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Slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War.
But Michael Schiavo still perceives women as property.
In at least two public forums this year, the hulking 6 foot 6 inch, 250 pound guardian of Terri Schindler Schiavo abusively and possessively claimed that she was his property.
Domestic violence occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate or harm the other.
 In 1992, responding to allegations that he had abused his wife, Terri Schindler Schiavo, after she sustained incapacitating brain damage in mysterious circumstances at their home in 1990, Michael Schiavo told a Florida newspaper that "I've never, ever struck a woman, especially my wife. I was raised better than that".
Spousal abuse takes many forms: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse.
One of the characteristic of family violence is the use and abuse of power. Battered women often express a feeling of powerlessness, helplessness as a result of spousal abuse they have suffered. If the male desires power and control in the relationship, a potential for violence exists.
 According to nationally-recognized psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, Michael Schiavo fits the profile of an abuser and has a history of psychiatric care including being prescribed several psychotropic medications.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/032106WifeAbuser.html
In July, Schiavo's abusive, possessive and controlling nature was displayed at a press conference in Denver, Colo., where Schiavo was appearing with Angie Paccione, the candidate he was supporting for District 4 Congresswoman.
Schiavo was ranting about his rights and his privacy having been violated by Congress and the President in their efforts to save the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo last March after her feeding tube was removed at his behest following a seven year court battle with her parents.
 When Linda Evans Shepherd, nationally known lecturer and author of Christian books, asked Schiavo "what about Terri's parents, what about their rights, weren't they also her family?", Schiavo snarled "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?"
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/111606SchiavoProperty.html
  
Schiavo was a panelist at a May forum at the University of Pennsylvania at the 10th anniversary symposium of the Center for Bioethics along with Pinellas County Court probate judge George W. Greer (above, left) who sanctioned the judicial homicide of Terri Schiavo; Mary Labyak (above, center), CEO of the Hospice of Florida Suncoast, owner of Woodside Hospice where Terri was placed for five years; and Ronald "Dr. Death" Cranford (above, right), euthanasia advocate.
Protesters led by Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, and pro-life groups appeared outside the facility where the events were being held.
While Schiavo and other panelists argued that polls supported the taking of Terri's life, protesters pointed to the results of a Zogby poll, conducted in the days before Terri's death and after, found that 80% of likely voters said that a disabled person who is not terminally ill or in a coma, and not being kept alive by life support should not, in the absence of a written directive to the contrary, be denied food and water. By a three-to-one margin, likely voters said that when there is conflicting evidence on the wishes of a patient, elected officials should order that a feeding tube remain in place.
 Brandi Swindell, national director of Generation Life, had stood in solidarity with Terri by entering a 15-day hunger strike in Florida at the time Terri's feeding tube was removed. "A woman is being starved to death and I have to do something", the 28-year-old from Boise, Idado said. "There are just certain things that you have to do, that you have to try".
As Terri lay dying inside the hospice,  Swindell protested at the house where Michael Schiavo (left) lived with Jodi Centonze (right), his concubine for the previous 10 years, and the children that he had fathered. "I really felt that Michael Schiavo turned his back on his wife", she said. "Men, and specifically husbands, are called to be providers and protectors of the women that are important in their life, and especially their wives. And so we view this as the ultimate form of domestic abuse".
Brandi went to the UPenn symposium to say that Terri Schiavo didn't die with dignity. "Rather, she died a barbaric death that if she were an animal would have been against the law. The lesson we must learn from Terri's tragic death is that as a nation we must learn to treat the weakest of our society with compassion and justice".
But in May, Michael Schiavo and his new wife, Jodi, didn't want to exercise compassion. They screamed and ranted at Brandi Swindell and security asked her to leave. They claimed she was "disruptive".
Swindell had purchased a $100 ticket for admission to the event, arriving from Idaho, to support Bobby Schindler and to "speak out on the injustice of what had happened to Terri".
 She said she attended the first day when Schiavo was on the panel of speakers which was being moderated by talk show host Michael Smerconish. Swindell says that she had submitted a question to be asked the panel but that the questions had been "totally sanitized". She said her question had been very pertinent to the topic of discussion, about the Zogby poll showing that the majority of Americans favored Terri's feeding tube remaining in. She says there was an entire discussion about polls during the panel's seminar, mentioning three other polls but totally disregarding the Zogby poll, probably because it was contrary to Schiavo's claims.
She says she was seated in the second row, "peacefully sat through the whole thing, listened to Michael give his whole talk and got an insight into the relationship between himself and Jodi".
She said it was "very interesting to see how she was pulling the strings. I really got my eyes opened. I believe she (Jodi) probably wanted Terri dead, there was money to be made with book deals, speaking tours and movie rights. There was a moment when they opened up for questions and Michael couldn't answer them. She would write on a piece of paper and pass it to him. It was obvious someone else, not him, had written his speech. He stumbled through it, missed the jokes".
Brandi says she had hoped that the presentation would have been balanced, an exchange of ideas but it was not and she said that was troubling to her, considering it was a program at a public university.
She says there was interaction between Michael and Jodi where he was "kinda getting annoyed with her and raising his voice. I sat through the whole thing and when it opened up for questions, I submitted a question about the Zogby poll on my little index card".
She says she wrote the actual poll question and the result and asked Michael if he could comment it.
She says she got in line, first talking with Smerconish, asking him why he hadn't asked her question. He denied sanitizing questions and said that he just ran out of time.
She said as her turn came to Schiavo, she said "Hi, Michael" and handed him a copy of a letter which had been written to Michael Schiavo by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life on the first anniversary of Terri's death.
Fr. Pavone had witnessed Terri's final hours at her bedside last March and in his letter to Michael, he reiterated his previous statement that Michael Schiavo is a murderer and called on him to "embrace a life of repentance" and to seek forgiveness.
"Some have demanded that I apologize to you for calling you a murderer" the priest wrote. "Not only will I not apologize, I will repeat it again. Your decision to have Terri dehydrated to death was a decision to kill her".
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=6331
Brandi says that as she handed Schiavo the letter, he turned "bright red" and said, "I knew I recognized you".
"I was being very nice, very peaceful because I wanted to talk to him", Brandi said. "I wanted to look him in the eye and be Terri's voice".
"I said Michael, it's never too late for you to admit that what you did to Terri was wrong. He turned bright red again and started screaming at me, 'you don't know what you're talking about".
"Terri was my property", he yelled. "She belongs to me" in the present tense.
"I said Michael, haven't you ever heard of the feminist movement? Men don't own women any more".
Brandi said suddenly Jodi approached her and began 'ripping me'. "Jodi had been talking with someone else and "then when she realized who I was, she whipped around there and yelled, 'what's going on'. So I said to Michael and looked at Jodi, is she your property too, does she belong to you?"
"She flipped out" Brandi said, screaming to get me out of there, turning scarlet, yelling nasty comments, lewd comments. Then one of the organizers came over and said they were going to call security. I told them I wasn't being disruptive, I'd walk out".
She said that three security men followed her out, swearing at her and giving her "nasty looks". She said she was told that she could not re-enter the symposium. She asked for her money back and when the woman refused, she told her that she had the right to attend the rest of the events. The money was refunded.
"I truly believe in my heart that what Michael did to Terri was wrong and now he's profiting from it", Brandi says, "and I think Jodi is a little more conniving and into the whole thing than I had ever realized". 12-09-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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