Sunday, March 20, 2005

6:40 PM Rabbi Schmuley Boteach offers a conservative Jewish perspective on the tragic starvation of Terri Schiavo by her husband.

What comes to mind in the story of Terri Schiavo is the famous quotation of Pastor Martin Niemöller concerning moral failure in the face of the Nazis: “First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.” Terry Schiavo has no voice, so we must become her voice. I shudder for my country to think that such acts of barbarity can take place in the world’s foremost democracy and humanity’s guarantor of liberty and freedom.