The dreaded C word

Cancer.  It is the ugliest word that begins with the letter c in the human language.  Forget the vulgar words in various languages that begin with the letter.  Cancer is the most evil of them all.  Not one single word changes the life of a person or their family and friends like the word cancer.  

We Americans have created the internet and sent people to the moon, but that word stands ready to pounce on each and every one of us.  Science gives us risk factors to avoid and offers some treatments.  Yet, despite the intelligence that we think we have, there is always someone who lived healthy, did the right things, and woke up one morning with a little pain and found that pain was cancer out of the blue.  

All to often, those who get cancer out of nowhere are some of the best among us.  They are loyal to their families.  They work hard.  They make a difference.  They do the right things.  Yet, cancer hunts them down.  

That's life, I suppose.  It's not meant to be fair.  But, wouldn't it be refreshing if our federal government dreamed big dreams again?  In the early 1950s, when so many were stricken with polio, our nation rose up to find a vaccine.  Then, we put men on the moon. Now, we seem to bailout more than to reach and dream.

We all have to die from something. That is the price we pay to live.  But, wouldn't it be some comfort if we spent even half the money on finding a cure for a disease like cancer that we spend to bail out failed bankers or build political pet projects?  For that matter, cancer has killed a lot more Americans than any terrorist.  


Something to think on.