This is the bravest response to the Komen scandal yet:
That woman rocks.
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Schlemizel
GOD-DAMN it! “I was home in time for the 6PM news” How can anyone justify doing this to another human being?
This is one hell of a tough woman all I can do is hope that she recovers and lead a happy life with all her feisty vigor.
donnah
She is AWESOME. I wish her the best in her recovery, and offer my congratualtions for survivng, being a fighter, and telling it like it is. I’ve got tears rolling down my face and I’m so proud of her.
moonbat
Awesome! Virtual hugs are not good enough. That lady needs about 1 million meat space hugs!
chrome agnomen
tough cookie.
Mark S.
That was awesome!
This might sound stupid, but this incident reminds me of when ESPN put Rush Limbaugh on its NFL show. Even before he started doing his racist dogwhistles (which took about a week), I remember the response being extremely negative. People don’t like politics being injected into everything.
Linda Featheringill
Brava! Lovely lady!
And no, her chest doesn’t look weird or disgusting. That didn’t come up in the video but some folks worry about it so I thought I’d address that issue.
Women like this are creating a new definition of beauty.
HeartlandLiberal
Not only the bravest, but precise and on target in its central message.
That comes when she shows her chest, and asks the Komen foundation just where in the h*ll it says politics, Republican, Democratic, or whatever on her chest.
And that is why the Komen foundation no longer deserves support, nor does ANY health care foundation that chooses politics, most especially the heinous assaults on women’s fundamental rights to health care and decisions about on their own bodies, over the simple act of insuring access to health care for all women.
Louise
I went to YouTube so I could say “Brava!” to Linda, and found this great comment:
“The most eloquent and honest ‘fuck you’ in the history of ever. I want to hug you.”
Amen.
Brian R.
Fuck yes.
That beautiful woman kicked cancer’s ass, and now she’s heading over to Komen. Good luck, assholes!
Michele
Her signoff in the last ten seconds had me clapping in my living room. I can only hope to be half as courageous in my comments and actions.
Brava!
Villago Delenda Est
@Brian R.:
She’s off to kick another cancer’s ass…the Rethug scam that is Komen.
tamiedjr
All I can say is wow. My mother had (and survived) breast cancer when I was in high school and I remember how she suffered through all of the stages of treatment. Well into her late years she wore uncomfortable prosthetic devices to cover up her double mastectomy scars and maintain a ‘normal’ appearance, until she finally decided it wasn’t worth the discomfort to pretend she had breasts. She had access to good care and the support of a loving husband and children to help (I hope) her through it all, but as this woman says, not all women (and men) who go through that hell have that support.
Ruckus
This woman reminds me of my sister in so many ways. I wish her much better luck than my sister had. Sis died 4 years ago this month, on her mother’s 90th birthday. Mom’s still here, not kicking much any more but she will probably celebrate that now crappy day once again.
Sis didn’t have health insurance so her cancer was not detected early. She fought this harder than anything else in her life and that’s saying a pie eating contest mouthful.
That people would fight against battling this horrific, treatable disease(or any other!) for political or religious, bullshit reasons is beyond my comprehension. We have the fucking technology to fight and win against many of life’s ills and diseases and progress is being made every day against more of them. What is truly disturbing is that many ills can be treated reasonably if found early. But having real, responsive, complete health care is considered a privilege, not a right. Can’t have healthy poor people, can’t have health care for them, noooo, that’s unprofitable.
Mrs whatever your name is, thank you for saying what needs to be said but shouldn’t have to have been.
scav
Whew. Kudos. Somebody stuck their fingers into a very large light socket, possibly a third rail, but the dazzling flash and energized momentum might last longer than some expected. Golly.
General Stuck
Teehee. We are now receiving ABL WARNINGS for links. Somebody should email em to Cole in advance. Angry Black Lady on the prowl, watch yerself. :-)
And I know it was made with affection from C and L.
Anya
People have been posting this video on my wall for the last three days, so her courage and eloquence is resonating with a lot of people. If so called reporters like Andrea Mitchell had a fraction of her courage, honesty and clarity, our discourse would be much better.
JGabriel
Wow. That’s pretty intense viewing.
More power to her.
.
wasabi gasp
What a great gangster lady.
General Stuck
@General Stuck:
Well, I just now got around to watching the video, and the warning of course was about the video itself, and not ABL. I’m going back to bed now.
bemused
Amazing woman. She is spitting mad and showing it. We all should be. Part of what annoyed me about Komen (before this last week) was the junior high girlish pink ribbons, t-shirts and gear, all cute and bubbly and upbeat. If you or a loved one is dealing with cancer, upbeat is fine but anger is too. It just seemed to me that Komen emphasis was pretty in pink. I guess that sells a lot better than downer anger.
Ruckus
@bemused:
I’m not so sure that pink was a great marketing strategy. About half of my women customers told me they hate pink. Not sure if that translated to SGK hate but I’ll bet that it would make it a lot easier to take an instant dislike for SGK when they screwed up.
