Originally Posted - November 16, 2006

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DENVER--- " She was mine to do with what I wanted to do with, she was married to me and therefore her parents had lost all rights to her. Do you get that?"

Yet another person has come forward to relate a rant and display of temper by Michael Schiavo (left), the Florida man who has interjected himself into national politics because he believes that he was wronged by efforts made by Congress, the President and the Vatican as well as others to save the life of his disabled wife, ordered to die by the judicial decree of Pinellas County Probate Court Judge George W. Greer (right).

Linda Evans Shepherd, a nationally known lecturer and author of Christian books, relates Schiavo's display of temper and tongue lashing directed at her when she appeared at a press conference earlier this year in Denver, Colo., where Schiavo was appearing with Angie Paccione, the candidate he was supporting for the office of U.S. Representative for District 4.

Paccione was opposing Republican incumbent Marilyn Musgrave for the seat. As Congress prepared to pass legislation last spring designed to save the life of Terri Schiavo and provide for a fresh review of the court case in federal court, during her March 2005 speech from the Congress floor, Musgrave said that "when we talk about a permanent vegetative state, I'm offended that Terri smiles and acknowledges the people that love her when they come to see her…how heartless are we to call somebody like Terri Schiavo a vegetable".

In a July publicity stunt, Schiavo and Paccione stormed the federal office of Musgrave to deliver a letter to Musgrave, chastising her for voting in favor of the de novo review. Schiavo then appeared with Paccione in Denver at a press conference which Shepherd attended and at which Schiavo viciously lashed out at her.

Schiavo continued his abusive behavior in late October, launching a stealth attack on Musgrave, appearing at a Colorado debate between Musgrave, Paccione and the third party candidate. Schiavo actually stalked Musgrave, trying to lure her out for a confrontation and when she ignored him, tried to plant himself directly in front of her for intimidation purposes. When she continued to ignore him and he didn't get a chance to ask his question and attempt to steal the show, he then screamed and yelled at Musgrave as she exited the room.

Then he later claimed that he "later had learned", apparently by hearsay, that she had called the police on him but his version of events has been disputed by others who were present and corroborated by no one, indicating that once again, Michael Schiavo has related a story to suit his own purposes and agenda rather than tell the truth.

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/111406SchiavoHearsay.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/102506CowardlySchiavo.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/102806LossOfCompassion.html

Linda Evans Shepherd (left) is the mother of a severely handicapped daughter, Laura (right), now 20, who at the age of 18 months was thrown from the back seat of Linda's car during a traffic accident landing in the middle of the freeway, still secured in her car seat. Laura suffered brain damage and is paralyzed from the neck down.

She was transported to the Children's Hospital in Longmont, Colo., where a doctor suggested withholding a shot of antibiotics from Laura to let her die, an action which Linda refused to allow to happen. Three days later when the doctor saw the severely disabled Laura laughing and singing, he sat on the edge of her bed and profusely apologized to Linda.

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/072806LaurasStory.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/072506AboutLove.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/072906MotherLoves.html

Shortly before the election, Linda Evans Shepherd appeared on a radio show on KGOV hosted by Bob Envart, pastor the Denver Bible Church, and talked about life with Laura, euthanasia and end of life issues.

She also recounted Schiavo's display of temper directed at her and his claim that Terri was his "property".

Linda told Enyart that during the past election, Michael Schiavo had been "slinking around District 4 trying to disrupt our debates, verbally assaulting our Congresswoman….. What is that about, where is that going to end. Is he going to picket my house next because I stood up to him?"

LINDA: Laura is in fact more disabled than was Terri Schiavo, Terri Schiavo was not on life support. Laura is in fact on life support. She is connected to a breathing machine, a ventilator, and she is paralyzed from the neck down. She is unable to say a lot of words although she does speak, so she's extremely disabled yet to that I say so what, who's not a little bit disabled, who doesn't have a little bit of brain damage.

ENYART: I want to get into some of the details of what it's like caring for Laura but also to let the audience know, you recently had a confrontation with Michael Schiavo who came to Denver for a fund raiser, I'd like to talk about that and also you have some history with Children's Hospital.

