Susan G, Komen and Planned Parenthood - My Thoughts

A lot has happened this week concerning Susan G. Komen’s decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood and its subsequent reversal of that decision. I believe every post I saw on Facebook was negative towards SGK’s initial decision, and nearly everyone made a point to say they would no longer support SGK. After much thought, I figured I’d share my thoughts on the issue.

Let me start out first by saying I don’t really care one way or the other on this. If SGK wants to issue grants to PP, then that’s perfectly fine by me. It’s their choice to user their resources as they see fit. My personal feelings on abortion play no part in this. SGK’s mission leads me to believe they don’t let their views on abortion enter into decisions on where to spend their vital resources: “As the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists, we’re working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.” Cancer is their main concern, as you would think it should be.

I’d also like to say that my intent is not to sway anyone’s opinion on this. Each person has every right to withhold their support for any organization for any reason, just as each organization has every right to do what they feel is best for their organization and their mission.

When news broke that SGK had decided to pull funding for PP the reaction was swift and negative. Most everyone assumed the decision was a result of pressure from right-wing groups who are trying to defund PP, namely because PP performs abortions. SGK insists that their decision was not the result of political pressure, but instead was a decision based on their policy to not issue grants to organizations which are under investigation, which PP is. SGK also stated that they were reevaluating how they were spending their resources.

I, for one, have no reason not to believe them. However, I’m not surprised at how many people did not believe SGK. Here is an organization (SGK) that apparently everyone that commented had supported in the past – a statement I make based on the fact that most people said they would no longer support SGK.

My question to those that were threatening to pull their support of SGK is this: why did they support SGK to begin with? I’m making an assumption that the main reason they donated their time and money is because of breast cancer. After all, that is at the heart of SGK’s mission which I mentioned earlier. My guess is that the main reason people donated to SGK was not because they wanted their money to go to Planned Parenthood, otherwise I would think they would have donated directly to PP. That would seem to be the logical thing to do.

And yet, nearly every single person was ready to pull their support for a reason that was not the same reason they donated in the first place. Has SGK’s mission changed? No. They are still using the money they raise in the fight against cancer, through both “quality care” and to “energize science”, or research. So why should people stop supporting SGK? Let’s not forget that for most of those people who are upset the main reason they originally supported SGK was to help in the fight against cancer.

I did a little research and found that SGK spent nearly $255 million in program expenses in fiscal year 2010. Assuming SGK gave roughly $700,000 in grants to PP, which results in little more than 0.03% of their program spend. Is it really worth completely pulling support because you don’t agree with how they’re spending 0.03% of their money? Are the life-saving efforts that they spend the other 99.97% of their money on not worthy of being supported now?

Perhaps those upset are more concerned about how crippling the loss of $700,000 will be to Planned Parenthood. Well, let’s look at PP’s numbers. For their fiscal year ended June 30th, 2010, they had total revenue of $1.05 billion. The $700,000 that PP gets from SGK annually equates to roughly 0.0007% of their total revenue. Planned Parenthood’s net income was $18.5 million in 2010. Even if SGK didn’t give PP the $700,000 anymore, PP could technically cover that loss by tapping into one year’s net income for the next 26 years before they would have to make other cuts to cover the loss. Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t seem like a huge hit for PP to take.

Which all leads back to my original point. People are willing to chop the head off because they feel a hair is out of place. They’re not willing to support all the wonderful things that SGK does because a minimal amount of money won’t be going to PP, when, if they were so concerned about the work PP is doing they could have donated to PP directly.

So, what does this mean for the future for SGK? Well, for one, I would think they now realize that they will forever need to give grants to Planned Parenthood or else risk losing millions in donations. And two, they must now understand how little faith their supporters have in their ability to make decisions with the money they receive. If at any time in the future Susan G. Komen would want to reevaluate and reprioritize where they spend their money they had best keep that money going to PP, even if it doesn’t fit with where they feel the money would best be spent. It’s really unfortunate that people don’t trust organizations such as SGK to do right by their donations, especially when those same people were previously so willing to give their donations to SGK with the understanding that SGK would do what it feels would be best for how that money is spent.

It’s amazing that people will go from being fully supportive to being completely unsupportive over 0.0007%. Even though 99.9993% of Planned Parenthood’s revenue is unaffected by this decision, it’s still enough for people to defund 99.97% of the work that Susan G. Komen does.

Again, everyone has every right to support any organization they want for any reason. These are just my thoughts and observations.

Not Giving of the Box Office Buck

So, apparently I was one of the few who did NOT see Harry Potter this weekend. Of course, I haven’t seen any of the other HP movies, either. Which got me thinking… what other movies/franchises have I not seen that just about everyone else in America has seen?

