Friday, August 25, 2006

Terri Schiavo Attorney's Impromtu Interview with John Sipos

This past June, I received an email from Cheryl Ford, RN with this video of an interview outside the hospital with Barbara Weller, outside the hospital, where they removed the feeding tube from Terri Schindler Schiavo. I had previously posted Barbara Weller's emotional description of what Terri had said when told that they were going to do this, and Barbara Weller had said that if Terri could only say, "I want to live", they could stop it from happening. Terri reacted, as described by Weller in this video AND in her written account.

The links in my previous posts no longer go to the stories, but I have found Barbara Weller's written statement online here, and Terri's sister's here.

If you recall, Michael Schiavo and Terri had also been subponeaed to appear before Congress. (Something that was ignored, and never happened.) I have often wondered just how that was accomplished, with no one having to pay any price tag for disregarding a Congressional order to appear before them. I wonder if anyone else will ever have to do so now, with this as precedent. Sometimes, I wonder also if I am the only one who ever thinks about this fact.

Why play this video now?

Because it is important for people to be reminded that a disabled woman was court ordered to death by starvation/dehydration, in spite of apparently trying desparately to tell the world that it is NOT what she wanted. This, in direct contradiction of what was said in court by MS and his 'witnesses'...

Thank you to my son for trying several times to find a way, and succeeding, in getting it onto the left column of my blog, where it will stay, permanently!

God bless!

From John Sipos, permission to post on my blog with the following:

Sunday, June 11, 2006


New old news.

We were told Terri Schindler Schiavo was in a coma, in a persistent vegetative state, the court's medical examiner reported she was deaf, blind, and brain dead.

None of that is true.

Click to view an impromptu interview, Schindler family attorney Barbara Weller with Tampa Bay talk journalist, John Sipos, on March 18, 2005, in the minutes before hospice doctors sliced a natural food and natural water, natural gravity feeding tube from the belly of an aware of self, disabled woman who SCREAMED FOR HER LIFE.

You are welcome to download this video and distribute it world wide.

Sipos insists, while Governor Jeb Bush was publicly insisting he was for saving Terri's life, he and his in house legal staff were working with Pinellas Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe blocking Schindler family access to life saving police and regulatory protective services, local, county, and state. That's a part of this story not yet told.

This 3 minute clip is chilling. Click to view.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

National Champs

The Link does not work! Otherwise, in my earlier post, this story would have been there...

Denis Dougherty's sports buzz: Kaukauna softball team crowned national champion Talk about doing it the hard way. After losing its first game, the Kaukauna traveling team came back to win seven straight games en route to winning the championship in the National Softball Association's 12-and-under Super World Series over the weekend in Peoria, Ill.

Update:

After sending an email to Denis Dougherty, the author about the non-working link, he checked it out for me, and sent me this reply:

I'm not sure what happened, but here is the story that appeared in Tuesday's afternoon paper.

Thanks,

Denis

Kaukauna softball team crowned national champs


Talk about doing it the hard way.
After losing its first game, the Kaukauna traveling team came back to win seven straight games en route to winning the championship in the
National Softball Association’s Class B 12-and-under Super World Series over the weekend in Peoria, Ill.
The team, nicknamed the Ghosts, just like the high school mascot, opened with a 9-1 loss to the Kentucky Stingers to drop into the losers’ bracket.
The Ghosts then came back to beat the Indiana Pride 8-4 in extra innings, ASA Extreme of Seattle
3-0, Roseville, Calif., Thunder 7-1, Hurricanes of North Carolina 9-5 and the SCS Vipers of Detroit 5-3.
That put the team into the final against the previously unbeaten Fort Wayne, Ind., Fire, which it beat 7-1 and 8-4.
“The kids played their hearts out,” said head coach Dennis Lauer, whose team had previously won the state NSA and Amateur Softball Association titles. “It would have been so easy to give up after the first loss and just say maybe we didn’t
belong here, but that didn’t happen. The whole team performed well, with strong hitting throughout the lineup and strong
defense by all the kids on the field.”
Lauren Danner was the winning pitcher in all seven games.

Pardon my bragging... 12 and under Girls' fastpitch softball champs!