LINDA: Well, let's talk about what happened with Michael Schiavo. On and off, I've written over 20 Christian books….and I was selling books at the Christian Book Sellers Tradeshow and had been staying in Denver………I started my day and the next thing I know, I was standing at the door of a press conference that was just about to start with Michael Schiavo and Angie Paccione who was running in District 4 (Colorado challenging Marilyn Musgrave) for Congresswoman. (Musgrave won)

ENYART: Now Terri Schiavo, of course, is the handicapped gal down in Florida who was starved to death at the behest of her husband, Michael Schiavo and the Republican judge down there, George Greer, who gave the order, basically a judicial decree, to go ahead and kill Terri Schiavo and when he said they would remove her feeding tube, her family, the Schindlers, they wanted to feed their daughter by mouth and they were not allowed to feed their daughter by mouth even though nurses had testified that she was able to eat by mouth, at least the last time they had checked she had been able to.

LINDA: Right. She was in hospice, and she was only in hospice so that they could euthanize her, that was the plan all along and in fact I believe this case has a lot more to do with how to help insurance companies figure out how to cut costs by euthanizing not only the disabled but eventually the elderly as well as people who have been given a terminal sentence by their doctor.

ENYART: Of course that is pressure that is influencing our culture and we see that in Europe which is further along the euthanasia path than we are although we are pretty far along it but, yes, it becomes a financial consideration. In the case of Terri, her family said, we'll take care of her, insurance doesn't have to pay but they want a precedent set to take a four year old boy like Dylan Walborne and starve him to death. You could euthanize him, you can euthanize the elderly.

LINDA: See they figured out that you can save about $100,000 per person with a terminal cancer sentence, for example, if you go ahead and dehydrate them now. Why wait? Save the bucks, forgetting that we have souls and that we have to make our partings and our goodbyes and our peace with God before we go and people are not getting the chance to do that. Even now people in Denver and Colorado are being euthanized in different settings such as hospitals and hospices.

ENYART: Colorado's Medical Ethics Board says we're against euthanasia but they don't consider starving someone to death to be euthanasia and of course our state laws back up that absurd position which is that you can starve to death children, the elderly, the handicapped and it's happening with increasing frequency here in Colorado. Now what happened when you got to this Michael Schiavo press conference that was about to start?

LINDA: I happened to be wearing a press badge that day…..and so I was able to go into the press conference and I listened as Michael Schiavo sat next to Angie Paccione and begin to rant and rave about how the fact that he said his life had been violated and that his privacy had been violated and that his family had been violated so when it came time to ask questions, I simply raised my hand and said, 'Well, I am the parent of a disabled adult'. I said 'what about Terri's parents, what about their rights; weren't they also her family'. And when I said that, Michael Schiavo, who by the way has an extraordinarily terrible temper, went off on me and shouted, " She was mine to do with what I wanted to do with and she was married to me and therefore her parents had lost all rights to her. Do you get that?"

ENYART: So his anger, his temper, you know, if you're willing to kill unborn children, if you're willing to kill the disabled, certainly a few lives here and there, losing your temper is not a big deal.

LINDA: Oh no, not a big deal at all but it shows me his heart and it showed me that he considered his wife to be his property and I'm sorry, but that….I thought slavery was over.

ENYART: Of course once you get married, medical decisions are made by the spouse, they're not any longer made by in-laws or parents but there should be no medical decision that says I'm going to euthanize, I'm going to kill my wife because she's difficult to care for.

LINDA: Well, especially if you have a conflict of interest and you are living and parenting children with another woman.

ENYART: Well, of course, right, that's a great point. He remained married to Terri while he's living with another woman and he was able to receive the insurance from Terri that was supposed to go to her recuperation efforts and I don't believe he spent any of that money on recovery for his wife.

LINDA: What a lot of people don't realize is that Michael Schiavo has become the poster boy for a very large euthanasia lobby They selected him and the whole point was not about fairness, was not about the money, it was about creating a climate where people would discuss euthanasia and become less alarmed by it.

The remainder of the interview. which also discusses Christian principles of government including the influence of Republican judges in the Schiavo case, can be heard by at LauraAndLinda.com: The Anti Schiavo Story | KGOV Radio

Additional information about Laura's story and how she is able to communicate by tongue signals can be found at http://www.sheppro.com/laura/lindaandlaura.htm and http://www.sheppro.com/about.htm. 11-16-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette