avocado8

Think Yuck

A few weeks ago, when I was walking down JFK Blvd. toward Love Plaza, I noticed that the water in the fountain there was pink. I chalked it up to a bizarre prank. Then, a few nights later, Al and I noticed as we drove south on Broad Street toward City Hall that a few of the downtown buildings were lit with pink spotlights. "What's with the pink?" Al asked. I shrugged, and mentioned the fountain.

The following week I was walking around town with my sister-in-law, and I saw that the fountain in Love Plaza—and several others—were still filled with pink water. Suddenly, it dawned on me: October is "Breast Cancer Awareness Month", and as we all know, breast cancer is PINK.

I'm obviously being sarcastic here. The color I most associate with breast cancer is not pink, but yellow. It's the color my close friend and former roommate of 5 years, Pat Serino, turned when breast cancer spread to her liver, giving her a bad case of jaundice. Before that, she was an alabaster gray, as chemo drained her energy—and her stomach. I can't remember a single moment when she was pink. I can remember the angry red of a breast swollen with what doctors said was just a "systemic infection" a few months before she was diagnosed with cancer, and the purplish red of radiation burns between bouts of chemo, but she was never pink.

I'm glad that people are now more aware of breast cancer, and I don't deny that my awareness was a little lacking before Pat was diagnosed. But is dyeing fountains pink raising awareness? Is shopping for a cure really buying anything more than increased profits and brand awareness for BMW, American Express, Yoplait, and all the other companies with breast cancer campaigns? I can't help but think that associating pink and shopping with breast cancer is just a way to make breast cancer seem warm and fuzzy and feminine. Let me tell you, it's none of the above. Breast cancer, believe it or not, strikes men as well as women. Breast cancer is an ugly, disfiguring disease. Breast cancer KILLS. It killed Pat, it killed my family's dear friend Loretta Mercurio, and it's killed countless others. It's not pink, and no amount of shopping is going to make it go away.

To learn more about what CAN be done to end breast cancer, and why shopping isn't going to lead to a cure, visit www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org.