The war on cancer - a new beginning

I cherish Gayl, my wife. I did for 31 years, through four battles with cancer and right up to the end when in the fifth battle this terrible disease overwhelmed her. She fought to the end, fought with all her heart. She was brave, she did not give in or cower before the disease. We did all that was asked of us. I gave all I could, she gave more. But, medicine failed her. There was no treatment for her, no cure. The money that could have found a cure for her had not been spent on research, it had been paid to bureaucrats in Washington so that they could have their perks and privileges. Gayl deserves better. From this date, I am at war with cancer, in her name. I am tired of trusting a government and a bunch of bureaucrats with one of the most important wars in history. Politicians and bureaucrats have no honor, no code; they just care for themselves. Its time we, the people, start to act to take care of those among us who are battling cancer and can not fight the government as well.

Here is a harsh truth, few people care if someone dies of cancer, least of all politicians. Maybe a spouse, but the divorce rate among spouses of cancer victims is high. The rest of the person's family cares even less. And as the battle wears on, most people with cancer are left to battle on alone; within a hospital bureaucracy just as likely to kill them from mistreatment as provide the proper care. Never expect a cure. As for the government, hah! Politicians only want our vote and the power it gives them, our lives are of no concern to them. It is time for us, the citizens, to do something about cancer. Not just run politicians out of office who fail to act, but start to fund our own research efforts, based on our own criteria, without government intervention and oversight. Bureaucrats do nothing and care less than politicians; indeed it is in their interest to to insure that research does not progress rapidly. Their only stake in the matter is their job; for the vast majority, they have no personal reason to push for cures and better treatment. Its time to take the uncaring, the day-to-day people out of the loop and hand over the reigns to people who care.

No one, and I mean no one, deserves to die that way. No one deserves to live in fear from this disease. Politicians and the government don't get it and don't care how many of us die. We are a nation of free people, lets take control and responsibility for our lives and remove the quest for a cure from the hands of an incompetent government and its minions. They just want us to believe that we need them, we do not. Lets do the job ourselves, those we love deserve our best efforts.

Martin