Catty About Cancer

Ever since John and Elizabeth Edwards revealed that her cancer is back and has taken up residence in her bones I’ve lived in fear of what Ann Coulter might have to say about this grim situation. It’s bad enough, for someone like me, who’s been treated for breast cancer, to hear about anyone else’s recurrence, but it’s worse when you’re worried about a recurrence of Coulter’s hoof-in-mouth disease, which led her to suggest, on March 2, that John Edwards is a “faggot.” Will she now charge that the Edwards are faking the whole thing – or that Elizabeth is actually a male transvestite, who will be using the alleged cancer as a cover-up for his sex-change operation?

It’s true, the Edwards’ joint announcement of their medical crisis does unfairly highlight the fact that the top three Democratic presidential candidates are all married to their first spouses, while the two top Republicans are serial marry-ers and Newt Gingrich has just paved the way for his own candidacy with a confession of adultery. I see no reason why a divorced person or an adulterer should not be president. But there should be a law against their ever invoking “family values.”

Strangely, it’s not Coulter, but girl-next-door Katie Couric who’s hinted, in a 60 Minutes interview with Elizabeth Edwards, that the couple might be “capitalizing” on the disease. Can’t you just see them cackling over the bone scans, eagerly calculating what the results would do for them in the polls? Convening their children for the good news that, although Daddy’s been almost eclipsed by Obama, Mommy has a potentially fatal disease?

Couric also told John Edwards that some people might judge him “callous” for campaigning through what might be his wife’s last months. Is Couric forgetting that she was working as a $7 million a year NBC anchor while her own husband was dying of colon cancer? And just in case we do get a Gingrich candidacy: Recall that he had his first wife served with divorce papers while she was in the hospital with cancer. In contrast, campaigning with your spouse, for as much time as she will be able to spend on the trail, seems downright romantic.

All right, I have a stake in all this. For my money, John Edwards is the best candidate out there. Clinton has Iraqi and American blood on her hands; Obama has yet to lay out clear economic alternatives; and, although they might once have been Republican moderates, McCain and Giuliani are shamelessly snuggling up to the Christianist Right. I like Edwards because he’s taken up the banner of the little guy and gal in America's grossly one-sided class war. He’s laid out a plan for universal health insurance; he wants to repeal Bush’s tax cuts for the rich; he shows up at workers’ picket lines.

I met him on a panel last fall, he is good-looking enough to merit Coulter’s suspicion that he can’t possibly be straight (though, really, Ann, if you want to crank up your “gay-dar,” you should get away from those pimply right-wingers and meet some new guys.) He’s modest, low-key, friendly, and, although he’s wealthy now, he spoke movingly from his family’s experience of poverty.

As for Elizabeth Edwards, all I know is this: When I was being subjected to chemotherapy six years ago, the one thing that kept me going was work. Every morning I would go down to my desk in the basement to confront the computer screen and the stacks of books and papers around it. I ended up not using the chapter – on ancient Roman games – I was writing at the time (for the book just published as Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy), but I desperately needed to be at least 2000 miles and 2000 years away from my affliction. So I say to Elizabeth, if I may call her that: Get out there, girl, and campaign like hell!

Comments

[D.T. Presler]

Granted one can't have everything, but if Edwards were to throw a few knocks at free-trade pacts and the Taft-Hartley Act, I might well support him. I say this as someone who has never voted for an Elephant or a Donkey.

[Hattie]

My daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 25 and is a survivor, now age 31.
A while ago one of her work collegues objected to her needing to take the afternoon off for a check up, remarking that she was just taking advantage of her illness to put more work on other people.
Anyone who has had cancer would not be surprised by this kind of reaction.

[lc2]

My mother had breast cancer when I was a young girl and hearing the news took me straight back to the tenor of the household when awaiting the results of periodic bone scans ... in a word, grim. But she's alive and cancer-free 25 years later .... which sadly will not be the case for Elizabeth Edwards.

