Thoughts and Observations: The Shiavo Case...

Kathy at Cake Eater Chronicles has some thoughtful observations in the wake of the release of Terri Schiavo's autopsy results about the how the case seemed to polarize the blogosphere a few months back. It was an emotional case on both sides and the internet provided a release for those passions. Unfortunately, in many cases, it got downright ugly. I myself - a very new blogger at the time - stayed away from the fight as long as I could until my own "passions" got the better of me. Because after a while it became extremely difficult not to personalize it.

To Kathy's point:

A friend of mine likes to remind me that this is a very new medium and that we'll never really replace the mainstream media, or even really make all that big of a dent in it, because bloggers, as a whole, aren't really held accountable. A reporter is held accountable to an editor, who is held accountable to the publisher, who is held accountable by the paying public. We're just spouting off here and are accountable, in only a very limited sense, to our readers and our blogging compadres. But since we can delete our blogs with the click of the mouse, and we'll never really face any real-life consequences if we've spouted off about this, that or the other, unless we're blogging at work and have been fired for it.

I had very few conversations with family and friends over the Schiavo case, but the ones I had were not pleasant and I found myself avoiding that topic of conversation much as I had originally avoided that topic of bloggersation (made-up word, I know. so what?). However, notwithstanding the claims on the one side that the autopsy proves them right or the overall silence of those on the other side since the news broke yesterday, I still find so many unanswered questions about the situation that I think it's a bit premature to consider this case "closed".

I have little interest in stoking the flickering embers of debate into another full-blown conflagration - it's too draining. And life - as we learned through this case - is too short to become so wrapped up in a particular tragedy that you ignore the beauty around you.

That being said, I found two posts that make valid points over the results, one from The Anchoress and another from Gateway Pundit for review. Going forward for my part, I - to paraphrase Kathy - will simply keep quiet and watch.

Posted by: Gary at 07:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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