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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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(7/22/00 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
The first time I ever heard the word "cancer," I was only nine or ten years old. To this day, however, feelings well up inside of me whenever I think of my childhood friend, Slappy, and the mother he lost at too early an age.
No one in South Baltimore had very much money, but Slappy's mother, tall and always impeccably dressed, would walk along Cross Street like a queen. Yet, she always had a broad smile and encouraging word for every child in our neighborhood.
One day, after I had not seen Slappy or his mother for a week, I noticed a green wreath with purple ribbons - symbolizing death - hanging on their front door. Later that evening, my mother told me that Slappy's mother had died from cancer, leaving a husband and five children to mourn.
Even at that young age, I knew that cancer had robbed our community of a very special person. Now, forty years later, I often think of her, and I do all that I can to support the efforts to overcome cancer in our lifetime.
In the Congress, we are working to provide more financial help for those who cannot afford the cost of mammographies, prostate screening and cancer treatments. We also hope to increase next year's federal funding for cancer research by more than $3 billion.
I take pride in the fact that Maryland's Seventh Congressional District is the home of two of the world's foremost cancer research facilities - Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland. There can be no pride, however, in the fact that Baltimore also suffers from one of the worst cancer mortality rates in the nation.
This year, cancer will kill more than 10,000 people in Maryland. Baltimore City's mortality rates are 20%-50% worse than the rest of the state.
For our city's African American community, the cancer threat is even more pronounced. Echoing trends across the country, Baltimore's black women are 14% more likely than their white neighbors to die from breast cancer; and our black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer.
Last year, Governor Glendening's Task Force to Conquer Cancer in Maryland concluded that "African Americans are likely to be diagnosed at a more advanced stage of disease, and the resultant survival rate is poorer than for white counterparts."
"Studies suggest," the Task Force Report continued, "that financial barriers to early detection and cancer screening, and culturally based attitudes and beliefs, contribute to these disparities."
America can reduce cancer's deadly and unfair toll on families like Slappy's if we continue to support expanded cancer education and scientific research - and if we pay attention to our conscience.
The science is essential. Increased federal and state funding for cancer research and minority health initiatives will help us better understand why so many Americans of color are dying of cancer and will improve existing medical treatment.
Expanded public education campaigns will teach more of our people how to reduce the risk of cancer through healthier diets, exercise and rejection of tobacco. When we learn that regular medical examinations and early cancer detection can save our lives, we realize that each of us can conquer cancer.
We begin to understand that we must survive for those who love us just as deeply as Slappy loved his mother. Our conscience should not allow us to do otherwise.
In America, universal access to medical care should also be a matter of conscience. It is a moral right that should not be subject to limitation in any civilized society - but one too often denied.
Dr. Peter Beilenson, Baltimore City's Health Commissioner, has noted the deadly impact of poverty and inadequate health care on African American cancer mortality. Thirty percent of Baltimore's African Americans have no health insurance. As a result, they become 13 times less likely to see a doctor when they need one.
That is unacceptable. We must never allow the appalling statistics and terms like "medically underserved populations" to obscure the harsh fact that people are dying, good people like Slappy's mother.
If this nation decides to obey its conscience, we can overcome cancer in our lifetime.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
