PERSONAL PLEAS DO NOT APPEAL TO MY MORE LOGIC NATURE. HOWEVER, IN THIS INSTANCE I MUST RELY ON PERSONAL ISSUES THAT HAVE MOLDED MY PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE LIKE NO OTHER.
CANCER, CHANGES ONES LIFE SO DRAMATICALLY; NOTHING IS THE SAME. IT IS AS THOUGH YOU ENTER A PARALLELL UNIVERSE STRANGE AND UNKNOWN EXCEPT TO THOSE WHO HAVE MISFORTUNE TO VENTURE THERE.
A DEAR FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR HAS BEEN BATTLING BRAIN CANCER FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS NOW. IT WAS REPORTEDLY BENIGN BUT NOW SHE IS USING HOSPICE SERVICES.
A DUTY IS OWED TO HER BY ALL CANCER PATIENT COMBATANTS, AND I INTEND TO FULFILL MY RESPONSIBILITY TO HER. PLEASE IF YOU ARE A CANCER COMBATANT OR CAREGIVER PLEASE SPEND TIME TO READ THIS OPEN LETTER SENT TO MY SUPPORT GROUP SOME TIME AGO. I QUIT GOING WHEN THE COMBATANTS WERE NO MORE.
WE MADE A PACT: IF WE WERE FIRST TO GO WE WOULD WAIT FOR THE OTHERS ON THE OTHER SIDE TO HELP WITH THE CROSSING. MANY FRIENDS WAIT FOR ME THERE. NOW SANDRA IS ABOUT TO PART.
Just this one time, please pray for my dear neighbor Sandra, her husband Shaney, and their family. She is only in her forties and has been a remarkable influence on the community, her church and all our lives. Pray for all victims of disease politics that promote international drug company interests while they let people die slow and agonizing deaths. WE are a family of brothers and sisters like no other. Thank you.
DISEASE POLITICS KILL
(THE AIDS HOAX)
Open letter to: Members of the Time Out Cancer Support Group and all victims of catastrophic disease,
I’ve attended this group off and on for almost three years. There’s a personal bond between us stronger than most other relationships as our mortality is shared in a special and unique way. Meetings have familiarity of a family with time between gatherings condensed over the years into a few special recollections. A trip to Windswept Retreat for Kentucky mountain poetry, atop the mountain on the other side of Berea is as fresh in memory as the day we went.
The telescopic lake view in the valley below and white frame church across the way encircled with spring trees and bushes was unforgettable as everyone crowded around the table to eat.
Christmas meetings, group dinners and get-togethers past, stay in memory much like a cherished knife carried in my pocket for so many years. Memories provide a sense of comfort and security, just knowing they exist.
I’m particularly grateful to have been able to share a life event with Pat and Mike at their daughter’s wedding. Those recollections are a special gift.
Group provided an opportunity to come to grips with very personal issues regarding cancer in general and my non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in particular. Associations made provided happiness but also periods of great sorrow. Joyful bonds of friendship were made and in many instances sadly broken by untimely but expected deaths. My future was reflected in sad eyes.
Deaths always led me to question group dynamic merits as faded memories of ghosts of good times haunted my consciousness. Reality of deadly cancer replaced good times with sadness. Each friendship made and lost to cancer caused tremendous depression but they also aroused a sense of outrage and anger not diminished with time. Deaths strengthened my resolve to survive and help other cancer victims. I plan to do that with God’s help.
Instead of passively accepting a certain fate, I became infuriated at injustices of a medical system that for so long under funded cancer research and treatment. Fury was raised to a new level with recent friends’ diagnoses outside group and more deaths.
The last straw was misleading local and national media editorials and stories supporting additional AIDS funding. One writer, a health official wrote, “Heart disease, cancer, stroke, lung cancer, pneumonia and diabetes are near maximum rates for causing death. HIV’s potential for causing death and misery are nowhere near peaking. Drugs developed and investigated to combat HIV have been used successfully in combating other diseases.” A different writer called AIDS the “world’s most dangerous disease since the Black Plague.” Another wrote, “The reality is most of us do engage in sexual activity of one form or another and therefore most of us are at risk for HIV infection. Everyone is at risk of infection from blood-to-blood contact, sharing needles or unsafe sex. HIV is spread most often through heterosexual sex.”
No facts were or are ever provided to document outlandish assertions that conflict with facts. There is never any comparative analysis to more deadly diseases in the United States and world wide. Letters and calls made to advise news media authors of incorrect and misleading information were not responded to except to say “it was media policy to report on AIDS instead of diseases they knew were much more deadly.”
One article titled “HIV/AIDS remains an all too real threat” reported misleading data regarding Kentucky AIDS and HIV cases. I wrote told the writer I had cancer, defined the conflict between data reported and Centers for Disease Control data. I provided CDC deaths of catastrophic diseases of which diabetes reportedly affects 270,000 Kentuckians and AIDS/HIV impacts only 2,560.
The author responded, “I’m aware of the great many diseases which take devastating tolls on…American lives. But I must speak out about AIDS…to help Africa and Thailand where the virus is epidemic.” The author was unmoved by facts, knew the great difference in deaths but didn’t care. She is now battling lung cancer.
Unfair AIDS lies insult cancer victims and others killed by more deadly diseases. “Disease Politics Kill,” is a document I wrote based on facts gathered from a concern about getting AIDS from over 30 units of blood transfusions and three years of fighting cancer. If you are interested in it contact me.
The AIDS Hoax defines disease politics’ sinister side and why the World Health Organization ranks the United States, the world’s richest nation, 37th of 191 countries in quality of health care, based on, among other things, responsiveness to patients’ needs, inequities in care, and who pays the costs of the care.
This information is a gift, willingly shared in honor of known and unknown friends murdered by catastrophic disease politics. Share it with others to bring a little light into a dark world replete with ignorance and greed and a media that just doesn’t care. Let your legislator’s know enough is enough.
Sincerely, Mark W. Lowry, cancer “combatant,” there are no “survivors” in this life.
IN MEMORY OF THOSE MURDERED BY CATASTROPHIC DISEASE POLITICS AND MEDICAL TERRORISM:
“I REMEMBER YOU WHO FOUGHT; AND WERE MURDERED IN THE CANCER WAR,
I’M NOT IN DENIAL ANYMORE. WAIT FOR ME ON THE OTHER SHORE."
WE miss you, YOU DID NOT DIE IN VAIN and are not forgotten.
