I have just had a bronchoscopy at the local hospital to check for cancer in my right lung. This is nothing new for me because it is the third time that I could possibly be battling cancer in my right lung. In 2010, fifteen years ago, I had to have the lower right lobe of my lung removed because of cancer. Then, four years ago, I had radiation in the same lung to stop the growth of cancer which resulted in the collapse of my trachea also.
Now, my latest dilemma has two growths in my right lung, discovered the day after Christmas. I’ll have the results of the bronchoscopy later this week.
Including my mother and father, there were nine family members and eight had cancer and several died from the disease.
CANCER – over 600,000 people in the United States died from cancer last year. That compares to 237,000 dying from wars in every region of our planet.
Again, the 600,000 figure is just in the USA. What if our government had emphasized cancer research as much as space travel or money for wars? You know, a lot of suffering and grief would have been avoided if we had conquered cancer.
Regardless, much progress has been made in the treatment for cancer, but much more progress is needed. Still it is estimated that 40 percent of our population will develop cancer this year.
This will require a greater effort by the general public, pharmaceutical companies and our government. However, the Trump-Musk assault to cut government waste slashed 1 billion dollars in cancer research. Unbelievable!!!!
All agree that there is waste in government spending, but Elon Musk is performing the greatest con job of all time in convincing the general public that he is cutting unnecessary spending. He has the approval to the point of some calling him a hero even though he shows no proof for his actions. In other words, it is very difficult to decipher the truth from false words when he talks. I very much doubt a recipient of Social Security 150 years-old is being sent a check, as he said.
Musk has taken his minions, which include a kid just out of high school and some college student, and declared huge waste in case after case. He is rushing through this procedure so fast that it is impossible to accurately discover the waste, and needless to say, the people he is using are not auditors and are not qualified to do the job.
His actions are destroying lives and shutting down needed services. Does Musk care? No, not as long as he’s getting the billions of dollars worth of contracts from our government. Nobody voted for Musk, but Trump doesn’t question his claims.
As I said, everybody is for cutting government waste, and it seems that everybody thinks they are an authority on how to do it. But to do it properly you would need experts and time.
Many people in this area, including those who voted for Trump, will be hit hard by these cuts.
Rather than cutting $1 billion from cancer research, more should be added.
These are my opinions and my thoughts only, and not this newspaper’s. I realize what I write will have little or no effect on any legislation, and will probably make some upset with me, but I don’t want to be one of the 600,000 who will die this year from cancer. I am not asking for sympathy for my bout with cancer, but I would like to see action. Cutting spending on cancer is totally unacceptable!