PROUD OF YOU AND YOUR TEAM, Den!
And NOW, CHAMPS, TOO!!
Congratulations!!!!
God bless!!


Posted August 15, 2006

Denis Dougherty's sports buzz: Kaukauna youth softball team continues to state its case

One state title just wasn't enough for these girls.

The Kaukauna 12-and-under traveling girls' fastpitch softball team won five of the six tournaments it entered this year, including National Softball Association and Amateur Softball Association state championships, often dominating its competition. Kaukauna, which went unbeaten in both state events, will compete in the NSA Super World Series held Friday to Sunday in Peoria, Ill.

As is nearly always the case in fastpitch softball, a dominant team is led by dominant pitching.

"We have four pitchers who are all good, and Lauren Danner and McKinzie Freimuth are exceptional," Kaukauna coach Dennis Lauer said. "At Pulaski, when we took third, we played younger kids. We do that every year for at least one tournament.

"A lot of teams we play are area all-star teams, but Kaukauna is not. Our kids go to Kaukauna schools."

Kaukauna won the Denny Lauer Classic, a tournament named in honor of Lauer for all his years working with area softball players.

"That was an honor," Lauer said. "We lost one game 1-0 and came back out of the losers' bracket to win the tournament."

Lauer's players also competed twice a week in league play for about two months. Despite the tough competition at the world event, Kaukauna enters with its usual set of objectives.

"Our first goal is to make it to the last day of the tournament," Lauer said. "The second is a trophy and the last is to win the tournament.

"It's a fun bunch of kids, the parents have been very helpful and the community has been very supportive. We've gotten donations from a variety of people."



The Buzz: Sports is a weekly feature highlighting comings, goings and happenings in the local sports community. If you have any items to be considered for The Buzz: Sports, e-mail Denis Dougherty at ddougherty@postcrescent.com or call 920-993-1000, ext. 320. Post-Crescent sports editor Brad Zimanek and assistant sports editor Dan VanderPas contributed to this report.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

“He who denies me before men…” by Fr Euteneuer

Spirit & Life “The words I spoke to you are spirit and life.” (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 01, Number 29 | Friday, August 18, 2006




“He who denies me before men…”

While the pro-life movement in America is busily working to overturn Roe and take back the legal territory lost to surgical abortion, the killing industry is actually gaining a huge amount of ground in another direction: they are going cellular. That is, they know the days of surgical abortion are numbered and are now pushing backward to kill babies at the earliest dawning of human life, now not in the womb but before it even gets there. To be clear, the fight for life has now entered the realm of chemical warfare, and authentic pro-lifers who believe that life begins at fertilization just can’t ignore this battle. Yes, we have to fight to turn back the tide of surgical abortion, but we also must assure that the tide doesn’t sweep around us and engulf the babies from another angle.

What I mean is this: just last week the FDA, under its interim director, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, made a policy decision that the “Plan B” abortion-causing drug (also known as “emergency contraception” and “the morning after pill”) can be sold over-the-counter (OTC) to women ages eighteen and above. Let me be candid here. The stalled process to authorize OTC sale of the “Plan B” abortion drug miraculously moved forward when Hillary and other abortion lovers in the Senate threatened to hold up von Eschenbach’s confirmation as FDA director. Funny how that is. When grilled about this obvious political kowtow to the abortion extremists, von Eschenbach disingenuously stated that this was not politics but solid science and concern for women. Dumping heavy doses of synthetic hormones into teenagers’ bodies as a chemical reaction to one-night stands is good science? I don’t think so.

What is more surprising to me is the slow uptake from pro-lifers who should be furious about this new power grab by the abortion industry. I will say it again: We can’t afford to cede this ground. The vast numbers of fertilized eggs (i.e., real tiny human beings) that are chemically expelled by this Plan B abortion drug sold to teens over the counter will make the surgical abortion holocaust look like target practice. Who is concerned about the lives of those little human beings? If we are too busy holding off the abortion demons at the front door we will fail to notice the chemical crooks sneaking through the back door to rob us of our precious patrimony: our conceived children.

