WHAT’S IN A NAME–part 2
I wanted to stay away from the Terri Schiavo case. Really. But then I read a column in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel that really ground this proud bastadette’s gears. “Conservative” syndicated talk radio bloviator Glenn Beck, on a show broadcast March 15, the article claimed, referred to Michael Schiavo’s children by his fiance Jodi Centonze as “bastard children.” Whoa! Nelly! These are small children. Very small: 2 1/2 years and 1 year old. Does Mr. Beck really believe that it’s OK to call toddlers a name which is traditionally considered a dirty word–especially by rightwingers of his ilk? You bet! When called on his boorish behavior, Beck responded, “I’d feel real terrible about calling them that if I wasn’t so technically correct.” If you think I’m exaggerating–that the pious ghouls gathered down at the Woodside Hospice would never talk like that about arrows to the future–children, that is– like they belonged in a separate part of town away from good clean-livin’ folks, then think again. The St. Petersburg Times reports that Mr. Schiavo has received dozens of hate letters, some threatening the lives of his “bastards,” no doubt written by the same zealots who never met a fetus they Continue Reading →