A modest proposal

An excerpt from the end of a review in Slate of "Pink Ribbon Blues", an exposé on the breast cancer awareness industry:

So what can be done about Big Pink? I'd like to make a proposal. Given that 20 years or more of toaster sales and fundraising hikes haven't produced much in the way of scientific breakthroughs, for one year, let's pool the millions raised during October for a neediest cases fund. (...) 

 

This way, we'd have ample resources to help directly. We could provide cab service for the woman with brain metastasis forced to drive 40 minutes each way for a scan. We could pay for a counselor—couples' or otherwise—for the women whose husbands turn mean after their diagnoses. (...) Women could get housekeeping services during the molasses days of chemotherapy, child care for scan days, money for a lawyer if their jobs are suddenly declared "redundant" upon diagnosis. If we can't yet abolish breast cancer, then let's at least tackle the social ills that come with the disease. We wouldn't even be diverting the majority of Komen funds from science. Only 23.5 percent goes to research, anyway.

(emphasis mine)

So, so true.