The Ancient Randonneur
I’m glad I watched the entire video.
trollhattan
Wow. Just, wow. I can sure see why she’s a survivor.
I’m such a wuss.
Birthmarker
You go girl!
The Fat Kate Middleton
Amazing, amazing woman. Thank you so much for showing us this – and thanks to “Linda in Las Vegas.” Lost my best friend to cancer last year, and many other friends and family members. This made me cry.
Gex
@Ruckus: And I don’t think it is at all helpful in reaching men.
Jilli
God bless this woman!!
It was a familiar story to me – I went through the same process. I’m at the tail end now, I just had my reconstruction done.
I’m lucky, I have a wonderful husband, fantastic doctors and I have insurance – double coverage in fact, thanks to my husband union. Through the process and to this day, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about how lucky I am – and not a day goes by that I don’t think about those who aren’t as fortunate. It’s a scary process, but I can’t imagine the level of anxiety when you have limited or no options. It was impossible not to think of those folks when I was sitting in the chemo chair. The only time I’ve cried through this whole ordeal is when my husband and I were talking about the what this must be like for women without insurance. It’s truly heartbreaking.
#1 – it’s common to go home the same day with a mastectomy, I went home 8 hours after mine. The mastectomy was actually a cakewalk compared to the reconstruction because they used tissue from my stomach to do it (it’s just like getting a tummy tuck) – that incision is a bugger and has taken much more healing time.
But, life is good. We laugh – at 52 I got a boob job and a tummy tuck – it’s a tough way to go about it, but I’ve got a long happy and healthy life ahead with a better physique than I’ve ever had! BTW – she’s right about the post-cancer attitude!
Elie
What a great woman and what a great statement that she makes…
I have been extremely lucky. Mine was caught very very early and I have a small dent in my left breast where the lumpectomy removed a small amount of tissue. The radiation treatment was seven weeks and wasnt too bad until the last three weeks or so.
More than anything — anything… was that it changes you for life. I became more brave and at the same time more fearful about some things. I wiill never again see life with the same certainty about what I think I know. Other changes happen to your body and brain just like she says, both as a result of the treatment and because of your psychology. Cancer is a total body and family and loved ones experience.
As I said, I didn’t go through one eighth of what this heroine endured, but the experience knocked the bullshit out of me… Nothing about cancer is political or to be used to manipulate its victims for some skeevy message.
In a strange way, I believe this Susan Komen fiasco seems to be having a similar effect as the use of the 99% term from the OWS movement — its a slap upside our collective heads, pulling us back to see our values and who we are clearly and profoundly — at least for a time. Thanks be.
Leah
What everyone else has said, and everyone who comes after us will say.
John, this is what gives me hope. All those extraordinary ordinary people out there, whose names and stories we don’t know yet, which is also one of the reasons why the liberal/progressive blogisphere is such an important achievement. (Excuse my discomfort with “progressive,” I have to admit, largely due to my advanced age, I’m an unabated, unadulterated, unapologetic old-fashioned liberal.)
The right blogisphere is going crazy right now, insisting on calling the efforts of our side to knock some sense into the collective brains at SGK”gangsterism,” and “totalitarian feminist smears: That’s the context in which to marvel at this brave, caring remarkable woman’s commentary.
My deepest gratitude and best wishes to Linda; you have truly made a difference.
JG
This woman rocks. Great last line that adds a little truth to the fluffy sparkly pink Komen version of things.
Mr Stagger Lee
II would love to a pirate attack on Fox, CBN, Trinity, EWTN and BYU networks and insert this video on the Networks at random times. And maybe the idiots watching at the time may get the message. Hell maybe showing it in the depths of the Super Bowl coverage and American Idol won’t hurt either
Nicole
How extraordinary to see women coming forward and saying, “Here’s what it looks like.” And for technology reaching a point where those women can reach a mass audience quickly. I don’t know that things would have gone different for my mom had these resources existed when she had her mastectomy, but I am sure she would have felt less ashamed and less alone.
And of course, everything the woman in the video says is spot on. She kicks ass.
Lavocat
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
If only our leaders had a FRACTION of the courage and righteous indignation that this woman not only has but has earned through excruciating experience.
ROCK ON!
Paula68154
She is my hero!
Angela
Great video, awesome woman! I hope this goes viral.
Trakker
It had me in tears. What a great American!
It just occurred to me that the only way Komen can survive is if they become openly anti-abortion and pander to the right. No one else will support them now.
trollhattan
Holy crap, the rotating Google ad is “Help Senator Rand Paul overturn Roe vs. Wade.”
And I thought Google has some sort of “Do no evil” guideline.
Karen
Such naked, stark honesty. I was so touched by this that I went on youtube itself and left a comment. She has taken the romanticism of the “pink ribbon” and ripped it off to reveal the gaping raw wound beneath it. She possesses courage that I could never dream of matching.
Quaker in a Basement
“…It makes you frank.”
Indeed!
