Weekly Column by Loretta Redd
The politics of outrage took center stage this week, mirroring the lines from William Congreve’s 1697 play, The Mourning Bride: “Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”
“Love,” in the form of pink ribbon tied to our hearts through the Susan G. Komen foundation, turned instead to “hatred” by their misguided decision to politicize and de-fund breast cancer screenings done through Planned Parenthood health centers. Then, in its’ unfortunate cycle of deceit and damage control, a once honored foundation for breast cancer research and education brought doubt into the minds of thousands of its supporters as to its cross-over political agenda.
More than ever, it seems the ‘cancer’ of ideology is becoming invasive in women’s lives. As each day passes toward our next Presidential election, what a candidate once ‘stood for’ seems of less consequence than which of his statements moves the needle of public opinion.
I watch ‘truth’ devolve into a meaningless mass of message testing, looking not for bedrock beliefs, but rather for the right words to assuage every potential voter’s values. Flip-flopping with Romney on pregnancy planning, bed-hopping with Gingrich on moon-colony fidelity, or hand-washing Cain’s wandering paws, women are feeling justifiably “scorned.”
Unfortunately, board and staff members at the Komen Foundation, like VP for Public Policy, Karen Handel, decided to inject the poison of politics directly into the bosom of health care.
It was Ms. Handel who crafted the policy for Komen not to fund any organization that is under investigation by local, state and Federal authorities, knowing full well that Cliff Stearns (R-Fla) had called for investigations regarding funding for Planned Parenthood. “If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political,” she was quoted.
The backlash to the organization was a reflection not only of its policy decision, but also its poorly nuanced lies.
The three day, hell-like public fury has resulted in the foundations’ decision being reversed and funding continued to women’s health screening for breast cancer, without exception. When faced with the rage of women ‘scorned,’ Komen’s founder, Nancy Brinker, turned to her friend Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to George W Bush.
But given that Komen had spent three days defending itself with ever-changing justifications, Mr. Fleischer apparently passed on the opportunity to act as damage control adviser, and sent Ms. Brinker to an outside crisis management group.
Hopefully, the Komen Foundation will recover from its deservedly bruised reputation, and other organizations will learn from its egregious mistakes. Their mission should be about keeping boobies healthy, not giving boobs like Karen Handel and other representatives a political platform resulting in women scorned by healthcare oppression.
(Author’s addendum: For those readers who might wish to continue supporting breast cancer research through a different group, check out Army of Women.com, a joint project of the Susan Love and AVON foundations)
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Hope the writer saw PINK RIBBONS, INC., the new Canadian documentary shown at the recent SBIFF. All this “pink ribbon” walking is corporate advertising for itself with very, very, very little donated to medical causes. Komen’s attempted action was purely and simply reflective of the present anti-abortion politics.
It is good that the $700,000/year goes back to Planned Parenthood, but until the breast cancer campaign includes men prominently in its efforts, it will be held captive. (And men also are subject to that cancer, as several prominent men could attest.)
Thanks for writing about this Loretta. This morning’s news is that Karen Handel has resigned, leaving others to clean up the mess she created.
It wasn’t a political decision it was a founding principals decision. In their charter it says they will not give money to corporate entities under investigation. Planned Parenthood is under Federal Investigation. It became political once planned parenthood politicized the loss of revenue as a fund raiser and loosed the dogs on Komen. Is it impossible for a Lib to be honest?
Then, Bob, why don’t you explain to us why SGK didn’t pull their funding at Penn State… you know, the ones under investigation for (several) charges of molesting children?
Koman Foundation never protested the wholesale drugging of women with estrogen drugs for life which have now been clearly linked to increased rates of breast cancer. Koman Foundation never earned my regard. Abortion to date killed 30 million US citizens, about the same number as illegal immigrants who came to replace these tragically lost lives.
Well said. Like a local take on a national issue of such importance. Front page of huffington post too.
Research is finding the source of male breast cancer also to be linked to estrogen…which is used with cattle to fatten them and get them to slaughter houses earlier. Breast reduction surgery is increasing among males for the same reason. Might want to consider the source of that red meat in the future or there will be a ‘men only’ section at Victoria’s Secret.
As for Komen, find an organization locally to support breast cancer screening and treatment like Goleta Valley or the Breast Cancer Resource Center if you don’t like national fundraising machines.
Estrogen creams are also used as “lubricants” so there is more direct male exposure to these breast carcinogens creams, than eating estrogen-fattened cows. Thanks to the same pharmaceutical company (Wyeth and Fort Dodge) who hawked cheaply produced estrogen drugs for decades as an unproven elixirs of eternal youth and beauty.
Body builders buy these non-prescription animal hormones from Fort Dodge and do black market conversions into bulk-inducing androgens. All of this was happening under Komen’s nose and they remained silent. Don’t blame “environmental” exposure when you see billions of dollars of saies receipts for the direct consumption of these proven carcinogenic agents.