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Glenn's Show Prep

Will families soon lose their medical rights? Terri Schiavo's brother speaks out

March 25, 2015
Wilson

Writer

The Terri Schiavo case was a big turning point for Glenn and his views on life and the rights of the disabled. Back when he was a DJ in Florida, Terri Schiavo’s story was making national headlines. She had been in a coma for ten years, and her husband wanted to remove her feeding tube. At the time, Glenn said on air that he sided with the husband and disagreed with her parents who wanted to keep their daughter alive. But a listener called in and convinced him to think about it. A few days later Glenn was back on radio telling people just how wrong he was. On radio this morning, Glenn spoke with Terri’s brother Bobby Schindler about his sister and what he has done to fight for the rights of the disabled.

GLENN: If you are a long-time listener of this program, you remember the plight of Terri Schiavo, the really long-term listeners, those that have been with me since I was on WFLA remember I was on the wrong side of the Terri Schiavo case and I remembered what the listener said to me last night. The listener called me on a Friday, and I was against the Schindler family. I was saying pull the plug, pull the plug. A listener called me and said Glenn, you are thinking about this all wrong.

I say, how is that?

Because there's no plug to pull.

What are you talking about?

I just want you to think about this. Is food and water life support? Is that a medical procedure?

I said, well --

Just think about that this weekend and pray on it.

STU: I got to go to commercial.

GLENN: So I promised him I would think about it, and I came back that Monday, and I announced that I was wrong, and nobody in radio at the time -- I don't think anybody does now. They just look over and just stop talking about it. And I said no, I have a responsibility. I was wrong and I misled people, and so I tried to make it up to the family and to Terri and tried to do the right thing. In the end, they did take the life support away from Terri Schiavo and they stopped feeding her and starved her to death, over, I believe, a three-week period.

Some good has come from that. Bobby Schindler is here with us now Terri's brother.

SCHINDLER: Hi, Glenn. Thanks for having me.

GLENN: What did you do, Bobby, before this?

SCHINDLER: I was teaching high school at Tampa@lick.

GLENN: So you are just a regular high school teacher, and now you are the head of a major organization that stands up for life, for people who are in a persistent vegetative state. You want to tell us a little about that?

SCHINDLER: I'm sorry. Sure. We saw -- our battle with Terri lasted better part of five years. It really started in '93, when Michael started his pursuit to end Terri's life, but we saw the danger that people like Terri were in, and the families who were scared to death of the same thing happening to loved ones caring for their loved ones in similar conditions to my sister, so our family just felt, I guess a responsibility to continue to advocate for these people. That's what we did. We started a non-profit. We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. The calls we have been safe receiving the past ten years have grown significantly and it's an indication to us that our health care system is really targeting these people, Maying on these people that are medically vulnerable and we are trying to do what we can to protect them.

GLENN: You are giving an award on Tuesday. Tell me about the family.

SCHINDLER: The award is going to mother of Kyle Dantzler. Bridgett Henson is her name. Her son went in for a transplant surgery. As a result from that, he developed some complications and lost oxygen to the brain, and experienced a profound brain injury. The mother was just battling with the hospital for a better part of the year to get proper treatment. We got into the case and we have been trying to help her. Her primary goal was to get him transferred to a facility close to her home in Atlanta. This was happening in Philadelphia. So we're working with the families trying to do that, but just her story and so many others that we have received over the years, it's just chilling to hear the pressure and how hospitals are just looking at these people and treating them really as an inconvenience and the best them for them would be to kill them.

GLENN: I'll tell you, I don't know if you saw the -- I know you were on the show and you were in the green room and everything else, but I don't know if you saw the thing we put together about Pennhurst Hospital. It is truly frightening. People should watch this. See if I could post it on Facebook or online, but something I found a couple months ago, and it started in 1908, went to 1976, and we were just shoving -- the Progressive era took anyone that had any defect -- one person we showed on an admitting paper, a little kid, he died an old man in Pennhurst, and his only thing his father swore out and said I want to put him in the home, he has one seizure and also said "poon" instead of "spoon," and they hospitalized him his whole life.

And this system was lock them up and forget them. And it was a horror show what was happening in this hospital. And I'm so afraid that we're headed back that direction, we are not seeing people for people. We are not having compassion. We are seeing them as a burden on our society, and that's what happened in the Progressive era around the turn of the century. They saw these people as burdens and why should I pay for them when it's -- when they're not going to turn around and get any better, so why are we paying for them? Are you concerned about that at all?