Well, none of the Harry Potter’s, or the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Bourne movies, Iron Man, neither Sex and the City movies (no loss there), pretty much all the Batman movies, the Spiderman movies, the Saw movies (and no interest really), the Matrix movies, I may have seen a Bond movie once, none of the Lord of the Rings, no X-Men, saw only the first Shrek, no Jurassic Park, no Fast & the Furious, I think I’ve seen parts of the first Austin Powers movie, no Chronicles of Narnia movies, none of the Scary Movie movies, none of the Transformers movies, none of the Mission Impossible movies…

Then you throw in the non-franchise movies that everyone else has seen but I haven’t (from the list of highest grossing films): Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Inception, Independence Day, 2012, The Da Vinci Code, The Incredibles, Hancock, War of the Worlds, I Am Legend, Night at the Museum, Armageddon, Despicable Me, WALL-E, Monsters, Inc., The Day After Tomorrow, The Simpsons Movie, Troy, 300…

So, what movies should I see?

Is it warm out? Or is it me?

Dinner's in the Kitchen and It's Packed in Ice

I sit here debating whether this post should be random and odd like most of my posts, or something serious. I couldn't decide, so I think we'll go with a little of both. We'll start with the random and end with the serious. Or will we?

Julie and I started going to a Masters Swim class this week. It will take some time getting used to waking up at 5AM to go swim for an hour, but it hasn't been too bad so far. One thing that we've both noticed is how freakin' hungry we are on the days we swim. I'm just wanting to eat everything. I suppose that's not such a bad thing since fat makes you more buoyant. Bouy-ah!

I do like the sound of rain. And the smell of rain, especially when if first starts. It's kind of like that fresh cut grass smell. Just makes my soul calm and happy.

What the heck is this?

I had asked in my previous blog what songs had you movin' this summer. Figured I should share my own. This isn't anything the kids would dance to, but I do love the groove of it. The juxtaposition of upbeat music with dark lyrics works really well. It's "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People. You should check it out here.

And this last song is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard. I love the Avett Brothers. So many good songs but this is definitely one of their best. The lyrics are so powerful. It's called "Murder in the City". I just can't say enough about it. Beautiful. Enjoy it here.

Always remember there is nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name.

Laugh, Think and Cry

I’m more of a Space Doughboy than Space Cowboy.

Saw Jimmy V’s speech that he gave at the 1983 Espys this morning. Apparently it was 7 weeks before he passed, but by watching him you’d never know he was that sick. What a great and inspirational speech. If you’ve never seen it in its entirety you should definitely check it out. You can find it here.

I don’t know that I’d want to be the King of Pop. Now, the King of Candy? I’d take that. Or the King of Ice Cream? Definitely. Plus, I think it would be annoying to walk around wearing only one glove.

Speaking of gloves.

I think Rhoda would be a good name for a girl. Put that with the middle name Dendron and I think you’re on to something there. Rhoda Dendron. Yeah, that passes the sniff test.

Ice cream is wonderful. I was thinking yesterday that if I opened an ice cream shop to take on Dairy Queen I’d have “King” in the name of it. After all, kings beat queens. The problem was coming up with a good name. Kream of the King? King’s Kustard? I’ll have to keep working on that.

What fun summer song has got your little butt movin’ this year?

Actually, I would hope that kings wouldn’t beat queens. No one should be in an abusive relationship. Or in a relationship with Gary Busey. No one should be in a Busey relationship either.

Do trees get sad in the fall when they start losing their leaves? Do they get afraid that they’re dying? Do trees that don’t lose leaves tease the other trees for being bald? And then I’m sure they get a bunch of attitude from the evergreen trees – “People LOVE us. They bring us into their homes in the winter and decorate us. We’re the awesomest.” I hope the bald trees remind them that no one likes an arrogant tree.

You ever look at how fast a drive shaft spins? How in the heck does it not just spin apart? Pretty cool.

Why do they certify that a car was pre-owned? I can tell as soon as I sit in one that it’s not new. You don’t need to give a certificate telling me it’s pre-owned. Now, if you’re going to tell me that the car was previously owned by someone awesome and cool, like Herb Tarlick, that would be cool to certify.

Have you seen her? Tell me, have you seen her?

You gotta believe Herb Tarlick was teased as a kid. I mean, look at those suits.

A Thirst for Justice

The acquittal of Casey Anthony and the subsequent fallout has been interesting and sad to watch. Not that there is anything good to come of this whole mess, but some of the vitriol has been staggering. In light of the events that have taken place I've decided to dedicate at least one post on the subject. This is all just my two cents and playground-level analysis, so take if for what it's worth. I would love to hear your thoughts.

I think there is a tendency for the human spirit to jump to conclusions, especially when we witness something as heartbreaking as the murder of a young, innocent child. We as humans want closure. We want justice. And sometimes that thirst for justice can cloud our judgment and convince us that someone is guilty even though, when we take a step back and attempt an honest look, there is some doubt. The outrage this week at the not guilty verdict borders on hysteria. Calls for Casey to be “fixed” or “sterilized” so she can never again have children seems a bit extreme to say the least. Calling her everything from a witch (on the mild side) to evil or the devil incarnate (on the extreme side) has been eye-opening. But what is the driving force underneath this outrage?

