American Politics

Sink the Pink: Boycott Pink Ribbon Products and Send Susan G. Komen a Message


English: pink ribbon

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Yesterday the Komen Foundation, they who pinked the world and infantilized women and a serious disease in the name of raising money to help women, announced that they would no longer give grant money to Planned Parenthood, an organization that does actual good for women in terms of empowering them and providing much-needed access to reproductive health care.

Why? Because Komen is a business. Their business is making money off breast cancer, which shouldn’t really come as a shock. The reason for their decision stems from a new policy that prohibits them from funding organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation to see whether they are using federal money to provide abortions. It’s a groundless investigate instigated by Rep. Cliff Sterns (R-FL).

Essentially it means that Planned Parenthood uses Komen’s grants to provide mammograms and other breast care related health services to women who have no health insurance. That’s 170,000 clinical breast exams and 6,400 mammograms a year lost because Komen needs to pander to the GOP more than it actually cares about women’s breast health.

I am not a fan of the Pink Ones. They’ve spread a lot of misinformation about what mammograms and clinical screenings can and can’t do for women. They’ve trivialized breast cancer with some of their cutesy campaigns and many of the companies who sell pink ribbon products are peddling products with known carcinogens that have been linked to breast cancer.

I am on record despising pink ribbons and tit month. Pink is a baby colour and pink washing the world has enriched the portfolios of CEO’s and their investors a lot more than it has helped women in general.

What is most infuriating about Komen’s pandering cowardice is that an organization that claims to have women’s health at its heart is aiding the systematic, mean-spirited war on women that is one of the GOP’s and religious right’s core objectives.

My hometown of Dubuque, Iowa has never allowed a Planned Parenthood clinic to set up shop. Despite the fact that the nearest women’s health care for the working poor is 90 miles south, the good citizens of Dubuque consistently rally around an old geezer who spreads lies with the help of the Catholic Church every time PP has attempted to open a clinic.

I don’t know the gentlemen in question personally, but I know where he lives. Nearly everyone on the westside does because his back yard backs up to a main artery and in it sits a giant billboard vilifying Planned Parenthood. I have never been in Dubuque during one of the all out assaults on Planned Parenthood, but if I ever am, that old bastard will rue the day. He’s like every other mindless automaton in my hometown who equates clinics for women with sex and adheres to his Catholic brainwashing on the subject and has no trouble with the classism and racism that also drives the crusade. I love my hometown in a lot of ways, but I am not blind to the racism. It drives a lot of policy and politic and though it isn’t as bad as it was when I was growing up – the evil persists.

If you are interested in helping Planned Parenthood, click this link. And if you want to get the word out about the Komen Foundation throwing poor women under the bus of convenience, share this post or any of the links below via your Facebook or Twitter or other social media accounts.

Komen can do whatever it likes, of course, but it should be made to own this decision as publicly and as often as possible. It’s time to sink the pink.

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Disconnected Reality in the U.S.


What’s the big news today in my homeland? Black Friday shopping rage and football. You won’t find headlines on the growing possibility that the U.S. might be getting ready to start WWIII via Syria or on the impending collapse of the Euro and the likelihood that this will push the world’s economy over the cliff – again.

So just how out of touch with reality are people in the United States?

Anxiety is apparently not at all good for the tender souls in the States because while Time magazine treats adults in other parts of the world as thinking beings who need to know about the sweeping changes that are taking place and transforming our times, they shelter Americans with puffy fluff that is better suited for the pages of O Magazine or Cosmo.

It will be interesting when Americans wake up from their turkey and all night shopping induced comatose states, but in a Chinese curse kind of way, I think.

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If You Haven’t “Occupied” Yet, You Should


I went to the Occupy Edmonton event today with Mick, and if you haven’t gotten out there and participated in this movement yet – it would be worth your time to do so. And no, it didn’t “unjade” me. I still believe that even a large and growing group of concerned, thoughtful people are not a match for the corporate/political machine that currently runs the world, and therefore, controls our existences.

But it warms the soul a bit to see that the kind of innocence and enthusiasm that sparked great social upheaval and change in days gone by can still manifest in young people. Not enough to save us … not yet … but maybe a start.

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