To support the cause, you don't have to wear pink
As everyone knows, I am not a fan of pink football gear. Â My team’s colors are black and gold. Â But that does NOT mean I don’t support Breast Cancer Awareness or the efforts to find a cure for the variety of cancers that will kill more than half a million Americans in 2009 alone.
I applaud the NFL for creating a partnership and boosting awareness of a disease that kills an estimated 40,000 woman annually; only lung cancer kills more women, according to the American Cancer Society. Â Women need to be aware of the warning signs and ultimately get annual screenings for a variety of cancers. Â Taking care of yourself by exercising and eating healthy result in reduced cancer risks. Â But ultimately, being able to have those screenings are important. Â Caught early, the five year survival rate is 98 percent. However, if it’s caught late, the survival rate drops to 24 percent.
This plays into the current political debate. Â I urge everyone to think carefully about the impact not having health care reform will have, not just on you, but on all Americans. Â For example, among uninsured women, only 30 percent had a mammogram during the past two years, versus 70 percent for insured women. Â The ultimate goal is that all women will have annual mammograms after age 40 and increase survival rates- while decreasing risk factors. It’s hard sometimes to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and wonder why someone doesn’t have health insurance, assuming they are undocumented or whatever other ridiculous excuse you can come up with. Â It isn’t until something hits close to home that many are able to view the situation from another point of view. In this instance, we need health care for all Americans. Period.
And while  I’m definitely no fan of the pink, and likely won’t be waving a pink terrible towel anytime soon, I will support Breast Cancer Awareness just as I always have through donating, advocating and volunteering my time to fight cancer.
I urge you to do the same. Â It’s not just in how you “show” support through what you wear or what you wave…it’s actually donating your resources in time and money, and advocating for health care for all Americans. Â Something I have done my entire adult life.
Hopefully I don’t need to show you my professional accomplishments or my tax returns to get you to understand that my commitment has nothing to do with wearing or waving pink.
Again, I salute the NFL for bringing attention to Breast Cancer Awareness – and their commitment to female football fans.
Mia J.:
October 1st, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I agree with you. But the argument also holds true in reverse. To be a committed, solid fan of a team, I don’t have to wear the jersey. I can rep my team colors, but I feel that if I want to wear a little pink, it in no way diminishes my loyalty. So wave that terrible towel, and I’ll have on my pink and we’ll share our love of football (like we always do.) Does this make us some sort of Odd Couple (guess I’d be Felix.)
Some Thursday Linkage:
October 1st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
[...] says you don’t have to wear pink to support breast cancer awareness this [...]
Lee:
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I think it’s a great thing to add pink in support of the cause. MLB does it every year and if nothing else it brings heightened awareness and additional funding through the sale of those articles.
Steelergurl:
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I really never thought my disdain for the “pinkification” of American would cause such an uproar.
I have nothing against pink in the sense of bringing awareness-it’s important…however, I do think that sometimes giving a direct donation to cancer research is better money spent.
I have no idea how much it costs to produce a pink terrible towel, but regular terrible towels cost about $10 on average- so I’m guessing not all $10 goes to Komen.
So, if I click on a link, and donate $20 directly to Komen, or the Cancer Research Center, or hell, something I did which was create a scholarship at my grad school alma mater specifically for single moms trying to go back to school – rather than waving a pink towel, or buying school paraphanalia – then why is that a bad thing?
People do things for a gazillion different reasons, maybe they show their support by wearing pink, but in my case, maybe I choose to be behind the scenes and donate my resources and time and not have to say “Oooooh, look at me, I bought a pink towel.”
I’m just a more reserved person and I don’t like to bring attention to my charitable contributions. I donate, I advocate, I bug the crap out of my elected officials, all because it’s the right thing to do…
And on Sunday, I want to support my team. I wear black and gold.
If anyone else wants to wear pink, by all means do it…just cuz I am not a fan doesn’t mean you have to do what I do…so don’t make me out to be the bad guy because I would rather write a check directly to the cause.
PS – my kid also never does those stupid wrapping paper sales at school either….I write a check directly to the PTA where all of that goes to his school….rather than me wasting my time asking a bunch of people to buy worthless crap that the school then only receives 15% for….you get me now?
I know, now I will probably get comments about how crappy a parent I am…
Lee:
October 4th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Whoa sparky…slow it down. I don’t think anyone is jumping on your for this. All I’m saying is that this brings awareness to an issue that some people may not have taken an interest in. I see it this way..the reality is that times are tough and people are less inclined to donate to a cause. If Komen makes, say, $4 from every towel vs $0 from a person who would not have donated, they win. Not everyone is going to take time to stroke a check to a charity-that’s just reality. This provides a way to give incentify (is that a word???) the consumer into giving. This falls into the “something is better than nothing” category.