Now that Dr. von Eschenbach has shown his real colors, HLI has issued a strong call for President Bush to withdraw the nomination of this so-called leader of the medical community, and we are asking for your help on this. Several other excellent pro-women and pro-family groups are leading the charge with us in this effort to get the President to stand on his pro-life principles once again: American Life League, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council and Pro-Life Action League have all come out and called for the President to rescind von Eschenbach’s nomination. He did it with Harriet Myers—he can do it again—but only if he hears from you!

If we stand by while the FDA unleashes this new chemical holocaust on unborn babies, we will deny Christ Himself who identifies with those He calls His “least brethren”—even if they are only several hours old.

Please, please call or email the White House today and tell the President to dump this renegade von Eschenbach! Do me another favor and forward this request to all your friends and ask them to do the same on this most urgent matter.

Contact the White House: 202-456-1111

Email: comments@whitehouse.gov





www.hli.org

About the Author »

Help Spirit & Life with a Tax-Deductible Gift »

Wash For Life »

HLI: Stop Plan B "OTC" »

SL archives »

Sincerely Yours in Christ,


Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer
President, Human Life International

Fr Euteneuer Press Release


Friday, Aug 18, 06 1:30: PM EST
CONTACT: Jason Jones, 540-551-0217 Email: jjones@hli.org »

International Pro-Life Leader Continues to Call on President Bush to Rescind Dr. von Eschenbach’s Nomination to Head FDA

“Dr. von Eschenbach’s kowtowing under pressure from Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and enabling Barr Pharmaceuticals to submit a new application for the over-the-counter use of their abortion-causing synthetic hormone Plan B disqualifies him from being an independent commissioner for the FDA,” states Roman Catholic Priest

(Front Royal, VA.) The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President of Human Life International (HLI), responds to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent move to make Plan B, available over-the-counter (OTC).

“Barr Pharmaceutical’s Plan B is an abortion-causing drug that contains high doses of a powerful synthetic hormone. Low doses of this hormone when used for ‘contraception’ are only available with a prescription. It makes no sense for the FDA, under Dr. von Eschenbach, to allow the higher dosage Plan B to be available without a prescription."

“Dr. von Eschenbach’s kowtowing to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and enabling Barr Pharmaceuticals to submit a new application for the over-the-counter use of their abortion causing synthetic hormone Plan B disqualifies him from being an independent commissioner for the FDA …”

“Dr. von Eschenbach’s nomination should be withdrawn by the Bush administration, and a qualified medical authority, who puts the health of the American people first, and does not bow to pressure from politicians and pharmaceutical corporations, should be chosen to take his place” concluded the Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer.


Founded in 1981, Human Life International is the world’s largest pro-life, pro-family organization that is dedicated to defending life, faith and the family, with branches and affiliates around the world.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Just Wondering Out Loud

There is no one who can predict the extent of disability, nor the extent of recovery for any individual who is disabled. No one. But each disabled person is a child of God, with dignity simply because they are alive. The difference in how the disabled person is accepted and included is what makes all the difference in the lives of the disabled--but more--in the lives of those who truly love and care for that person.

Doctors have been wrong many times in their predictions of the extent of brain damage, and many who have been diagnosed as PVS have demonstrated that fact. Some do not improve, but others gain back some ability. That makes no difference. The fact that they are human beings is what matters. Disabled, regardless of the type of disability, does not mean that there is no value to their lives.

Brain damage, regardless of when it occurs, is often given a much poorer prognosis. Many parents have been told that their child would never sit, stand, walk, talk.


Gianna Jessen's foster mother was told that when she brought young Gianna into her home. Today, Gianna not only sits, stands, walks, talks, but she also SINGS and RUNS MARATHONS. She not only talks, but she speaks in front of Congress, State Gov'ts, and crowds of people.

And she is beautiful. There are times that she loses her balance due to the disability, but she picks herself up and goes right on... doing Gianna's things.







Dick Hoyt and his wife were also told the same about their son, Rick. Today, Rick does not speak as we do, but through the use of a computer. He does not walk as we do, but gets around in his Wheel Chair, propelled by his Dad, family and friends. He does not do sports as most do, but with his Dad as his legs, he has run Marathons, done Triathalons, Iron Man, and crossed the country on a bicycle. He cannot do many things that we can do, but HE has a degree from Boston College, and is working.