It does make me wonder why one family has to undergo so much misfortune. I seriously considered writing a letter to the editor of my local paper urging people to vote for Edwards during the '04 campaign but was afraid that I'd be accused of exploiting their son's death to promote my political views. But I felt (and still do) that someone who lost a young son to tragic circumstances is infinitely more qualified to make life-or-death decisions about other people's children. In contrast there is Bush's hard-partying moon-faced daughter and her slack-jawed twin who works in some fashion house without an apparent care now that they don't have to doctor id's. Sorry to sound so catty but it really does just kill me to see the commander-in-chief's spoiled brats frolic while their peers who are Army cooks and Marine transport aides get blown to bits.

It makes me think of Edwards's Convention Address in which he remarked that life has taught him that heartache is unavoidable, that utopian ideals have no place in politics, but that that's no excuse not to dream and work for a better world. Sounds like maybe this is someone who knows of what he speaks.

[Monica]

The Bush daughters have the right to enjoy privileges just because they are the daughters of a head of state. They are your social betters, not equals. They are the modern equivalent of princesses, except that their situation is temporary (their father is not a monarch), and meant to be that way (as opposed to being temporary only because, for instance, a king died relatively young or was deposed). While, presumably, being the daughters of a former president should still confer some kind of privilege, the fact is that their father is the head of state now. And of course, more distant relatives such as nieces deserve their own share of privilege. I can't believe one can actually be the child or relative of a head of state and be expected to act and be treated like ordinary people. That's the problem with democracy and equal opportunity. The notion of belonging to a privileged class of people based on one's ancestry or family background is no longer respected. The best political system would allow some degree of upward mobility for talented individuals while conferring to people born in the "right" families or who get certain jobs or ranks some kind of noble status that can be inherited.

[annie]

Amen, Barbara! And I hope Elizabeth and John Edwards see your post.

[Maya's Granny]

When I was doing my student teaching, my master teacher lost a child to bone cancer just two weeks after another was killed by a hit and run driver. She came back to work quickly, and worked the whole time her child was sick. She said she would have lost her mind without her job. I have never had an equivalent expereince, but I well remember that as early as I might get there, she was always there first.

[D.T. Presler]

Monica, you're apparently blind or ignorant of how feudal privilege actually operated. Under such systems, G.W. Bush would have been expected to follow his father's lead and, you know, risk his own ass in war instead of pull strings to get himself a domestic assignement he didn't even bother to turn up for. In theory, the "right" families didn't get where they were for nothing. Next you'll tell us it's ok for the Bush twins to smoke dope or use a fake ID to drink because rank has its privilege.

[Ron Davison]

I'm unclear about the criticism. We all live with a death sentence. What is it about a more clearly defined prediction of one's death and its cause that is supposed to cause one to quit living and retire to the back room? What else is Elizabeth Edwards supposed to do if not keep living her life?

[Ray Watkins]

I agree that JE is the candidate with the most well-thought out and prepared ideas and who seems to understand the 'class war from above.' On the other hand, I don't feel that clear on his position on trade issues, such as NAFTA, CAFTA and the like. Couric seems to have decided to become 'mean Oprah' in order to counter her 'soft news' credentials.

[theresa]

I remember when several of my friends learned they were HIV+. In those years, most were dying in 18 months so I marvelled at the way they kept going to school or remodeling their houses. I thought if something like that ever happened to me, I would roll up into a ball and wait to die.

When it did happen -- they found a lump in my mammogram -- I left the radiologist's office and continued on to the office supply store to buy the scanner I wanted. As I waited in line to pay, it suddenly hit me that I was continuing on just as they had, and it seemed the most logical thing to do. There wasn't the drama I felt for them when it happened to me, just their same journey to the next thing, and the next thing after that.

Luckily, it wasn't a lump per se, just remnants of an ancient cyst, but before I knew that and was calming my crying mother, I finally understood those guys, and what they had taught me.

Inertia is the property one has to overcome to begin, but the same property one must overcome to stop.

[Kahscho]

The "best candidate out there"? Doesn't experience count for anything? I'm a fellow cancer survivor too, but I would not vote for Edwards under any circumstances. He has not done anything to convince me that he is competent to govern the country. I'm backing Richardson--who has both experience and the right stance on the issues.

