Komen Race for the Cure...

[ikojo]

KSDK channel 5 in St Louis really pushes this...I guess this is what passes for public service programming in 2007. On every recent newscast they announce how many days to the "Race for the Cure" and now they are encouraging people to register so that St Louis has more participants than Denver (65,000).

Is the Komen Race for the Cure as big a deal in other locales as it seems to be in St Louis?

Is there a breast cancer culture awash in pink?

Here is a link to an article by Barbara Ehrenreich on that subject...

Welcome to Cancerland

http://www.bcaction.org/Pages/LearnAboutUs/WelcomeToCancerland.html

snip

Fortunately, no one has to go through this alone. Thirty years ago, before Betty Ford, Rose Kushner, Betty Rollin, and other pioneer patients spoke out, breast cancer was a dread secret, endured in silence and euphemized in obituaries as a "long illness." Something about the conjuncture of "breast," signifying sexuality and nurturance, and that other word, suggesting the claws of a devouring crustacean, spooked almost everyone. Today however, it's the biggest disease on the cultural map, bigger than AIDS, cystic fibrosis, or spinal injury, bigger even than those more prolific killers of women-heart disease, lung cancer, and stroke. There are roughly hundreds of websites devoted to it, not to mention newsletters, support groups, a whole genre of first-person breast-cancer books; even a glossy, upper-middle-brow, monthly magazine, Mamm. There are four major national breast-cancer organizations, of which the mightiest, in financial terms, is The Susan G. Komen Foundation, headed by breast-cancer veteran and Bush's nominee for ambassador to Hungary Nancy Brinker. Komen organizes the annual Race for the Cure©, which attracts about a million people-mostly survivors, friends, and family members. Its website provides a microcosm of the new breast-cancer culture, offering news of the races, message boards for accounts of individuals' struggles with the disease, and a "marketplace" of breast-cancer-related products to buy.

More so than in the case of any other disease, breast-cancer organizations and events feed on a generous flow of corporate support. Nancy Brinker relates how her early attempts to attract corporate interest in promoting breast cancer "awareness" were met with rebuff. A bra manufacturer, importuned to affix a mammogram-reminder tag to his product, more or less wrinkled his nose. Now breast cancer has blossomed from wallflower to the most popular girl at the corporate charity prom. While AIDS goes begging and low-rent diseases like tuberculosis have no friends at all, breast cancer has been able to count on Revlon, Avon, Ford, Tiffany, Pier 1, Estee Lauder, Ralph Lauren, Lee Jeans, Saks Fifth Avenue, JC Penney, Boston Market, Wilson athletic gear-and I apologize to those I've omitted. You can "shop for the cure" during the week when Saks donates 2 percent of sales to a breast-cancer fund; "wear denim for the cure" during Lee National Denim Day, when for a $5 donation you get to wear blue jeans to work. You can even "invest for the cure," in the Kinetics Assets Management's new no-load Medical Fund, which specializes entirely in businesses involved in cancer research.

snip

In the mainstream of breast-cancer culture, one finds very little anger, no mention of possible environmental causes, few complaints about the fact that, in all but the more advanced, metastasized cases, it is the "treatments," not the disease, that cause illness and pain. The stance toward existing treatments is occasionally critical-in Mamm, for example-but more commonly grateful; the overall tone, almost universally upbeat. The Breast Friends website, for example, features a series of inspirational quotes: "Don't Cry Over Anything that Can't Cry Over You," "I Can't Stop the Birds of Sorrow from Circling my Head, But I Can Stop Them from Building a Nest in My Hair," 'When Life Hands Out Lemons, Squeeze Out a Smile," "Don't wait for your ship to come in ... Swim out to meet it," and much more of that ilk. Even in the relatively sophisticated Mamm, a columnist bemoans not cancer or chemotherapy but the end of chemotherapy, and humorously proposes to deal with her separation anxiety by pitching a tent outside her oncologist's office. So pervasive is the perkiness of the breast-cancer world that unhappiness requires a kind of apology, as when "Lucy," whose "long term prognosis is not good," starts her personal narrative on breastcancertalk.org by telling us that her story "is not the usual one, frill of sweetness and hope, but true nevertheless."

[NC_Nurse]

1. We just had one in Raleigh.

They brought in a record amount of funds. :)

[shenmue]

2. I'd like to go

If they have a walkathon in the Tampa area, I'm game.

