One can always count on a ruthless wolf pack of Bush Republicans and right wing witch hunters to embark on a cynical and a very dark crusade for the sole purpose of killing and burning hard fought and noble initiatives for women's preventive disease medicine and scientific research that seeks a cure for debilitating neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
One can always count on the wolf pack of politicians who enrich themselves on behalf of themselves rather than serve their constituents, whether a lawmaker serves as a tool for crony capitalism (howdy Rick Perry) or as a go to pimp for corporate shareholders as a vulture capitalist on steroids (bon jour Mitt Romney) to destroy a once highly respected charity that fueled and empowered the fight against breast cancer for all women.
Few of us could have possibly missed the uproar over the past few days between the Susan G.Komen for the Cure foundation and Planned Parenthood. The Komen foundation, a once highly respected and deeply admired organization, serves as advocates and a funding source for breast care prevention. For as as long as most of us can remember, the Komen foundation has been donating grants to Planned Parenthood for the purpose of providing breast screenings for women who cannot afford the same at expensive imaging clinics.
But a few days ago, and out of the clear blue sky, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation announced it will no longer provide grants to Planned Parenthood for women's breast screening exams.
This decision was devastating for women who depend on Planned Parenthood for their health care needs, like screening for diabetes.
But worst of all, the Komen foundation decision to withhold funding to Planned Parenthood sucked the hope for a cure out of the sails of low income potential cancer victims and their families. The race to the cure became a race to a certain death for some.
The rationale for withholding funding? A Republican member of Congress had called for an investigation of Planned Parenthood. The Komen foundation said it will not fund any health care providers that are under investigation. But that disingenuous excuse soon changed as another spokesman trotted out another excuse that made no sense. The public saw through the flip flopping spin.
Is anyone in Texas having a deja vu moment yet? By the way, how is that Texas Republican enforced big government interference sonogram law working out for women and their doctors? The Texas Taliban Republicans recently passed a bill that requires women who seek an abortion to have a sonogram 24 hours prior to the procedure. The women are supposed to look at the screen and listen to the fetus's heartbeat. In other words, a woman who already had to make an extremely difficult decision is subjected to an unnecessary and downright cruel procedure before exercising her legal right to choose. Her only recourse is to shut her eyes and clap her hands over her ears.
As one state legislator in VA suggested maybe the government hating big government enforcers, the Texas Republicans should also require rectal exams for men who request prescriptions for erectile dysfunction disorder. The Texas Taliban big government enforcers might also want to know whether or not a man is having a sexual relationship with his wife, girlfriend or a hooker. Or maybe he's having multiple sexual encounters including some with the opposite sex. Rumors continue to float out of Austin in that area.
Moving along.
Furor erupted over the Komen Foundation's decision among mainstream Americans because most of us from all walks of life immediately smelled a right wing rat. We knew deep in our souls that the Republican right engaged on another all out assault and bullying of Planned Parenthood.
We've seen and heard this right wing movie too many times already.
The public outcry over the cruel decision became fierce because most of us understand the big bad A word called abortion very likely had something to do with the the wolf pack's influence on the Komen foundation. Public figures such as Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City jumped into the fray by donating $250,000 to Planned Parenthood. Politics have no place in healthcare, Mayor Bloomberg had said.
A miserable and mean spirited right wing U.S. Congressman from Florida decided that he had to be 100% certain that Planned Parenthood did not use federal dollars for the 3% of abortions it performs annually. The right wing is so deluded and out of touch with reality that it deems Planned Parenthood as nothing more than an abortion clinic.
Where are those jobs you promised in 2010 Republicans? Witch hunts against health care providers do not create jobs.
The public fury became more fierce when our gut instincts were proven real upon learning that one of the key players for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation is a pro-life G.W. Bush pioneer fund raiser who served as the Ambassador of Hungary during his administration. Here we have yet another perfect example of crony capitalism.
Despite all its protests to the contrary, the foundation was pretty clearly playing to the anti-abortion crowd. Until now, hardly anyone had noticed that Brinker, a longtime Republican donor who once served as ambassador to Hungary during the George W. Bush administration, had recently named a former pro-life candidate for governor of Georgia, Karen Handel, as the foundation's senior vice president for public policy.
As we all know from the wall to wall coverage in the mainstream media and in the more informed blogosphere, the Komen foundation has apologized for and has supposedly reversed its decision. Time will tell if this is true.
But it is far too late for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation because it had soiled its reputation by allowing right wing religious ideology and cynical politics to corrupt its once noble mission.
Women of all ages and across the board have applauded the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation for its heroic efforts in getting the health care profession and society to publicly acknowledge the existence of and the need for preventative treatment for breast cancer. A dialogue opened for a disease that had been previously swept under the carpet, ignored or demonized for whatever reason. And this is why so many of us donated to the foundation, ran or walked for or supported others who did.
Far too many of us have personal experiences with this and other horrible women's diseases. And this is why the injection of a narrow minded religious ideology and a right wing political agenda into a good cause made most of us go ballistic.
Let me share a couple of personal stories.
Over twenty years ago a friend of my husband and I died of breast cancer. She was barely 40 years old. To put it mildly, the health care industry had failed her miserably. Chronically in pain, exhausted and unable to find any energy she visited one doctor after another. To no avail. Finally, late on one Christmas Eve night my friend collapsed in her kitchen. Her husband rushed her to the nearest ER. The doctors found nothing wrong and wrote the collapse off to fatique and holiday season stress. Weeks later and desperate my friend went to her doctor again. I am exhausted, she complained. I have no energy. I have terrible spasms of pain in my upper body. I can barely get out of bed in the morning.
Her doctor's advise?
Make an appointment with a psychiatrist.
My friend died two years later after the doctors finally diagnosed breast cancer in its final stages.
A few years ago one of my sisters was diagnosed with stage 1 ovarian cancer. She had also suffered from fatique and exhaustion. When doing yoga exercises one morning my sister felt the sensation equivalent to a ball that rolled around her mid section. She immediately made an appointment with her doctor. But, alas the doctor had a lot on her plate, including training a medical school resident. The doctor failed to listen to my sister's explanation about the rolling ball sensation in her stomach. Of course the "ball" turned out to be a tumor. Knowing that something was wrong my sister found another doctor who did discover the cancer. Fortunately, thanks to early discovery and chemotherapy in addition to alternative treatments such as positive thinking, meditation, massage therapy and in her case prayer, my sister is thankfully out of the woods.
This is what happens when politics enters every walk of our lives. The profit driven healthcare insurance industry has doctors running like hamsters on a wheel. Schedulers allocate fifteen minutes per patient. In Houston a nurse at an Eye Clinic actually admitted to me that they over schedule by 10%. Wait baby wait, and get short changed in your care needs. But the insurance man will get his due at the expense of the patient.
Medical facilities employ staff for the sole purpose of submitting claims and negotiating rates with insurance providers. Patients are often rushed in and out of their doctor's office and in many cases they are given prescription drugs that they do not need.
But hey, at least we don't have socialized medicine, right?
As in the case with the Komen foundation, leave it to a group of greedy politicians to stand by the interests of their cronies in the health care industry instead of serving the needs of their constituents. Blue Dog Democrats, moderate Republicans and right wing Tea Party Republicans fought the public option in the health care reform bill tooth and nail. A public option would have meant affordable health care for most, if not all Americans. But it was dead on arrival from its inception because lobbyists have taken over Washington D.C.
And this is why we the wee ones are fed up. We are onto the scam of the free market zealots and their water carriers in the U.S. Congress and state houses.
We also get angry when a once worthy cause for women's health care moves into a marketing mode to profit off of the victims' disease.
