AZCentral.com
There is a con man's technique that politicians sometimes use to manipulate the public and never has it worked better than with Terri Schiavo.
The scheme involves making a very big deal about the plight of a single person to get us to ignore the plight of hundreds, thousands or even millions of others.
Two-bit hustlers use distraction and diversion techniques to lift your wallet or empty your bank account. Political flimflammers use the tragedy of a single family to distract you from the horror they are inflicting upon your friends and neighbors.
And it works. Dozens of e-mails asking (sometimes demanding) me to take up Schiavo's cause were waiting for me Monday after having spent last week on vacation. The megaphone being used by politicians in
And while I heard a lot about Schiavo, I didn't have a single e-mail expressing outrage over an
Or for a plan not to increase the budget for the state's Child Protective Services. Even though such decisions are certain to condemn some
