Secret Service Apologizes for Kicking Us Out
As many of you know (I hope), September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This past week, I represented B+ Nation in Washington, DC for the Congressional Pediatric Cancer Caucus on Friday morning followed by a meeting at the White House on Friday afternoon.
On Saturday/Sunday, The B+ Foundation was one of the sponsors of CureFest, an event to raise awareness of childhood cancers. Following our Welcome Event on Saturday afternoon, we headed to Lafayette Park (across from the White House) for a program and candlelight vigil. Please see the Washington Post article for how that unfolded. On Sunday, we were part of an event on the National Mall.
The childhood cancer community is getting a lot of press and sympathy for how the Secret Service treated us. While I like the attention to our cause, a lot of people are missing the point and this will pass in the next news cycle. The attention on 49 kids dying this week from cancer should grab the American consciousness by the throat and not let go. This should not drift away with the next news cycle until kids aren't dying anymore. Was everything done smoothly by the Secret Service? No. But, you can hurt my feelings any day so long as we as a country commit to funding - in the public AND private sectors - the absolute ERADICATION of childhood cancer. When is it going to be politically correct that fighting childhood cancer becomes a national priority? When are you going to see gold ribbons on cereal boxes and football fields? How can we not say "KIDS COME FIRST'!?
Take a 46 second pause right now for the 46 sets of parents who today will hear the words that Chris and I heard on January 29, 2007 - "YOUR CHILD HAS CANCER"!
Thank you.
Proud Dad of Ali & Andrew