Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Looking for Answers...

Watching the news last week, I listened to the candidates for President discuss completely irrelevant things while most of the citizens of this country are concerned about keeping their jobs, securing their retirement funds, sending their children to college, having adequate health insurance and the general state of the economy.

When are these candidates going to share with us what their plans are going to be for one of the most important issues, which is finding the answers that have been eluding us regarding cancer? In the next year alone, 600,000 of our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and our children will lose their battle with this horrible disease. 1.7 million people will face the diagnosis and subsequent battle with cancer this year and one in every two men and one in every three women living today will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. Cancer is the leading cause of death for those 80 years old and younger and cancer does not impact just the individual diagnosed, but all of those who love and care about them.

Our government is not visionary, but reactionary and it will not be until we as citizens and constituents demand that our money be spent on finding the answers we have been seeking for years. Only when threatened with the potential loss of votes will our government representatives, at all levels, react.

As we focus on our choices in the coming elections, we need to start asking now what our representatives at all levels of government are going to do to find the solution to cancer.