Today is Terri's Day -- a day to remember the value of life and the experience of one woman.
Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life preached the funeral for Terri Schindler Schiavo.
"This is a day when we remember a very sad event in American history -- world history, in fact -- when an American citizen, innocent of any wrongdoing or a crime, could not be saved by the American people, by the president of the United States, by the Congress of the United States," says Pavone. "She ended up dying because she was killed by dehydration ordered by a court of these same United States."
Schiavo was not dying because of her brain injury, but feeding tubes were hydrating her and keeping her alive. But the court ordered that the tubes be removed, and she died March 31, 2005. Her family remembers her life and death on this day each year.
"Terri really represents us all," the Priests for Life spokesman suggests, "because as the questions we were getting, especially from the international media, we're saying, 'Is this the direction that America is going in terms of how it treats the disabled?'"
Pavone contends there are men and women in this country each year that suffer similar injuries and die because of a lack of respect for life.
Terri's Day is set aside to remember the tragedy and motivate people to move away from a culture of death. The website provides churches and individuals resources and suggestions for recognizing the day of remembrance.