Forget a cure, donate for someone's Hummer!
The total for my movie ticket was $6.50. I handed the kid behind the window $7, and as he handed me my tickets, he asked, "Would you like to donate your fifty cents to help save a kid from cancer?"
Tell me how, exactly, do you answer a question like that? You either give in and give up the four bits, or you look like a complete creep to the kid and every person within earshot. My reaction was one of incredulousness... "Dude!" I said, shaking my head, as though I couldn't believe the gall of his question. "Not today," I finished, and everyone watched the creep get his ticket and slink into the theater.
As I handed my ticket to the "ticket-tearing girl" inside, again I was asked, "Would you like to donate to cancer research?" What is the deal with this movie theater, I wondered. Are they now sponsored by the American Cancer Society? Again, the creep refused.
Later that day, as I was checking out at Vons, the checkout kid continued the guilt assault: "Would you like to make a donation to cancer research?" At this point, I was fed up.
"They've spent billions of dollars over more than 30 years 'researching' cancer, and they're not one bit closer to a cure today than 30 years ago," I said. Then I proceeded to tell him how the cancer industry is a sham and has no real interest in "curing" cancer. I'm sure, after I left, the kid was apprehensive about asking the next customer.
Before you think I'm just a heartless creep who cares nothing about cancer victims or research, consider this: donations to cancer research probably at least partly go toward salaries of doctors and scientists who are part of the cancer industry. Why do these people need average working Americans to "donate" for their salaries, and why do they need some poor minimum-wage kids soliciting and pandering so they can buy another Hummer?
Imagine how many people would be out of work if cancer were cured. Imagine how many pharmaceutical companies would lose sales of their "chemo" poisons; how many empty oncology buldings; how many out-of-work doctors, radiologists, researchers, Cancer "society" and "association" employees... who in their right mind would want to find a cure for such a lucrative disease?
They don't. And if we keep "donating" to keep them in business, the madness will never end. We have no reason to feel guilty about refusing to donate. It's the "cancer industry" that should feel guilty for misleading people and draining billions from people just to keep the machine running, with no intention of ever creating a cure.
Tell me how, exactly, do you answer a question like that? You either give in and give up the four bits, or you look like a complete creep to the kid and every person within earshot. My reaction was one of incredulousness... "Dude!" I said, shaking my head, as though I couldn't believe the gall of his question. "Not today," I finished, and everyone watched the creep get his ticket and slink into the theater.
As I handed my ticket to the "ticket-tearing girl" inside, again I was asked, "Would you like to donate to cancer research?" What is the deal with this movie theater, I wondered. Are they now sponsored by the American Cancer Society? Again, the creep refused.
Later that day, as I was checking out at Vons, the checkout kid continued the guilt assault: "Would you like to make a donation to cancer research?" At this point, I was fed up.
"They've spent billions of dollars over more than 30 years 'researching' cancer, and they're not one bit closer to a cure today than 30 years ago," I said. Then I proceeded to tell him how the cancer industry is a sham and has no real interest in "curing" cancer. I'm sure, after I left, the kid was apprehensive about asking the next customer.
Before you think I'm just a heartless creep who cares nothing about cancer victims or research, consider this: donations to cancer research probably at least partly go toward salaries of doctors and scientists who are part of the cancer industry. Why do these people need average working Americans to "donate" for their salaries, and why do they need some poor minimum-wage kids soliciting and pandering so they can buy another Hummer?
Imagine how many people would be out of work if cancer were cured. Imagine how many pharmaceutical companies would lose sales of their "chemo" poisons; how many empty oncology buldings; how many out-of-work doctors, radiologists, researchers, Cancer "society" and "association" employees... who in their right mind would want to find a cure for such a lucrative disease?
They don't. And if we keep "donating" to keep them in business, the madness will never end. We have no reason to feel guilty about refusing to donate. It's the "cancer industry" that should feel guilty for misleading people and draining billions from people just to keep the machine running, with no intention of ever creating a cure.
3 Comments:
I actually agree!
The Spun-joe's back! And so are you, apparantly. You kinda stopped posting things for awhile, so I kinda found other blogs to annoy.
But hey, my sister reads your blog alot, and she told me yesterday that she didn't like this blog entry and she disagreed with you. So I guess I'm telling you since she won't post that herself.
As for my opinion, I could go either way. Some cancers are being cured thanks to donations, yet bigger diseases are not. And my opinion on the movie theatre donations -- I pay enough to see Jack Black in stretchy pants; I need not pay more.
Hey Spungey... I don't have a problem with someone disagreeing with my posts, in fact, I figure most people disagree with most of what I have to say.
I'm just curious if your sister disagrees based on her idealized vision of the way she'd like things to be, or because she has solid evidence that the cancer industry is making progress, and our solicited donations are helping?
Admittedly, my opinion is only based on the films I've watched and some small amount of my own research. I watched the cancer industry kill my mother-in-law, using chemotherapy drugs derived from chemicals used in WWI. Now there's progress for you!
The cancer industry, and indeed the entire "health care" industry seem based on only two principles: treat only symptoms (not root problems) and make a lot of money doing it.
I'm tired of feeling guilty for choosing not to contribute to these "charities." It's time we see them for what they are and teach people that WE are in control of our health, WE can choose to not support "fast" and "convenience" foods and pharmaceuticals that contribute to our own demise.
The cancer industry doesn't need our donations, it needs a complete deconstruction and overhaul, and needs to concentrate on EDUCATING people about healthy living. But then, they just might go out of business, and what industry wants to put itself out of business?
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