[ikojo]

3. In St Louis they don't emphasize the running

part..they encourage all to take part whether you walk or run.

[Berry Cool]

4. I LOVE that article.

And before anyone participates or gives to a Race for the Cure, they should read this:

http://www.alternet.org/story/14014/?page=1

Think twice before you give your money to already-well-endowed Bush Pioneers.

Edited to start on first page.

[ikojo]

5. Here is a link to Barbara Ehrenreich's blog

She speaks the truth. I heard her on Bob McChesney's radio show a couple of weeks ago. She is currently working on a book on forced happiness or something to that effect. You know in American culture we are to be POSITIVE ALL THE TIME....if you get laid off, don't look at it negatively but rather as an OPPORTUNITY....:puke:


http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbaras_blog/

[Berry Cool]

7. Yes, my favorite quotes from "Welcome to Cancerland" are when she ridicules

the cutesy tchotchkes associated with breast cancer. Like the pack for chemo patients that included crayons.

[ikojo]

9. It's as if when one becomes seriously ill

then one is suddenly infantilized.

[Imalittleteapot]

6. Big here.

I couldn't participate because of chemo, but my husband did. I will participate next year. I don't like Komen's marketing of stuff to buy.

This is the organization I support.

http://www.natlbcc.org/bin/index.asp?strid=781&depid=16
VIRGINIA CLINTON KELLEY FUND


Fort Worth

[Berry Cool]

8. I'd much rather support that or Breast Cancer Action

which focuses on researching environmental causes.

www.bcaction.org

[KT2000]

10. Forget it!

This whole pink ribbon campaign was started by a company that makes pesticides. Some studies have shown pesticides have been implicated could be linked to breast cancer.
The pesticide manufacturer that started this, subsequently purchased a company that makes cancer drugs.

Do you think the companies sporting pink ribbons and pink ribbons will direct those research dollars to environmental causes of breat cancer? No.

Why in heaven's name women who have already had cancer are supposed to run for dollars is beyond me. It is ridiculous.

Please support research that investigates environmental causes instead.

[ikojo]

11. I agree...I try not to support corporate type

"charities." What does Komen do for women who have breast cancer? Do they provide any services, help people pay for prescriptions, help people pay for medical care? What is the function of the Komen foundation?

Also, recently in St Louis the former head of the Komen Foundation was found to have child porn on her computer. I am NOT saying that she did this BECAUSE she was affiliated with Komen. Just saying that perhaps the heads of these "charities" should be scrutinized before large sums of money is just handed over to them.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=113682

Details Emerge About Former Komen St. Louis President's Child Porn Case
created: 2/27/2007 11:47:48 PM
updated: 2/28/2007 3:10:44 PM

By Mike Owens
I-Team Reporter

(KSDK) - Sandra Batte pleaded guilty last Thursday in U.S. District Court to possessing child pornography. Three weeks before she admitted to the crime, she was the president of the St. Louis affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

snip

Batte met with investigators from the FBI and Postal Inspectors in December 2005. She denied knowing a child porn suspect at first, but when confronted with e-mails to her account, she admitted she knew a man in Texas, Stuart Manley. Manley is now serving 30 years in prison for possessing and distributing child porn.

[KT2000]

12. Yikes - that's bad

Looked around at their site and it looks like they do community grants for early detection, mammograms and education. They also fund research.
Frankly though, the best research is coming from countries other than the US. Too many corporate strings here.

[SeattleGirl]

13. It's a big deal here in Seattle, and I am glad for that. My mother is a

breast cancer survivor, and whatever will help bring about a cure, or better treatment, is good with me.

[ikojo]

14. Did Komen assist your mom in any way during

her treatments? What happens after these races? Where does the money go? Heck here in St Louis all they seem to want is numbers. They just said on channel 5 that you can "sleep for the cure" if you want to sleep in. You can register and the T-shirt will be sent to your house.

I hear no discussion of the parts increased levels of dioxin may play in breast cancer. There is little if any discussion of what may CAUSE breast cancer. Instead all I hear is register, pay the registration fee. Channel 5 has a many opportunities to really discuss cancer and its possible environmental factors, instead all we get are pink ribbons and feel good human interest stories.