[Monica]

The Bush daughters should not even need an ID, or should only need one to prove that they really are the Bush daughters. And of course they should be allowed to consume whatever substances they want. It's sad that control over one's body is seen as a huge privilege even the president's daughers can't have. And the feudal system did not require women to go to war, and some males did not go either. While some people really had to do that job, the fact is that it was a system that coferred some degree of privilege and respectability just for being born in certain families, whereas now, privilege does not even extend to the ruler's own daughters. And it is said that women's liberation and the presence of some women in the army makes it normal to expect women to go to war, whereas in the past they had the right not to just because of their gender. The female children of a head of state should have the right to stay home and party while male averege Joes go to war.

[Tina]

Inspiring post! I hope to link it to Ameriblog's comments from post "Leave Elizabeth Alone."

[Tina]

Inspiring post! I hope to link it to Americablog's comments from post "Leave Elizabeth Alone."

[chris]

John Edwards has not laid out his political and economic views on any topic. Vague hints. No concrete statements.

However, we know he believes in lawsuits to enrich himself. We know he could care less about outrageous and abusive energy consumption (he's building a 20,000 square foot house)

We know he will raise taxes. A lot. The idea of repealing the Bush tax cuts is a screen. To finance the healthcare program at which he's hinted, taxes must rise far higher.

Unless he plans to stop illegal aliens from entering the country, his healthcare plan would become a magnet for every pregnant woman in the world.

He's shown no understanding of foreign affairs either.

For what it's worth, during the 2004 campaign, he was known as the "Breck Girl" for his perfectly coiffed hair and good looks.

Meanwhile, Barbara claims he's "taking up the banner of the little guy".

What nonsense. His lawsuits have taken as much money as possible from "the little guy."

[D.T. Presler]

You miss my point entirely Monica. Inherited privilege in medieval times wasn't supposed to be zero-sum. One was expected to risk even one's life when the occasion beckoned. Unlike Dubya, Prince Harry sure didn't need to be told to join the military and neither did his father.But then again, they don't enjoy much privilege other than a certain deference (under British law, the families of peers, even royals are as common as a busboy). Which is as it should be.

[Chris2]

Just out of curiosity, chris . . . has Barbara ever said anything you agree with?

[Joanna]

I just bought your book, Barbara, and I can't wait to read it.

[chris]

chris2, you asked:

"chris . . . has Barbara ever said anything you agree with?"

Yes. But I can't remember what it was.

[mythago]

chris, I admire your ability not to let the facts get in the way of a rant.

If Monica were serious, she'd know that in a feudal society, the nobles led their armies; they did not stay at home.

[Jo Mackenzie]

Going on with life and trying to be as normal as possible is how I cope.
I guess after diagnosis and treatment you sort of develop a "new normal" but I try to keep it as close to the old one as possible.
It just so happens that Elizabeth Edwards ...normal is to run in a national campaign.
Once again a woman is being judged for how good a wife and mother she is. Only now it is not just her chocolate chip cookie recipe or how well she dresses that is being judged but how she decides to spend her precious time with the people she loves and the work she believes in.
My worry is that as Elizabeth
Edwards begins to look less than perfect there will be even more pot shots taken at her. That is when it is really going to hurt......
Gosh...I don't want to see them hurt any more..

[Monica]

But the vast majority of women and some men did stay at home (or somewhere else). Under such a system, the Bush daughters would have been exempted just because of their gender.

[Linda]

Heh. Reading Monica's posts (like this one: "The Bush daughters should not even need an ID, or should only need one to prove that they really are the Bush daughters. And of course they should be allowed to consume whatever substances they want." ...

I suspect her real name is Jenna.

[sherry]

These are wonderful people who remember where we"ve come from and where we need to go. We all will die,some sooner than others. Let's live life to the fullest and do good before we go "home"

[Deborah]

The fact that there are so many people who think like Monica is what's really scary.

There are so many things I'd like to say to her but most of them would have to be spelled with asterisks and in the end she wouldn't get it anyway.

The "right" families indeed. I suppose you mean the richest, whitest families on the planet?

Well that's already the case. How much more oppression of others to benefit so few do you need?