SCHINDLER: Yeah, I think it's much worse. I think what you described is probably happening at different facilities across the country. I went over to Austria to speak and I went into a facility where they were killing the medically and physically inferior. That's what it was inscripted on the wall over there. This was back prior to the holocaust, talking about this attitude by the German doctors and how they were systematically killing those that were medically and physically inferior. I look at what's happening now in the calls we receive and what happened to Terri, and it's the same thing. There are so many parallels, Glenn what was happening then and now. For me to sit back and see the ordinary attitude that we have with starving and dehydrating to death people because they have a disability and the elderly -- and these people are not dying like Terri, they are not hooked up to machines, they simply need to be cared for. How we have grown accustomed to or accepted that it's okay to Kyle these people and one of the most barbaric ways, by starving and dehydrating --

GLENN: Tell me what you sister went through when they starved her and

dehydrated her.

SCHINDLER: It's -- well, I'm going to try -- the graphic nature of Terri and how she deteriorated is probably something I will never describe. It got so bad, three or four case before she did die, we refused to let me mom go and see her. It was horrible, Glenn. Something nightmares are made up. Toward the end, there was blood pooling in her eye, her skin was turning different shades of colors she was breathing so fast, it was like she had just been outside sprinting. I could go on, Glenn. If you look at those pictures we see from concentration camps, it remind me of my sister, but I believe my sister's -- what we saw in her experience was worse. I have a piece coming out, Glenn, and I will release an image of my sister from my family. I plan to do this before the 31st. I hope people look at it. It is my best recollection of what she looked like. There's a lie out there, that this is a peaceful hand painless way to do. That's absurd. This is the death of dignity.

PAT: Barbaric. Since your sister was starved to death, there's been several people who have made the news after coming out of these supposed vegetative states, that had no quality of life, the same thing was argued, pull the plug, let them die with dignity, all those things. And several of them, including a guy we just interviewed a couple weeks ago, Martin Pistorous have come out of it -- he came out of it after twelve years and is living a productive life. Have you seen these stories? Do you see others in that situation? And is that something --

SCHINDLER: Yes. We see it when it makes news, and when people call us. It seems hospitals are making decisions much quicker new than they used to, determining within hours -- even hours that someone will

have no recovery. Pressuring the family to stop life support. And this is what we are talking about. Our medical rights being eroded. Seems the shift that's occurred, where decision-making power now is resting in the hands of hospitals and physicians rather than family members. That's what should frighten us all. No longer do we look out for the best interest of the patient. We are looking out for the best interest of the hospital. That always comes done not bottom line, so I think decisions are being made with cost in mind, and much quicker decisions are being made to end a person's life than they have been in the past.

GLENN: The one thing I learned from Martin -- and I know you know him -- is he heard everything that was happening around him. He was locked in hell and he heard everything. It must make you feel good knowing what your family did and how you spoke around her and that she probably heard you. And knowing that she knew how much you loved her.

SCHINDLER: There was no doubt. We were with my sister when she was in this condition for 15 years. We know how alive and responsive she was. At times, she was able to communicate with us, at least at some level, but Glenn, from all those people that have emerged from this PVS, like Mr. Pistorius and others that we read about, even some we have come to know, none of them ever said when they were in this condition, they wished they didn't want to live this way or someone killed me. All these people would have emerged. Seems they are all happy they are alive and now they are living life to the fullest.

GLENN: This is Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler. Thank you so much for everything that you guys are doing, and thank you for your friendship for all of these years and being willing to stand. I will tell you, I don't think I have ever seen a family that's gone through more than you guys. Just an average family that has weathered an unbelievable storm for as long as you have, and I have tremendous respect for you and your mom and your whole family. You are just great people.

I'm going to be up in Philadelphia. It is the 10th anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo on the 31st, so I will be in Philadelphia at the Life and Hope Award Gala. Tickets are available at lifeandhopeaward.com. This is going to be an important speech, an important night, and I hope that you would come and join us and help fund life, but more importantly, bring a friend and bring your family and meet like-minded people, brave, brave people, and be on the side of good and right and righteousness. It is lifeandhopeaward.com. Go there now, grab your tickets. Life and Hope Award. It is happening on Tuesday. That's this coming Tuesday, the 31st, in Philadelphia. Where is it going to be -- where exactly is it being held?

SCHINDLER: At the Union League, downtown Philadelphia.

GLENN: Kind of a nice place to go into as well. Thank you very much Bobby. We will see you next week.

SCHINDLER: Thanks. God bless you.

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.