Most of us can't fathom someone wanting to harm or take the life of a child. It goes against our being, our beliefs. We want to quickly find the culprit and bring them to justice, and the punishment needs to be equal to the heinousness of the crime. I don't fault that thinking. I feel the same way. Punishment should be swift and severe. However, it is also important that our quest for justice not cloud our judgment.

Often times it seems that in high-profile, emotionally charged cases such as this one there is a shift in the burden of proof within the realm of public opinion. That burden appears to shift from the state to the defense. No longer is it mandatory that the prosecution prove guilt. The burden shifts to the defense to prove innocence. When the court of public opinion has tried and convicted the accused before the case even makes it to trial it creates a gulf between perception and reality - a gulf representing that shift in burden. And if those in the public realm can't get from perception back to reality there is a disconnect, and I think that is what has happened here.

Outside the courtroom is very different than inside the courtroom. Often I've seen people blame the jury for this outcome. People are quick to say that there is no way they would have found her not guilty. I have to believe that if the people who feel this way are ever part of a jury, especially in a case such as this, that they're able to be objective. That they remember where the burden of proof lies. That they must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty. Because outside the courtroom it is easy to get caught up in the frenzy of the swarming sharks. It's easy to listen to the talking heads as they sensationalize every detail. It's easy to only hear what you want to hear. But when you're on that jury you must be rational, fair and honest with yourself. It's a lot easier to find someone guilty when you're sitting on your couch, when you have the luxury of hearing what you want to hear, and you don't have that vote of "guilty" weighing on you.

I hear people say that our justice system is broken, or that it failed in this case. I couldn't disagree more. The prosecution presented their evidence. The defense represented Casey Anthony. Both sides picked and agreed on the jury. And that jury of her peers UNANIMOUSLY and swiftly found there to be enough doubt as to find her not guilty. For many the verdict was inconceivable, but it doesn't mean that the system is broken, or that the jury was made up of idiots. The system worked as it should. After all, it is better that 10 guilty people go free than one innocent person be convicted. It's a price we pay for having an incredibly fair justice system.

As her attorney said after the verdict came in, there are no winners here. A sweet little girl still lost her life, and the need for justice is understandable. But let’s not forget the need for clarity and open-mindedness. The need for an open and fair justice system. And the need for the prosecutor to prove guilt, not for the accused to prove innocence.

Elevator Speech

He who forgets will be destined to remember.

Starting it on the bus today. Realized after I got on the bus on the way home tonight that this bus doesn’t stop in Chaska. Will have to change busses. That’ll teach me not to get on busses with route numbers ending in L.

Was it a gorgeous 4th of July weekend or what? The weather was pert near perfect. Unless you don’t like sunshine. If that’s the case, you’re weird.

Someone posted a link to an article on Facebook today saying how food companies are asking congress to stand against an Obama administration initiative to limit the amount of commercials promoting junk food aimed at children. I agree. If the food companies were lying in their commercials that’s one thing. If you can’t say “NO” to your child don’t look to the government to do it for you. The government intrudes in our lives too much as it is.

Sorry, JT, but I’m with T-Drex on the whole PT Cruiser deal. Bad decision. But, to each his own, I guess.

Overheard - one woman talking to another today while waiting for an elevator: "There is so much to do in the cities during the summer, but everyone leaves to go to their cabins!" Agreed. Foolishness. Although, I may feel differently if I had a cabin to go to.

Speaking of summertime...

I'm thinking about writing a book. A book. I can now check that off my bucket list.

This weekend is the Life Time Fitness Triathlon. You should really come out and cheer on the triathletes. It's a fun day, and they would love your support. Cowbell optional, but highly encouraged.

I often think.

A Short Cruise

So, she's not guilty. Lot's of people talking about it. I really didn't pay that much attention to it to be honest. One thing I do know - there is nothing wrong with our justice system. She was put on trial, the prosecution presented evidence, the defense plead their case, the jury deliberated and returned a verdict. If you don't agree with the verdict that's one thing, but there is not a problem with the justice system.

Regulators! Mount up!

I am not a fan of Google instant search. Annoying.

Some people actually missed this blog. Go figure. I find it more difficult to do in front of the TV. I'd rather do it on the bus. And yes, I'm still talking about writing a blog post.

It would be good to learn a second language. Although, perhaps I should master my first language. What should my second language be?

I've heard Tom Cruise is really short.

We watched a really screwed up movie yesterday. Funny Games. I don't know if I should recommend it or not. Just really screwed up. And dark.

But for being short, he has a really big smile.

I've discovered so much new music lately. If you'd like to join a really cool group on Facebook where people share new music (or old music) that they've discovered then look up The Audio Congolomerate. Cool stuff.