Greg's Blurty

Cancer, Money, Stupidity And Death
Cancer continues to be my least favorite disease. Not that maladies such as AIDS, diabetes, emphysema, MS and several others aren't close behind, because they are but cancer is still number one. And the latest reason is Paul Newman.

It's official now, Paul has lung cancer (http://snipurl.com/2fcpg) and with Ted Kennedy, that makes two in a month. And that's just the famous cases. If 200 people read this post, which seems to be about average according to the counter, probably around ten of them have had someone close to them or even them themselves diagnosed with cancer in the same time frame.

I hope all these sad stories have happy endings and some, maybe even all might because they are doing amazing things...if you can afford them. But many of them probably won't, because of the disease and the cost of treating it. And that's not fair or right, because they could.

Really. It would be possible if we really cared about things like this and we weren't preoccupied with useless things like seat belts and tougher drunk driving laws. Way back in the 1970's, Dear Abby or Ann Landers, possibly both of them, printed a list every year of things we could do with the defense budget and curing cancer was always near the top.

And, as luck would have it, these types of lists are still being compiled and printed. Take a look at this:

Economix
What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy

By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: January 17, 2007

The human mind isn’t very well equipped to make sense of a figure like $1.2 trillion. We don’t deal with a trillion of anything in our daily lives, and so when we come across such a big number, it is hard to distinguish it from any other big number. Millions, billions, a trillion — they all start to sound the same.

The way to come to grips with $1.2 trillion is to forget about the number itself and think instead about what you could buy with the money. When you do that, a trillion stops sounding anything like millions or billions.

For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/business/17leonhardt.html?ei=5090

So file that under "What we should be doing." And then look at the file marked, "What we are doing." And then ask yourself why, especially in an election year, we are still doing it. And if you're a kid, the next time some simple minded dolt of an adult tries to tell you that not letting you drink and making you jump through hoops to get your driver's license and whatever other boneheaded and worthless things we make you do is for your safety, explain to the idiot that if any of us really cared about the safety and well being of anyone, especially kids, we would be doing everything completely different and you aren't buying the lies anymore.

This is one of those cases where actions speak louder than words and our actions are broadcasting our real feelings at a volume that Spinal Tap would envy.

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: Coast To Coast AM----Tuesday June 10th, 2008