His family would not be where they are today without Rick. His Dad credits (or teasingly blames) Rick for the fact that he is in the best shape of his life after learning to run, ride bike again, and swim, just to help his own son compete in sports in the only way he can.








Terri Schindler Schiavo's family (Mom, Dad, Brother and Sister) wanted to give Terri a life also, but were not allowed to take her outside for at least the last five years or so of her life. They wanted her to have Speech therapy, and any other kinds of therapy they could get for her. They talked openly of taking her to the Mall, doing things with her.

Michael would not allow it.



Dick Hoyt, in one of the videos I have placed on my blog tonight, spoke openly about how he could see his son's awareness through the look in his eyes; the Schindler family found that same spark in Terri's, as did many of her caregivers. She WAS at one time speaking a few words, she did smile, she did track enough to follow a balloon. Those who do not want to see this simply do not want to see that her family loved her regardless.

In the long article, Dick Hoyt spoke of the difficulty some have when they eat out, because of Rick's disability. That same difficulty is what killed Terri. It was not 'love' that starved and dehydrated her to death, by someone who had left her long before for at least three other women, finally living with the last one and fathering two children while mouthing the words 'love', 'vows', 'promise'....



So why do we celebrate Rick Hoyt's life, all the while clammering for Terri's death ('freedom')?

Terri was brain-damaged, but she was alive, and her family who loved her would have loved to have had that wheel chair to push so that they could take her out publically. That is love, unconditional.

The other?

Locking her in a darkened room and demanding her tube to be removed while refusing even a tiny fragment of the Eucharist by mouth, and even a drop of water is not love. Starving/dehydrating a human being to death is simply NOT .... human.


God bless!

Trial by Media, Trial by Poll?

I have been getting more disgusted by media coverage of many crimes lately. It almost seems like they are 'trying' the case on all of the talk shows, continuously. They no longer wait for charges before they begin coverage. They no longer wait for the evidence to come out. They seek their own now! And disprove or speculate 24/7.

I cannot imagine anyone can honestly say that they have not heard about ANY crime today, but especially murder/rape cases. Take the Duke team as an example. They have now nearly indicted the woman who is the accuser, and exhonerated the team members. With no trial, with no testimony, with no introduction of evidence, etc.

But this weekend, I had Fox News Cable on TV for background 'noise'. And if I heard it on one show, I heard it on several.... each program a couple of times. They were taking a POLL as to whether or not we think/thought that John Mark Karr is or isn't guilty!!!

He has not even been formally charged! He had not as yet even hit the US borders!

This is, IMHO, WRONG. And it is NOT news, it is speculation!

And it has to stop, or no one will ever know for sure that they have received a fair trial by a jury of peers...


God bless!

Request for Info

Mom and I were talking this weekend. Mom's memory is not good for short term, but her memory for long term is usually pretty 'right on' yet. Mine on the other hand... we won't go there.

They are working on our road, putting in a nice cement one. About four days into the work, I called the Post Office, to find out what had happened to my pay check that SHOULD have come on Sat, and no later than Mon (this is three weeks ago, or maybe four now...)The man called back and left a message for me that 'they' had decided 'not to deliver while the road construction is going on'.

I did NOT say..... Gee, thanks. I am now late for rent, have to pay extra, and it would have been nice to have been notified LONG before Wed that this was happening....

So we have had to be creative in order to get my check, because we never know if it is coming on Sat, (when it is supposed to) or Mon. If Sat (which has not happened for quite awhile now, though the other people who work for the same company generally do get it on Sat --same town), it is fantastic. BUT, if Mon--I work in a city nearly an hour away, at the prison there, and do not get out of work until four thirty pm, if all goes well, and start at eight am.

OH, and it takes at LEAST a week or more to have mail forwarded to Mom's address.

Post Office is open: 8:30 til 4:45.

Bet you can get the picture, huh? If I can't get someone to pick up my mail on Mon, I don't get my pay check until Saturday, a week late.

So, Mom and I were talking about how mail delivery has changed over the years, and in the course of our conversation, both of us were trying to remember the old slogan about mail getting through. We couldn't remember it!

SO, can any of you??


