This
is a very important video by a very brave and empathetic woman. I
couldn't watch the entire tape though... I became overwhelmed
with grief. Not only for the lady in the film but also for my
mother who died 39 years ago, at age 57 from breast cancer. She
didn’t have health insurance because she couldn’t work,
having lost her husband some 20 years prior to coming down with
this horrible health issue, thus obligating her to raise her 6
children alone. She had little to no support from anyone
including her family who really didn’t understand what she
was going through and had their own struggles with life.
I
had two babies at the time and was living with my husband in our
first home. Every morning I would awake and my mother would be
the first thing on my mind. I thought about her suffering each
and every moment while tending to my very young children. It's a
good thing they were babies because they would not have
understood why their mommy cried all the time. The worst part of
all this was the fact that my mom had no health insurance,
because of that she was at the mercy of a teaching hospital and I
assume other charities were involved. Back in 1973 there was
absolutely no dignity in being poor; you were considered a burden
upon society, no matter what circumstances put you there. I did
not see my mother’s scars but someone else in the family did
and they said it was just horrifying and looked like butchery.
After
the removal of her breast she underwent a series of experimental
treatments, in other words she was a human guinea pig. She lost
all her hair and became weaker with each passing day. My mother
did not even last a full year after her initial operation and
suffered greatly till the end (We were unaware of hospice because
back then people viewed death and suffering as a normal part of
existence, and it was not uncommon for people to die --and
languish in pain-- at home.).
This
is one of those memories that you do not conjure up very often.
But today, a brave woman named Linda, made me think about one
family’s tragedy with breast cancer… MY OWN. Carolyn
aka thinkingblue
{{EXCERPT}} Susan G.
Komen for the Cure is trying its very hardest to prove to its
supporters that it didn't decide to stop giving grants to Planned
Parenthood because of an internal or external right wing
political agenda, which is steaming, obvious bullshit. Now, it
turns out that people from inside Komen confirm that the decision
was a political one, and the politics of Komen are swinging
wildly to the right thanks to the metastasized ideology of Karen
Handel, former Mama Grizzly, failed Georgia gubernatorial
candidate, and longtime anti-Planned Parenthood crusader.
{{AND}} Komen's brand is imploding and
seriously alienating young women and politically progressive
supporters who were drawn to the cause expressly because of their
non-political approach to a non-political disease. But when a
charity hires a woman like Handel, a woman who must always attach
politics to a woman's body, and allows her to project her
political beliefs into her work, Komen ceases being a viable
charity and starts being a self-righteous political organization
for rich ladies who like hanging around with celebrities. It's a
social club, and the only thing it's curing right now is people's
desire to raise any more money for them. MORE HERE: http://jezebel.com/5881642/meet-the-komen-exec-behind-the-planned-parenthood-defunding
Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, the world's leading
breast-cancer-research advocacy group, to cut its support for
Planned Parenthood, which used Komen dollars (about $600,000
annually) to pay for breast-screening exams for poor
people.
What is so disgusting about all this...IT
WAS NOT KOMEN'S MONEY TO DECIDE ON CUTTING SUPPORT FOR PLANNED
PARENTHOOD, it was the contributers to Komen who funded Planned
Parenthood. This makes me more than angry... thinkingblue
{{EXCERPT}} Susan G.
Komen for the Cure is trying its very hardest to prove to its
supporters that it didn't decide to stop giving grants to Planned
Parenthood because of an internal or external right wing
political agenda, which is steaming, obvious bullshit. Now, it
turns out that people from inside Komen confirm that the decision
was a political one, and the politics of Komen are swinging
wildly to the right thanks to the metastasized ideology of Karen
Handel, former Mama Grizzly, failed Georgia gubernatorial
candidate, and longtime anti-Planned Parenthood crusader.
thinkingblue