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Words are powerful - Thoughts shape - Ideas have consequences

Fr. Michael Reilly

NewsMax.com/St. Joseph by-the-Sea Internship Program
Posted March 28, 2005

Terri Schiavo: The Liberal Final Solution to Social Security?
New Senior Citizen Worries

As President Bush traverses the nation to rally support for his Social Security plan, liberals seem unable to deal with an important issue: declining birthrates triggered by contraception and abortion mean the imminent collapse of Social Security.

There just won't be enough young people in the workforce to pay benefits to a retiring baby-boomer generation.

Bush has shown unusual courage in tackling what has been called the "third rail of American politics." Democrats have railed against the plan, calling it reckless, but have yet to suggest an alternative to the Bush proposal. "

Can you think of any ideas national Democrats have offered?" is the taunt of a new television ad praising Bush's initiative.

Enter Terri Schiavo. If she dies in the next few days, a precedent is established that a judge can withhold food and water from a person without documentary evidence of the person's wishes.

Could it be that this is the liberal solution to the impending social security crisis? Unelected, unaccountable judges can defy the law, the Congress, and the president and starve "undesirables" to death.

It does not matter that the more credible doctors believe that the person can be rehabilitated: the judge can simply rule the evidence inadmissible and turn to a doctor of his own choosing. In other words, the liberal solution is to fix the problem in the same way it was created. Just as killing more than forty-million babies since 1973 has created a shortage of workers to pay benefits, state-sponsored euthanasia can equally trim the population of beneficiaries.

The constitutional implications are equally ominous. A federal judge ordered by Congress to hold a new trial has simply ruled that he does not believe that Terri's parents could win their case. He has therefore defied a congressional mandate in refusing to conduct the trial, which of course would have required restoring the feeding tube.

Every election year, Democrats attempt to frighten senior citizens with threats that Republicans would cut off their benefits. Now senior citizens have something new to be scared of: judges who would cut off their food supply.

Fr. Michael Reilly was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1992 and is currently serving as Dean at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School in Staten Island, New York. He served as Chairman of the Staten Island Clergy Conference from 2000 - 2002. He holds an M. A. in Theology and a P. D. in Educational Administration. He coordinates the NewsMax/St. Joseph by-the-Sea Internship Program and is a regular contributor to Inside Cover and Special Commentary at Newsmax.com