If so, it will make ME feel better. Mom probably won't remember the conversation, but it is simply bugging me.... HELP!!

God bless!

More from Walid Shoebat

Another email tonight. Seems like tonight is the night for news to come to my inbox!



Friends

This evening on ABC Action news Channel 6 in the Philadelphia TV market, Walid will be doing a telephone interview on the 11 pm news bulletin.

Last Night Walid did an interview with Jackie Mason on his new Radio Show, one of Americas most famous comedians. Walid was only due for one segment but kept on for the full hour. Jackie hailed Walid as the new "Martin Luther King Jnr" and we reached several hundred thousand more people.

Walid was on Fox News three times over three days and on our recent visit to Albany Walid did a total of 8 TV , 5 Radio and four newspaper interviews in only four days. We reached another one million people in upstate New York as well as a further one million people in other markets.

On Wednesday Kamal Saleem will interview on Janet Parshall and Zak Anani is touring California with lots of media which we will report later.

We hope to have more great developments soon.

The Truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth is coming your way in a city near you.

Shalom

Keith

Team Hoyt --What Love Can Do...

There are at least two other videos of Dick and Rick Hoyt at the website, and each is powerful.

Each shows that DISABILITY is not a meaningless life, and what a loving family can do for the disabled, as well as what that disabled person can give back to the family, regardless of how severe that disability is.

I want to share the following video(s) with you (click on the photo with each of the three):

Video Description

I learned years ago, when I worked at a very special camp, that there are so many people with beautiful minds, in bodies that just don't work... and they have found ways past their disability, to achieve what was once believed impossible. Anything is possible.
Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they are not in a marathon, they are in a triathlon, that daunting, almost superhuman combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of cycling and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America. Find out more about them at http://www.teamhoyt.com/index.html

I want to share the following video with you:

Video Description

Together, Dick & Rick Hoyt have run in marathons, competed in triathlons and once even trekked 3,700 miles across America. What they have accomplished together is simply amazing when you consider that Rick cannot walk or talk.


And just so that you don't MISS it, this is the first one that I was sent earlier today:

I want to share the following video with you:

Video Description

A glimpse of the remarkable father-son bond of Dick and Rick Hoyt, and their inspirational journey together in a triathlon and life itself.

Music: "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me

Video produced by unknown person(s); passed on by Tom C.

A copy can be downloaded from Google Video.


Racing Towards Inclusion

Cheryl Ford, RN sent me this today. She MISSED me the first time she sent it out, and I really wish that she hadn't. But I am SO glad she did today... I have been bawling (not just teary) from the first few seconds into this video! And there are others to watch, also.

The LOVE of these two, a Dad and his son, is amazing. It is something that many just never have had. It is evident as Dad carries his son to the next leg of the race, as he pulls his son through the water while swimming, and as he PUSHES his son on the long running sections of Triathalons. How many Dads would go the distance----train for marathons, learn to swim, and relearn to bike not only for enjoyment as much as DISTANCE RACING! Just to be with his son....just to give his son the chance to 'compete'.... it is inspiring.

It is a wonderful testimony to how WRONG doctors can be! It is a testimony to what a LOVING FAMILY CAN DO FOR A BRAIN-INJURED PERSON....but better yet, what that person can do for...THEM, and for OTHERS......

I witness this kind of love very often, and it is why I fought for Terri to live for so very long...

God bless. Let me know what you feel when you watch ... TEAM HOYT.


Dear Friends,

It has been requested that I send out the link to the below video again. For those of you who have already received the link, I apologize for the repeat and inconvenience. For those who have not viewed the video, it is the most powerful demonstration of love, compassion and life between two people that I have ever witnessed. I pray that you enjoy this video as much as I have.

As Terri once said, where there is life, there is hope.

Inhale the beauty of life,

Cheryl

YouTube™ – Broadcast Yourself

I want to share the following video with you:


Video Description

A glimpse of the remarkable father-son bond of Dick and Rick Hoyt, and their inspirational journey together in a triathlon and life itself.

Music: "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me

Video produced by unknown person(s); passed on by Tom C.

A copy can be downloaded from Google Video.



Racing Towards Inclusion


by David Tereshchuk

Article courtesy of multi'merica.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon -- that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion-- all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.

