Passionate differences of opinion on the Terri Schiavo case

As the debate over whether Terri Schiavo should be kept alive or allowed to die was fought in Florida's legislature, federal courts and in Congress, it was also fought, on a smaller scale, in Racine's gathering places. For the past several months stories about the brain-damaged woman, who died Thursday, have appeared almost daily in newspapers and magazines, on television and the radio, and been the subject of countless online diaries. It captured public consciousness, and conversations about her plight took place in restaurants, bars and beauty shops.

Just about everyone had an opinion.

Corey Oakland, owner of the Red Onion Cafe, 240 Main St., in Racine said the Schiavo case is the second-most popular conversation topic among his customers ever. The November presidential election was the most-talked about issue, he said.

"You consistently hear people talking about it (the Schiavo case)," Oakland said. "If people are in a serious conversation they are probably talking about it."

He said he thinks it is a popular conversation topic because everyone can somehow see themselves in the situation.

"I think it's because everyone can relate," Oakland said. "It's a common issue. Everyone has an opinion and it's another one people are pretty divided on. I've seen people get frustrated, it's such a personal issue."

Across Main Street at the Groundskeeper, 327 Main St., two women were talking about Schiavo over lunch. They declined to be interviewed for the paper, but both said they had opinions about the case.

Mustafa Abdullah, of Waukegan, Ill., was getting lunch at Kewpee's, 520 Wisconsin Ave., in Racine on Thursday afternoon. He said he followed the Schiavo case very closely for

moral reasons.

"It wasn't a respirator," she said. "It was being fed, like you and I would be. This was state-sanctioned execution of a sort. Besides that, she still had a soul."

His lunchtime companion, Jameel Ghuari, of Racine, said he felt her parents and siblings should have been given the say over whether she lived or died, not her husband, Michael Shiavo.

"At that point she was not the priority (of her husband)," he said. "She was a priority, and a most loving priority to her family. Everything else is legal procedures, that means nothing to her family. They should have had the final say. Not her husband, which is now her estranged husband."

Ghuari said the media attention made this a decision by too many people.

"The best way to look at any situation is if you were in that situation, who would you want making the decision?" he said. "I'd want my family. Not society, not an estranged significant other."

Cindy Gross, owner of the Groundskeepe, describes herself as a devout Catholic and said she has passionately followed the Schiavo case.

"It's absolute cruelty to starve someone to death like that," she said.

Gross said Michael Schiavo should not have had any say over whether or not to remove the feeding tube.

"Her so-called husband, her adulterous, bigamist husband, how could you put someone in his care like that?" she said. "He's committed a mortal sin (by starting a relationship with another woman while his wife was still alive). How could you trust her husband with that precious life? She's an innocent victim."

Gross said the Schiavo situation is putting the country in a bad light, worldwide.

"The whole world's looking at this," she said. "They look up to the United States to see what to base their decisions on. How is this gong to look? It's a sign of worse things to come."

Like at the Red Onion, people who came into the Groundskeeper also talked about Schiavo.

"People do talk in here and get into arguments and debates about it," Stephanie Wyatt, an employee at the Groundskeeper.

Gross said she feels so strongly about it that she will sometimes step in and talk to people about her views, and tell them what she knows.

Like Gross, Wyatt said she had hoped Schiavo would have been allowed to remain on the feeding tube.

"I felt she had hope," Wyatt said. "I know it sounds crazy for someone in that state. I really hoped she would make it.

"It's so cruel, for her husband to be living with and having children with someone else is mind-boggling, and to have the right to say `pull her feeding tube.' " Others had decidedly different views on the case.

Stacy Clickner works at Main Credentials, 245 Main St. She said she had not followed the case closely, but had read a magazine article about Schiavo Thursday morning.

"I think it's a good thing she's finally resting in peace. She was a vegetable just laying there in a shell."

Jackie Engel, also a hairdresser at Main Credentials, agreed that it was good for Schiavo to be able to "rest in peace."

"If that's what she asked, that's what should have been carried out," she said. "The only thing that bothered me, on the flip side, is it did appear she starved to death."

Megan Jutrzonka, a bartender at The Ivanhoe Pub and Eatery, 231 Main St., said bar patrons had been talking about the case.

She said most people she heard talking seemed to agree with Michael Schiavo, but that everyone seemed to "see how her parents wanted to hold on."

Aaron Wilson of Racine was at The Ivanhoe during the lunch hour Thursday. He said he's seen stories about Schiavo on television and heard people talking about it.

"I don't feel the government or courts should choose whether someone lives or dies," he said. "If it's her time to go, I don't think the government or courts should play God. To be brain-damaged for 15 years, that's horrible. I was talking about it with friends and family and they feel the same way.

"If I was brain-damaged that long, I would want to go."