The pending death of Terri Schiavo, coupled with the Minnesota massacre, are emblematic of our culture of death. 

In Terri’s case, an innocent person is being intentionally starved to death because lawmakers have decided to honor the words of her discredited, morally delinquent husband, preferring to err on the side of death.  In the Minnesota tragedy, nine innocent persons—plus their killer—are dead because school teachers, administrators and counselors decided not to honor the telltale signs that were right before their eyes.  In both cases, insouciance and passivity produced deadly consequences.

Terri’s fate did not land on the laps of Florida lawmakers overnight.  They have had years to address antiquated case law on the subject of euthanasia, but they’ve been too busy contemplating the hidden meaning of hanging chads to do so.  Moreover, one would have thought that following the Elian debacle, these lawmakers might have taken the time to reconsider the wisdom of family law in all its aspects.  But instead they did what they do best—they procrastinated.

Jeff Weise went to school wearing eye makeup and a black trench coat.  He wore combat boots, had chains on his pants and sported black spiky hair.  He wrote stories about zombies, drew pictures of people with bullet holes in their heads, and depicted himself with monster’s teeth.  The self-described loner frequently posted messages on the Internet site of www.nazi.org, and no doubt believed what the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party had to say.  Not only does the site flatly reject Christianity and Judaism, it expressly says, ‘We reject morality in all its forms as unnatural.’

So there you have it.  Legislative lassitude, combined with an increasingly amoral culture, has left death in its wake.