For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.

At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.

"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away -- he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."

The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."

A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build -- using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.

When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.

In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."

Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking out letters of the alphabet:

" What I mean when I say I feel like I am not handicapped when competing is that I am just like the other athletes, and I think most of the athletes feel the same way. In the beginning nobody would come up to me. However, after a few races some athletes came around and they began to talk to me. During the early days one runner, Pete Wisnewski had a bet with me at every race on who would beat who. The loser had to hang the winner’s number in his bedroom until the next race. Now many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish me luck." It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger:

"Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can’t really blame them - people often are not educated, and they’d never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he was a person -- he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference."

After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon -- and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."

With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.

"We chuckle to think about that as my Father’s Day present from Rick, " said Dick.

They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.

And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this testimony:

"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working." The Hoyts’ mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace others too -- many spectators and fellow-competitors have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination. "It’s been funny," said Dick "Some people have turned out, some in good shape, some really out of shape, and they say ‘we want to thank you, because we’re here because of you’."

Rick too has taken full note of their effect on fellow-competitors while racing:

"Whenever we are passed (usually on the bike) the athlete will say "Go for it!" or "Rick, help your Dad!" When we pass people (usually on the run) they’ll say "Go Team Hoyt!" or "If not for you, we would not be out here doing this." Most of all, perhaps, the Hoyts can see an impact from their efforts in the area of the handicapped, and on public attitudes toward the physically and mentally challenged.

"That’s the big thing," said Dick. "People just need to be educated. Rick is helping many other families coping with disabilities in their struggle to be included."

That is not to say that all obstacles are now overcome for the Hoyts. Dick is "still bothered," he says, by people who are discomforted because Rick cannot fully control his tongue while eating. "In restaurants - and it’s only older people mostly - they’ll see Rick’s food being pushed out of his mouth and they’ll leave, or change their table. But I have to say that kind of intolerance is gradually being defeated."

Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it: "On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations on your graduation!’"

Rick now works at Boston College’s computer laboratory helping to develop a system codenamed "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.

Together the Hoyts don’t only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and non-sporting, across the country.

Rick himself is confident that his visibility -- and his father’s dedication -- perform a forceful, valuable purpose in a world that is too often divisive and exclusionary. He typed a simple parting thought:

"The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life."


All I can say is..... AMEN! God bless!

WI Catholic sent you a video!

Video Description

http://tevaka.calabashmusic.com/
Te Vaka performs the Tamahana track from the movie - "Legend of Johnny Lingo". Te Vaka's music is inspired by the Pacific Islands, particularly the groups that comprise Tokelau, Tuvalu and Samoa. New Zealand-based Te Vaka have proved themselves to be one of the most sophisticated and professional Pacific groups around. Revealing the true soul of the South Seas, Te Vaka does away with the preconceptions that Pacific music is only Ukuleles and Palm trees.


Personal Message

Today, someone sent me this by email, and I think I have found another 'favorite song'. It is apparently from the movie "Johnny Lingo", which I had never heard of, but there can be a tremendously significant beautiful meaning for this song spiritually, as well as a love song.

It meant a lot for me to receive this song today, for a number of reasons. But one stands far above the other...

Jesus Christ has told HIS Bride, His Betrothed, His Church, the same thing. "I will come for you..."

Enjoy! God bless!

Thanks,
WI Catholic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzvLu0VsAWw

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Catholic Exchange Article

WI Catholic thought you would be interested in this article from CatholicExchange.com:

Article Title: Marriage and More — at Stake


Both were against amending the Constitution to define “marriage” as the union of
a man and a woman, and their arguments were, in some sense, aesthetic: the Constitution
is a beautiful text; amending it should only be done under the gravest circumstances;
one shouldn’t amend the Constitution to resolve a policy issue that should be settled
legislatively. To do so was to mar the text, like defacing a painting or taking
a hammer to a sculpture.

The notion that we were governed by the text of the Constitution was a pious memory,
I replied; we hadn’t been governed that way for decades. Yes, it was a shame that
the Framers’ beautifully balanced text had to be subjected to amendments in order
... (to finish this article, please click the link )

Authored By: George Weigel