Saturday, September 20, 2014

Fighting Fuzzy Thinking

I just finished watching an excellent 2011 documentary called Pink Ribbons, Inc. about the rah rah phenomenon surrounding breast cancer and breast cancer research that has, at best, become a distraction from the devastation of the disease itself and from finding causes, preventions, treatments and a cure for the disease.

My mother died of breast cancer.  There is not much that I can say about that except that some of the avoidance thinking about the disease might have spared her some of the suffering she experienced in the last year of her life.

It's clear that we don't know enough about the disease, about what causes it, about the course of the disease and, apparently, because we don't know that much yet, rather than investing in learning more, we choose to fight something we know little about by spending much effort, time, energy and money in cheer leading those suffering from it.  This not only is a waste by accomplishing little but is a monumental waste of resources that could be spent finding out more.

Much of what is said about the pink ribbon movement can be said about other charitable ventures, particularly those involving corporate efforts.  Those who become enthusiasts of these activities need to step back and ask themselves what benefit, if any, other than their own deluded sense of well-being, comes of all these efforts.  What goals, objectives and outcomes are being measured to determine if these efforts are doing anything positive toward the issue at hand or are they just robbing the energy and attention away from needed efforts to actually address whatever problem is the supposed focus.  Look at who's speaking about these charities.  Look at how they're dressed.  Listen to who they're championing.  There's a lot of money in fund raising and in running not-for-profits.  Where is the money going; is it going to where it's needed?

Please watch the film:  Pink Ribbons, Inc.  It's available on streaming video at Netflix.



Watch and learn.

Breast cancer is NOT a pretty pink ribbon.  Breast cancer is NOT patting people on the back for getting through it.  Breast cancer is NOT cute products colored pink to sell to concerned customers, making profits for corporations who donate pennies for what results?  Breast cancer is a nasty, killing disease.

If you want to donate to research on breast cancer, do your homework, find out what research is being done, where, by whom.  Find out how they're funded, donate there.  If you want to donate to palliative care for breast cancer sufferers, do your homework, find out who's providing such care, find out how they're funded, donate there.

I DO NOT donate to charities through any corporation; I'm perfectly capable of donating directly to any charity of my choosing.  I DO NOT purchase any commercially manufactured product that might generate a % of a cent toward any charity.  When I am able to donate to a charity of my choosing, I send them a check.  I make every effort to research any charity that I'm interested in for how they spend their money, their administrative costs, their executive compensation, what projects they fund, etc.  I highly recommend that you do the same.