When I turned on the early NFL game yesterday, I instantly
knew it was October. Yep, there was pink this and pink that and courageous this
and heroic battle that, all over the place. October is breast cancer awareness month, people! Pink out!
Seriously, can there be one single person in this country
not living in a cave who is not aware of breast cancer? The October shenanigans
alone have been going on annually for twenty-nine years, and when you add in
the TV advertising, professional sports hoopla, and everything else pink and
ribbony that is going on seemingly everywhere, you got some serious awareness,
right?
Well maybe. But I take another view, that we have succeeded
in turning a horrible, terrifying disease into some kind of national party, a
decidedly for-profit orgy of merchandising and marketing. God forbid you should
suffer and die from it! It’s all about positive attitude, fighting the battle,
and “beating” cancer.
I’ve got news for you: cancer kills people. It’s what it
does. Nobody "beats" cancer. Some of us are lucky enough to get effective treatment and survive, at least for a while. There are literally millions of good folks who do everything right and
still die from cancer. The whole “pinkwashing” of our society every October is
deeply disturbing to many people who are living with, through, and hopefully
beyond the dreaded diagnosis of cancer. No amount of insulting, juvenile “Save the Boobies” campaigns will change this fact.
I’m not saying awareness is not a good thing, and there is a
lot of money raised for cancer research every October. But could you stop for one
minute and consider how much more could be done if every penny spent on the
annual commercialization of breast cancer were spent on real science instead?
On research into the genetic causes of cancer and the promising new immunotherapy treatments, the first new approach to cancer treatment in almost a hundred
years. We could end the “cut, poison, burn” trio of surgery, chemotherapy and
radiation.
So what about awareness? How about becoming more aware of the literally hundreds of cancers that people know little or nothing about, like bladder and esophageal cancer, or the host of incredibly cruel cancers that prey primarily on our young children.
So what about awareness? How about becoming more aware of the literally hundreds of cancers that people know little or nothing about, like bladder and esophageal cancer, or the host of incredibly cruel cancers that prey primarily on our young children.
Think about it.
Portland, OR
October 6, 2014
