What a shameful day in Washington, DC. Unfortunately as members of Congress were flexing their vocabularies with fervor about abstractions, real matters are ignored. Matters such as fighting cancer.
Our legislative branch was used and abused yesterday, and honestly put off the real work we have to accomplish. We need more than the shocking and disgusting display we saw. We need people who are actually going to protect our children’s future.
As I hear the white noise of today’s news, I simultaneously received a story across my desk about a five-year-old boy who had written his obituary before passing away from cancer.
Yesterday we witnessed a war of words, but I’m acutely aware of the children who are losing their battles to cancer each day in the United States.
How is it that today we have so much reactivity to the latest tweet or soundbite, yet no strategy or focus on making the health and environment of our children and their futures better, stronger, and healthier.
With over 50% of cancers that are preventable, we have an opportunity to do extraordinary things on the cancer front with education, continuing medical education, and policy changes.
Potentially, policies can protect those who cannot defend themselves, like children.
I would ask people call their legislators asked them not to spend time on such worthless shenanigans but instead ask them to get to work to clean up our waterways, clean up our air, remediate those harmful and toxic exposures that are flowing freely through our environment.
We have all the power to ensure a healthy future for our children and their children, and we are letting it go, we are throwing it to the toxic wind. We need to get to work.
We must not tolerate this current state of confusion. Let’s get back to work to do everything we can to clean up our environment and address preventable human health degradation.
Originally published at medium.com