Sailors with the Preventive Medicine Unit, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, place traps along a tree line aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., May 8, 2012. Throughout the year, PMU performs many tasks to keep the living conditions on base at a high standard. The unit is now working hard as the summer months approach to catch and test mosquitoes from across the base for malaria. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Franklin E. Mercado

DVIDS
Story by Pfc. Franklin Mercado

According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2010 an estimated 216 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 655,000 people died from the disease.

Sailors with Preventative Medicine Unit, 2nd Marine Logistics Group are working diligently to ensure diseases, such as malaria, do not threaten Marines and sailors aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Throughout the year, PMU performs many tasks to keep the living conditions on base at a high standard. They inspect chow halls, barracks and working facilities for health hazards.
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As Terri Schiavo slips slowly and painfully into death, I ponder a number of issues.

Karen Ann Quinlan was removed from a respirator in 1975, pulling the plug is the phrase that applies. She lived, however, breathing on her own, until 1985. The Quinlan case does illustrate, as do several others, that people in a coma or a persistent vegetative state can surprise the medical experts who examine them. It’s very unlikely that Terri Schiavo can produce the same miracle.

Several things bother me about the Schiavo case, the foremost of which is “Who will protect me, should I ever need protection?” It’s becoming very clear that in America today, I, as an individual, do not have the final say about my death and dying. Hospitals and doctors makes those decisions for people far too often. Relatives and spouses, even those with clear interests in the death, do as well.

President Bush talked about a culture that errs on the side of life. I like that. It’s in my self-interest to err on the side of life. I don’t want to be killed in the way that Terri Schiavo is. I don’t want some hospital ethics committee voting to pull the plug on me. I’m glad I wasn’t aborted.

Our Constitution says

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Those are the Ninth and Tenth amendments to our Constitution, the final two Amendments in our Bill of Rights. I have always assumed that the right to be alive fell under these two amendments, that there was nothing in the Constitution that took that right away from Americans. I have been sadly mistaken.

Whatever values guide our government, our political leaders and our judges, they are not my values. Life, living, is important to me. It is my means toward union with my God. Taking life from a Terri Schiavo means that I may have my life taken as well, and my chance to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. There are times when secular justice calls for a life to be taken, but Terri Schiavo has received no justice. The only mercy and justice that she will receive will be from her God when He enfolds her at her death. This is not how God calls us to live. This is not how our country is supposed to be. For the first time in my life, I feel like a stranger in my own land. America makes me ashamed.

However you view the legal proceedings, the result is wrong. Morally wrong. Sinfully wrong. The officials charged by our laws with protecting life are failing in their duties, or actively negating their responsibilities by their actions. Legality and morality are not the same thing. Neither are ethics and morals. You may make a legal and an ethical argument for Terri’s death, but there is no moral one.

There is no difference between what is being done to Terri Schiavo and what Andrea Yates did to her children. None. Andrea Yates should be just as free as Michael Schiavo, based upon the legal and ethical arguments in Terri’s case.

No, my friends. Murder is murder, and Terri Schiavo is being murdered. Somewhere along the line, we have lost our morals, and one of us will be the next victim of an America gone immoral. I assure you of that.

EMS and Fire in Monroe County are dispatched and overseen by the county, except… if you live in one of several high population, big tax dollar locations. Then you get to have local dispatch and oversight. One of these areas is the Town of Greece.

Most of Greece is covered by the Greece Volunteer Ambulance Corps, no longer all volunteer but still providing great service in its district. They provide coverage for the several fire districts in the Town, other than one [I believe].

Now, the largest customer in the Town, the Ridge Road Fire District, has chosen a commercial ambulance agency for its EMS service provider. This district represents over 50% of GVA’s business, and they are correctly concerned about their future.

This means a big boost in business for the commercial provider, possibly doubling the number of ambulances that they have on the road at any given time.

OK, given what I know about supplies and SNAFU’s in the military, this is a very cool story. I wonder if the Army is doing it, too? It’s rather like what UPS and FED EX and the Post Office do now for packages in the United States.

My brother reports:

Last week, we had the pinewood derby. Charlie came in 3rd for the wolves and John came in first for the bears and then 2nd in the pack. Today, John competed in the district races and came in first for the bears! Got a great trophy. John also earned his Parvuli Dei badge, which is the highest religious award you can get in scouts.

Dad was scoutmaster, or packmaster, whatever it was, when I was in Cub Scouts. We did the Pinewood Derby thing. Being the typical geek spaz, mine had wheels on it and that’s about all you could say. Still, I do remember it. And it was fun.