaned off the sustaining principle
that all human life is sacred. We are a nation addicted to the sugar water
of relativism ñ a sweet-tasting, empty-calorie diet that is at the
root of a deadly moral decay.
-
- Terri Schindler-Schiavo, a wide-awake cognitively disabled
Florida woman whom the life-denying mainstream media ghouls keep describing
as "comatose," came perilously close to starving to death at
the hands of her husband and the courts last month. Michael Schiavo, who
vowed to love his ailing wife in sickness and in health, ordered Terri's
feeding tube removed and denied her Holy Communion. After Gov. Jeb Bush
and the state Legislature intervened and the tube was reconnected, Schiavo
again blocked Terri from receiving sustenance ñ the emotional sustenance
of her loving and vigilant parents.
-
- Meanwhile, Schiavo has satisfied his own base appetites
by taking up with a mistress, fathering two illegitimate children, and
squandering a massive medical malpractice payment on "right-to-die"
lawyers and living expenses instead of rehabilitative therapy for Terri.
-
- Another reminder of inhumane neglect last week came in
the emaciated faces of Bruce, Keith, Tyrone, and Michael Jackson of Collingswood,
N.J. Bruce, 19 years old and 45 pounds, was caught rummaging through a
neighbor's garbage for food. At home, Bruce and his younger brothers had
apparently been starved for the past five years by adoptive parents who
cashed in on the state-subsidized kiddie racket.
-
- Raymond and Vanessa Jackson reportedly received more
than $30,000 from the state of New Jersey last year to help care for their
adopted children and raked in federal housing subsidies to cover their
rent. Yet, the Jacksons owed about $9,000 in back rent and accepted at
least $2,000 from a church to restore their electricity. Where did all
the aid go?
-
- The Jacksons and their biological children appear perfectly
well-fed in family portraits. Indeed, some of the healthy siblings could
stand to lose a few pounds. A friend of the family noted that the Jackson
family living room boasted a large-screen television with cable hook-up.
And there was enough money to set up an alarm system in the kitchen, presumably
to keep the starving boys out. Meanwhile, Bruce and his brothers apparently
gnawed on window sills and insulation to fight hunger. Their teeth had
rotted; their shrunken heads crawled with lice. Friends and relatives rationalized
the boys' barbaric treatment with the circular claim that they had eating
disorders.
-
- Every week, the victims surface: A 2-year-old Jacksonville,
Fla., toddler survives on ketchup and raw pasta for two weeks while her
mom sits silently behind bars. A brother and sister are left home alone
with a few boxes of Bagel Bites and corn dogs for three weeks while their
mom pursues a North Carolina man she met on the Internet. A brain-injured
man starves to death in a Manassas, Va., nursing home after his wife has
his feeding tube yanked and then collects more than $800,000 in tax-free
insurance funds.
-
- Earlier this year, the decomposing body of 7-year-old
Faheem Williams was found stuffed in a plastic container in a Newark basement.
He had died of starvation and blunt force trauma to his distended stomach.
His brothers, a twin and a 4-year-old suffering from malnutrition and dehydration,
were found locked in a room nearby covered with vomit and feces. Government
social workers had visited the children dozens of times to investigate
allegations of burns, beatings, drug trafficking and lack of food. But
they failed to take any action other than feeding the Nanny State bureaucracy
with useless paperwork.
-
- To treat human beings as vegetables, cash cows, disposable
goods and anonymous case files is to cruelly rob them of fundamental respect
and dignity. We may be a nation of plenty, but without the nourishment
that only the Bread of Life can bring, we are slowly wasting away.
-
- - Michelle Malkin's column is syndicated by Creators
Syndicate and appears in about 100 newspapers nationwide. Her book, "Invasion:
How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals and Other Foreign Menaces
to Our Shores," is a national best seller.
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- © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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- http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35434
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