Notes from the Cafe Fiasco

Phil and Climate Change

It is Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil has been doing his thing in Pennsylvania - predicting six more weeks of winter.  But I wonder: is that six more weeks of winter winter or is it the winter that we've had so far that, for us New Englanders, isn't really winter?

Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood

News has come that the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the countries largest anti-breast cancer foundation, has caved in to the Right on their funding of screening of women for breast cancer. They have stated that they will no longer fund organizations that are "under investigation" and since the right wing House of Representatives has started such an investigation (shades of Joseph McCarthy) this gives Komen an excuse to bow to the wills of those who would put Planned Parenthood out of business.

Mom had breast cancer - both breasts, two radical masectomies one after the other - the second cancer being diagnosed right after the first surgery. This was back in the 60's - in the days before lumpectomies, when cancer was pretty much a death sentence. She didn't die of cancer, but she did go through a version of hell before she died of something else.

Watching her go through this taught me a very important lesson - cowardice is not a survival attribute when you're dealing with cancer. The only way to really deal with cancer is face on - just as my mother did. This turned out to be a very valuable lesson 40 years later when I was diagnosed with my own version of cancer. Compared to her, I had cancer light. But I still benefited from her teachings on the subject. When something like cancer happens to you, you've got to stand up and deal with it.

Unfortunately, the folks at the Susan G. Komen Foundation haven't learned this simple lesson from the people that they purport to serve. And therefore they have proved themselves to be not worthy of the people who they want to help. Cowardice in the face of political pressure is an ugly thing. It's almost as ugly as cancer itself. You'd think that the Komen Foundation people would have figured this out by now.