Terri and Michael 4ever?

It may be possible that Michael Schiavo is not the rotten rat bastard that we have been sold, particularly through the Conservative media. The whole situation carries the import of a master propaganda campaign. One source has dominated the flow of information, and there has been a constant repetition of Michael as abuser; Michael as murderer...Michael the rotten rat bastard.

Maybe this is the Big Lie. It sure stinks of one. The only person who could clear the man's good name lost her ability to clear it in 1990.

A few facts from the young woman's story convey a different picture. And the few facts about Michael that have gone unchallenged paint a significantly different picture of the man. What we have left is speculation. It is all that remains.

In a biography published by a Sarasota newspaper, there was another image of the Terri Schiavo than had been suggested by press coverage. We are given the photorealistic image of a stereotypical overweight young woman. One could almost smell the empty house full of mangy cats implied as the lonely, chubby girl's destiny.

Then she got some self confidence. She lost weight; bleached her hair; flirted from the driver's seat of a Trans Am...all about the same time she met Michael Schiavo. These are not the activities of a woman who feels bad about herself.

Sitting alone in a room with chocolate, a Hollywood romance novel and collectibles...one can almost hear the voice of Hank Hill stating that "the girl ain't right."

No disrespect for the lady should be inferred. On the contrary, the reason she was not right was much the same as why Tillie Hill was not right. Whatever put Terri Schindler Schiavo on the path to that absolute abomination in Pinellas Park, happened in the house where she grew up.

No trip to the prom; no dates; and one may honestly question the quality if life in a home with people who would broadcast images of their loved one in a state of infirmity on television.

It appeared as if there were a systematic action to remove any dignity or privacy from Terri Schiavo...by the Schindlers. They alone were responsible for surrendering videos of Terri on her sickbed. They were the ones making a stink worthy of a Carl Hiaasen novel about stupid Yankee transplants in Florida, except it wasn't funny.

After seeing this cascade of unilateral equine excrement, the fanatical belief of 100 million Americans is that Michael Schiavo is a murderer. They would pay money to see his viscera splattered on his driveway in the Florida sunshine. May it also be suggested that most of those who would happily see Michael Schiavo killed would happily pay to see it on DVD with a split screen of the reaction of his children.

Now for some facts, not opinions.

Michael Schiavo has gone through two long term relationships without being convicted of anything.

Courts backed him on every level.

He works as a registered nurse in Florida...God's Waiting Room. There are no public records of malfeasance.

There was an attempt to turn this man into Scott Peterson. The problem is that a conclusion of rotten rat bastard is legitimate when Scott Peterson is involved. Had there been a pattern of Michael Schiavo being a turd, records would exist. The only thing that can be proven was that there was a call to police on a Sunday morning in 1990.

Who called the law that morning? Could it have been in-laws trying to stick a man with a label as an abuser? He certainly would not be the first unlucky SOB with meddlers in the house trying to stick him with a label which, like that of racist, stigmatizes him as unfit in society and simultaneously deprives him of any defense.

Which gets this joyful little party to the issue of the evidence of trauma. Yeah, that is believeable, but let us throw out one last caveat emptor.

One of the injuries was a fractured tibia. That's better known as a busted leg. Somebody would have remembered if Terri Schiavo had not been walking when she was with Michael, particularly the load of relatives who followed her down. They could have gotten ten minutes on Fox News with that little tidbit. But there is one little problem.

Actually saying that Michael Schiavo did it would have been actionable with regard to libel and/or slander depending upon whom said it.

Somebody knew he was innocent, probably a lawyer.

Dare we ask if one of those conversations...one of those private moments after Carson's monologue went off on WFLA...after laughing about a quip about Iran Contra or Madonna...Terri Schiavo asked her husband for a promise.

"Please don't let them hurt me again."

Somehow, those few words would explain everything Michael Schiavo put up with when he could have taken a million easier paths.

Michael Schiavo has been guilty until proven innocent in the press. Perhaps one may wish to grieve for his loss, too.