Steve
Wow!
rikyrah
she is fierce!
farmette
This lady has been changed and is sharing her outrage and shock,the moment she became aware of a big lie. She was brave before but believed in a system and foundation that she thought helped others, no matter what. The idea that even a breast cancer screening exam was about to be denied under the banner of Foundation efficiency! The self serving extremologues are abandoning the poor, sanctioning death by “safety net”, lack of services and cost for care beyond the reality of means. Caring for others feels so good I cannot imagine what weird vapor inhabits those who don’t care, what so ever, at all.
RedKitten
Goddamn. What that woman lacks in breasts she more than makes up for with her gigantic swinging Thatchers. I was saying, “FUCK, yeah!” during much of that video. She’s passionate and pissed-off and eloquent and pulls no punches.
The word “hero” gets thrown around way too often and way too cheaply. But that woman? That woman baring her soul and her anger and her scars to the world? SHE is a fucking hero.
jayboat
The world needs more people like this lady.
Wow.
moe99
As someone who has a port in her chest, who lost all her hair via chemo, whose skin peeled, flaked and bled while taking the anti cancer drug, Tarceva, I can fully identify with that woman! I’m 2+ years into battling lung cancer and I gave up support of Susan G. Koman when they started trying to monopolize the word “cure.” Good for her!!
MacKenna
I had to take my glasses off because the tears started pouring.
This is what cancer is, this is what it looks like, this is what taking back control looks like.
I have never bought in to the pink ribbon and run for the cure opportunism of big corporations, some of them manufacturers of carcinogenic products, cashing in…getting a tax write off and loads of advertising for making a small (relative to the profits) donation to an organization that pays itself more than it funds research.
Malignant cancer is pretty much the same animal no matter where it strikes, and I learned BIG lessons about cancer when my mother endured a horrendous bout of it over the period of 2 years. I learned about the health care system and what works and doesn’t work, about what is support and what isn’t, about love, about courage, but mostly what cancer really is. Before this time, I had no clue about cancer. Not a single fucking clue. I thought I did. I didn’t.
When someone you know gets malignant cancer you find out who their friends really are. Plenty of pink-ribbon-minded people never had time for my mother when she had cancer. Because cancer is scary and awful, it makes you feel helpless and cry. It keeps you awake at night, makes you sick to your stomach with fear. The fear is so pervasive, it has an odor that lingers. In the air, in your pores, on your breath.
Cancer breaks your heart.
Every day I thank my mother for having had the courage and generosity to let me in, let me care for her. Because she didn’t want anyone, especially her kids, to see how bad it was. She was ashamed and afraid and she had trouble sharing those feelings because most people don’t want to know. It’s too scary. She wanted to live. Cancer took her life and broke my heart.
If you’ve got any guts at all, as a friend, a daughter, a son, a husband, brother, and a caregiver, you put your own fears aside and you tell yourself you can do this. You can face it all and you can embrace it and you will embrace it because you’re not the one going through it. No matter how much pain you think you are in, your pain pales in comparison.
Being a human being means doing at least that. The very least.
In those weeks with my mother, I discovered what true love is. It is sacrifice. It is facing your fears. It is being uncomfortable and dealing with it. It is changing adult diapers. It is holding a persons feet and crying with them while you wait for the morphine to kick in. It is yelling at a palliative nurse on a home visit to “get my mother into that palliative ward today or else!” It is being a fighter, an advocate. It is sitting and breathing with a person who will never wake up. It is staying and being and allowing and surrendering.
Ironically, fucking cancer brought us closer together than we’d ever been.
Cancer is not a pretty pink ribbon.
I just had to say it.
MacKenna
@moe99: {{{{{Hugs!}}}} I wish you all the best in your fight and trust you have solid support while you are going through this.
TuiMel
@moe99: @moe99:
Diagnosed with breast cancer last Feb 13th. Surgery (mastectomy & lymph nodes) on Mar 08. Chemo Apr – Aug. Radiation Sep- Oct with skin issues extending to late November. Finally had enough very short hair to go without a hat on Dec 20. I know this woman’s path, and I see a variation of her scars every day. And, I have to say that it did not take me long to hate all the pink crap. Sadly, awareness came too late and pretty hard.
I wish you the very best in your battle, and I will continue to wage my own.
Cheryl King
Bravo! You are a massively courageous woman, and i love your honesty, your clarity, and your enormous spirit. Thank you for this amazing testament to what real humanity is.
Licismom
This is the most beautiful response to Komen’s wrongheaded move I’ve ever seen. Their VP who has pushed for defunding Planned Parenthood ought to be made to address her in person, right before she’s fired. Then Congress ought to have to watch it too. I have already de-funded SGK.
Richard
A couple of observations:
1. I wonder where treatment processes and technology would be right now if it were not for organizations such as SGK and similar organizations who have helped make tremendous strides over the past 50 years that have contributed greatly to extending the lives of this woman and others like her.
2. Where is the similar “someone who has experienced” spokesperson for the 1.25 (on average) fetuses which are terminated each year (over 40 MILLLION since Roe V. Wade)?
Soonergrunt
@Richard:
In order to qualify for that role, your spokesperson would’ve had to have been aborted, you stupid bastard. But you’re brain damaged enough to qualify.