When Should Grandma Die?

R-71 UPDATE: Crews checking Referendum 71 signatures report they’ve now checked over 50,000 signatures.

The daily update reflects the completion of checks on 220 bound volumes that contain 15 petitions sheets apiece. The previous day’s report showed a big increase in volumes that were completed by master checkers, but Thursday’s number was much smaller. That ebb-and-flow will continue according to the pace of the master-checking process. The new totals here show that 45,099 were accepted and 5,394 rejected, for a rejection or error rate of 10.68 percent, up a bit from the previous day. The rejections included 4,692 whose voter registration could not be located in the state database, 19 whose electronic signatures are pending from their home county, 420 where the signature on the petition didn’t match the one on file, and 263 duplicates.

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When Should Grandma Die?

"The rumor," said President Obama, "that's been circulating a lot lately is the idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted on death panels that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we've decided that it's too expensive to let her live anymore."

Now where would the American people get such an idea? And why would the President of the United States feel he needs to assure the people in New Hampshire and the country that he doesn't want to pull the plug on grandma? Did Ronald Reagan or either of the Bush Presidents ever feel the need to assure the nation that they did not want to kill grandma?

Here's why we are where we are.

We have elected a majority of people to the Congress who are not pro-life, pro-family or pro-marriage. Although some of them pretended to be some or all of that---they are not.

The President's words suggest he is pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-America, etc., etc. However, his actions seem to betray him on many fronts. It was difficult for many Americans to understand how candidate Obama could claim to love his country, while remaining in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years, listening to the anti-American hate, only leaving when it threatened his political ambitions. Twenty years is a lot of sermons.

He has told the American people and the Pope, for that matter, that he wants to reduce abortions, yet he has expanded funding for abortions not only in America, but around the world.

He has said he believes marriage is between a man and a woman, yet he has promised the homosexual lobby he will abolish the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

He has essentially pulled the plug on capitalism and free enterprise, has all but nationalized the auto industry and plans to further destroy the American economy with his carbon legislation.

It is not difficult for many to believe that while saying he loves grandma, his people could be pulling the plug---ever so gently on the best life for the elderly.

The fact that Representative Earl Blumenauer, D-Or., has introduced a measure that would provide "end of life" counseling for the elderly isn't terribly reassuring either.

President Obama also told the New Hampshire crowd that, "Somehow it's gotten spun into this idea of death panels."

The President has chosen Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother to White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, to be his top medical advisor.

Therein is another problem for some in our country. Did the President actually know what Dr. Emanuel believes? Certainly he did, because he is now defending him.

Dr. Emanuel has written a number of books and articles. Witting in the bioethics journal Hastings Center Report in an article favoring health care for active people, he said, "An obvious example is not guaranteeing services to people with dementia."

I am pleased that Dr. Dan Doornink of Yakima was my parents doctor, as they lived through their "end of life". He was not only a great football player, but he is a great advocate for life.

Dr. Emanuel also wrote an article last January in which he says age is one of several factors that could be considered in deciding who receives scarce organs or vaccines. "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocations by age is not invidious discrimination," he wrote, "every person lives through different life stages."

House Minority Leader, John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said of all this it, "may start us down a treacherous path toward government encouraged euthanasia."

Indeed. That would save significant amounts of money.

Newt Gingrich told ABC's "This Week" that, "You're asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there clearly are people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia."

As traditional, Judeo-Christian, pro-life and pro family values are restored in America, these kinds of public discussions will diminish because the focus will be on saving and sustaining life. Promises not to pull the plug on grandma will be a distant dark memory.

Certainly prayer can change these difficult times. It will also take action. If people of faith and conservatives will show up and vote our values, we will not be having a national public debate over whether our President is trying to "pull the plug on grandma."

How tragic. God help us.

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Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom


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