Choosing Sides

With another story in today's paper about the Susan G. Komen flap (this time a profile on founder-president Nancy Brinker), I reflect again on what it is that bugs me most about the entire sad saga (well, aside from the bald-faced lies they told while in CYA-mode). For me, it's that the anti-abortion movement has brought their fight to this arena where it really doesn't belong, and it turn forced everyone involved to pick aside. They won't allow anyone to pull a Switzerland on this topic.

The amount of money clearly is not the issue (it's minuscule to both organizations). What I don't understand was that if some donors were bothered by the Planned Parenthood grants, why didn't they just opt not to give? Was this really costing Komen that much in donations? It couldn't have hurt that much given they are widely recognized as the Google of Cause Related Marketing. It appears that for this AA crowd, it wasn't good enough to say we'll withhold all our money if you give one dime of it to PP. No, we don't want you to give them anybody else's money either, even if it is for breast cancer screening for women in poverty. Instead,  by forcing Komen's hand, they stirred up a hornets nest they clearly underestimated.

The episode has been called a proxy for the culture wars and I'm afraid we'll have to go on fighting for quite a while longer. I'm reminded of the scene in Saving Private Ryan, when a exhausted army sergeant, played by Paul Giamatti, stops with the platoon to rest inside a half blown-up house. As he sits to remove his boots from his aching feet, he accidentally knocks a loose beam into a wall, which collapses to review a roomful of Germans. Both side quickly grab their guns and start screaming at the other side to drop their weapons.

I assume that most people were like me, and had either raced for the cure, or donated money to someone else who was racing or walking for the cure, and hadn't thought too much about how Komen spent it. (A recent survey I saw said only about a third of donors to charities do ANY research on the organizations to which they give.) We gave and had a good time. Only now, someone has knocked down the wall and we find ourselves standing between two armed factions screaming past each other. They probably didn't know each other was there, but now that they do, the fight is on. And we all need to decide which side we're on. 

I know I've learned more about Komen and PP in the past two weeks than ever before, and a lot about who dislikes both and why. I while I wasn't planning to get involved, I know what I need to do when it comes time to write the next check. I'll make it out directly to Planned Parenthood.