There's a movie coming out this month called Pink Ribbons, Inc. Perhaps you've seen the trailer, and if not, you should. Here's the link: Pink Ribbons, Inc. - movie trailer - NaturalNews.tv. I'm curious to know what your thoughts are. It talks about the commercialization of the pink ribbon, exposing it as a sham. I'm sure the movie will be controversial, but I'm also sure it's going to hit home with a lot of people.
Most of you probably have your own "pet issues", those issues that make you want to get on your soap box and shout! I have a few of my own: when I see a vehicle not using its indicator when turning or changing lanes, when I see adults smoking around children and this whole issue of "let's see how much money we can raise so we can put an end to breast (or other) cancer". I've struggled with this issue for a long time. Having a very personal connection to this wretched disease gives me a vested interest, I suppose you could say. (My mom passed away from breast cancer when I was 13, and her sister, my aunt, is a 15+ year survivor of the same disease).
I, too, have been caught up in "pink fever." I've donated to charity runs, bought the pink hats and pink ribbons and pink pins, as well as a myriad of other products with the pink ribbon symbol proudly displayed, promising to donate to a cure. It's difficult to avoid these items every where you go - the grocery store selling everything from mushrooms to toilet paper to orange juice with the symbol. The trailer for the movie mentions that a specific foundation has raised over a billion dollars since its inception to try to find a cure. How many more billions until we find the elusive cure?
I just can't understand how we haven't found the cure with all that money. If finding a cure was simply a matter of just raising more money, couldn't we have come up with enough money by now, somehow? I want to know how this money is making a difference - is the "cure" just around the corner? Is the cure finding a magic drug that will instantly cure the disease as soon as it's diagnosed? Is it yet another invasive and debilitating treatment with countless side effects - treatments that render you sicker than the disease appears to? Have we as a society accepted this disease as a "natural" sickness that a certain percentage of women is destined to have?
I want to know why we so rarely hear of preventing breast cancer. The dictionary says that a cure is healing or being healed, a remedy, or a medical treatment. Maybe it's time we start talking about raising money to find a prevention. A cure suggests waiting until the disease manifests, then getting rid of it. Shouldn't our money be better spent trying to figure out how to avoid getting the disease in the first place? I don't want to take away from the fact that many, many women have been cured of breast cancer - obviously there are treatments and medicines that do work. But wouldn't our health care system be better served by seeking prevention instead of a cure?
As pretty as that pink mixer might look on your kitchen counter, is the money being donated from its purchase actually going to save a life, or is it merely padding the deep pockets of a company? Like the trailer says, how can a company with carcinogens in its ingredient list put a pink ribbon on their package? This is outrageous to me. Hypocrisy, even. I'm hoping this movie will answer a lot of these questions, because I believe it's time to start looking at this issue from a completely different perspective.
I'd love to know what your thoughts on this subject are. I don't judge if you've purchased or donated to pink ribbon causes, because I've done it too. Is it time to stop? To demand that our donations are spent differently??
Talk to me...
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3 comments:
Wow. I read over your post a few times in the last couple of days and watched the trailer link a couple times too. I have to say that I've always kind of agreed in that it has been exploited and some how made to be trendy. You would hope that with that huge amount of money, some major advances would have been made. Clearly, money is not the answer - I'm not sure there is an answer. I think our donations are better spent being given directly to the Canadian Cancer Society then to the Bay for the pretty pink mixer, as cute as the pink mixer is!
I want to see this movie too and hope to become better informed. I think this type of problem is true for a lot of things. Being Organic for one, has become so trendy that you really have to do your research so that you buy the right product.
Let me know if you come to any conclusions.
I'm a firm believer that a healthy lifestyle can go a long way towards prevention, but it's hard to live in a perfectly healthy bubble. Still, I hope that the small choices I make are going to make a difference. And don't even get me started on "raising awareness" - how much more awareness could we possibly need, and is it helping??
You're right - money does not seem to be the answer. I'd like to know what that answer is...
Hey Teresa... I've been thinking on this for a while... I believe the problem is that medicine is big business, so I honestly believe that there is "never" going to be a "cure" for cancer, as far as the medical community is concerned, because the pharmaceutical companies are making too much money to allow most major diseases to be cured. I used to see a Chinese medicine herbalist and he told me that he was able to cure HIV (but of course, he had to couch the terms, since he couldn't claim a cure)... anyways, what was this magic pill? High doses of selenium and vitamin E for 6 weeks. He saw it in a few clients of his, where they'd have tests before and after and the HIV virus would be gone.... instead, those suffering with HIV are put on an expensive cocktail of medications with countless side effects that only keep the virus from being active. I believe that there are cures out there in the natural realm, along with eating healthy and even what you eat together (food combining... check out Harvey Diamond's books, especially the "new beginning" one... he talks about preventing disease simply by what you eat, when you eat it, and what you eat (as in, only eating fruit until noon and never mixing carbs with proteins)). As someone in the medical profession, it totally makes sense and I noticed changes in my body when I followed some of his tips. It's heartbreaking to see how much money is made off of those suffering from such terrible diseases.
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