UPI Outside View: Schindler's wish
By Cheryl Felicia Rhoads
Outside View Commentator

Published 3/30/2005 3:03 PM

LOS ANGELES, March 30 (UPI) --

"We thank you with all our hearts for your concern for our daughter, and for your help in trying to save her." -- Bob Schindler, father of Terri Schiavo

It is ironic to me that Terri Schiavo's maiden name happens to be Schindler. The life of a rescuer of Holocaust Jews, was portrayed in the award-winning "Schindler's's List," a film by Steven Spielberg. Twelve years ago that picture, about a man who saved lives named Oskar Schindler was named Hollywood's best picture. The most recent winner of that prize, "Million Dollar Baby," aggressively promotes the so-called right to die with dignity. It is quite a contrast.

When President George W. Bush signed legislation giving Terri Schiavo's parents a cause of action in federal court in their campaign to keep her from being starved to death, he waded into the middle of the eye of the storm: in this instance a case of others trying to save a Schindler rather than the other way around.

Due to the prevailing attitudes and influence of both judges and the mainstream media, I think the founders of our country might be disturbed by some current contortions towards the pursuit of happiness.

Still, like the United States' own founders, every once in awhile, someone personifies values that are higher than the self-propelled goals of many earthly lives. An Oskar Schindler comes along, who had it pretty good in terms of pursuing and obtaining what he wanted materialistically in his world. Yet, when he was then confronted by certain circumstances, he realized his greatest pursuit would be to rescue and preserve life... even if some lives weren't deemed fit in the definition of perfection decided upon by his society in the Germany of the 1940's.

Few of us know what our perfect state or purpose is any way. Yet, if one is so inclined, what does God think our perfect state should be for His purposes? Is Stephen Hawking, the author of "A Brief History of Time" and who is confined to a wheelchair and communicates via a computer less valuable to God -- or to anyone else -- than Paris Hilton, the socialite with the famous name who also reaches the public eye, after a fashion anyway, via computer.

I doubt it. Is Terri Schiavo's right to not be starved to death less than that of a convicted murderer like Scott Peterson, who gets three square meals a day on death's row? I doubt that, too.

Others disagree. Many fervently believe Michael Schiavo's claim he knows his wife's will. But perhaps it is those people and not so-called right-to-lifers who are imposing their wishes for themselves and choose to ignore the realities of this case.

What disturbs me most is the increasing flaw in many people in the United States who, in their day-to-day living, demand that everything in life be comfortable and that the future be planned to perfection. As for me, I have found the most meaningful things in life when I have been making other plans.

It is important that people find a way to grasp the idea that the well lived life takes patience. Those with a higher purpose certainly know that patience is essential. Americans in 2005 are not a particularly patient people. They often don't like the idea of patiently seeing things through with each indicated action.

The Greatest Generation, as Tom Brokaw has named them, understood things differently. They knew it took patience to defeat Hitler. Had reporters hounded Roosevelt as to his exit strategy after the invasion of Europe -- in the manner of the modern media hounding Bush about Iraq -- 6 million more Jews might have been killed.

Oskar Schindler understood the need for patience too. It was an integral part of his plan to thwart the Nazis by saving all those lives on his famous list. Schindler did the best he could to save as many lives as he could until the allies could march in and save the day. So now, another Schindler begs us all to help him save his daughter. There is only one person on his list. It is has been most important to try.

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(Cheryl Felicia Rhoads is an actress and writer who lives in Hollywood.)

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