Once upon a time, or maybe 2 years ago, I got mad about something and wrote a post called Mean Streak. I felt kind of bad about it, hence the name and tone of the piece. I really wanted to call the post YOU FIRST. The current political climate in America has erased any guilt I feel about thinking YOU FIRST in response to the stupid argument: “we are all going to die someday”.
For those in the TL;DR class–what I was mad about 2 years ago was some damn social media comments on Angelina Jolie choosing preventative mastectomy due to her BRCA+ status. Some jerk went on a tangent about how we (Americans? society?) waste too much money on life-extending medical procedures, whether they be preventative exercises like Jolie’s, or those in the end stages of cancer, taking whatever medications they can, price be damned, to have a few extra weeks with their kids. He argued that we all die, and it was irresponsible (or something) to leave the family with a mound of medical debt. The “we’re all gonna die sometime” is a particularly callous point of logic when you are the one closer to death, believe me. Because, yeah, it is true, we indeed ARE all going to die at some point. Where things get tricky are the who and the when and the how.
For most of 2017 the repeal and replace debate has dragged on, zombie bills keep rising up. Those of us who’ve benefited from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act live on tenterhooks. In my activism role, I have been haunting the dark areas of the internet–political Twitter–and have often been enraged and sickened. Actually, I kind of stay that way. I remember being so upset when Kennedy was on Fox News and used the “we’re all going to die someday” argument, embellishing it with things like liberals don’t have a direct line to heaven, so there is no way any of us can know exactly when we will die. Her conclusion being that activists should settle down about whatever zombie repeal bill was in the news that day.
Note–most people know by now, but if not, yes, Kennedy was that annoying MTV VJ back in the 90s, hosted “Alternative Nation”. I did not like her back then, and I absolutely loathe her now.
Oh Kennedy, instead of being on MTV, you should’ve taken some classes in math or stats & probabilities or something. Granted, I avoided those classes too. But having cancer, I’m a little more aware of how it all works. For me, it is so, so simple. If I cannot afford health insurance, I will skip all my annual visits–oncologist, gynecologist, and even the GP. If cancer comes back, it will not be found. If it gets to the point I notice it, and it is found, I will not get treatment. See, that’s the advantage of having cancer a few years ago–I know how much every little thing costs. So I will die. Now, maybe I only have a 20-30% chance of recurrence, that isn’t too bad. Except guess what? I’ve been in those low probability categories before: my chance of getting cancer was not 1 in 8 (that’s lifetime risk), it was 1 in 233 (age 39); only 20% of us are HER2+, mammograms are only 80% effective–guess who got a false negative? So yeah, I’m not a fan of probability.
Sure there are many “ifs” in my line of thinking. So I can’t just jump to a slogan of “repealing ACA will kill me!” No, I don’t know this for sure. I just know the probability of repeal being a factor in my death is higher than that of Kennedy’s probability, or anyone else making that stupid “we’re all gonna die sometime” argument. See what I mean? Understand why I get angry about it?
Kennedy made this comment earlier this year, in the summer. I just shut it away because I was SO angry, and because, as my fellow resisters know, there are just too many things happening all the time now. I literally cannot pay attention to every little thing. But the memory of it came roaring back listening to Mike Pesca’s podcast “The Gist” last week. He was interviewing one of my favorite health policy reporters, Sarah Kliff, and they were discussing if slogans or arguments that cutting CSRs, Medicaid, and Medicare would really cause actual deaths. Kliff, being smart and journalist-like, cited studies proving yes indeed, a line, however long, can be drawn from lack of health insurance to death outcomes. Like my own example, there a number of “ifs” in that line. But, like I said, I had some improbable things happen to me, and it ended in cancer, and it sucked. I realize Pesca was just pointing out that hyperbole-style slogans are not exactly accurate, there is a great deal of explaining that has to go with it. He isn’t wrong; I’ve always had problems with breast cancer awareness slogans. Easy, tweetable things like “a mammogram saved my life” or “early detection saves lives” are debatable. Don’t get me started on the “feel your boobies” shit. But I see how they work. Easy, short messages succeed–along with cute merch, of course. So I engage in hyperbole–in spite of hating it–my own self now. Yeah, stopping CRSs, repeal without replace, that stuff will kill me (quite likely, see I have to include a disclaimer at least here, just can’t go full hyperbole).
So is it any wonder, now that I embrace overwrought slogans and bitchy quips, that when someone uses the pithy “we all gotta die sometime”, that I snap back with “yes we do, but you first!”? And, no, I don’t feel bad about it all. Two years ago, I did feel bad. I know it isn’t a nice sentiment. But the crass times we live in, with the lack of civility, have cured me of caring much if I sound downright mean. I remember crying on November 9, 2016. I was sobbing on the phone, explaining to my mother that I felt that this country was telling me it did not care if I died, because so many people voted in a Congress committed to repeal. She thought I was making a leap. But given the amount of “we all die sometime” sentiment I see expressed around the repeal debates, no I was not making a leap.
The healthy privileged in this country can glibly state the obvious, factual point that we all die at some point. But because of their health privilege, their employer-paid insurance plan, their likelihood of dying sooner rather than later is less than mine, less than that of my friends.
If it is so easy for these people to say “we all die sometime”, disregarding how it sounds to those who’ve gone into medical debt for every life-extending treatment they can, disregarding how it sounds to those of us about to lose health insurance, then I have no problem answering, “yes, but you first.”
I want to live. Don’t underestimate how much my will to live will make me fight you and your stupid, flip arguments.
anotheronewiththecancer 