Shame on you, John Cena (updated 10/16/12)

Shame on you, John Cena (updated 10/16/12)

For the most part, I have to say that I admire John Cena. The guy
worked tirelessly to establish himself as the focal point of professional
wrestling worldwide, and succeeded in spite of record amounts of
unjustified fan abuse every step of the way. He has also gone to
superhuman lengths to support charities, including the Make-A-Wish
Foundation for whom he recently set a record by visiting his 300th
child.
However, the World Wrestling Entertainment star’s “Rise Above
Cancer” campaign shows that even he doesn’t always hit the mark.
During Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and hey, who doesn’t need a

month dedicated to a problem that’s rammed down our throats every
other day of the year?), Cena will be wearing and selling pink-themed
ring attire, with a portion of the sales presumably going to the Susan
G. Komen for the Cure (SGK) breast cancer foundation.
But while THIS ARTICLE about Cena’s campaign states the mission
of SGK to be “…eradicat[ing] breast cancer, which can be a deadly
opponent when not treated early…”, the fact of the matter is that the
money raised through this campaign will NOT further the cause of
wiping out breast cancer, but will instead feed a group that works to
ensure that it sticks around.
How do I know this? I lost my wife Marianna to breast cancer in 2004,
and during that year I began researching what groups like SGK were
really doing. In no time at all I uncovered clear evidence of diversion
of funds and suppression of valid remedies in the name of profit.

During the course of my research I discovered journalist/breast cancer
survivor Peggy Orenstein‘s revelations of what SGK did with donated
money in 2011:

 ■   devoted only 15 cents of every dollar to cancer research, down
     from 30 cents in 2008 (and don’t forget that the research is
     conducted and influenced by pharmaceutical companies with a
     huge financial stake in the outcome)

■   spent roughly 30% of donated money on fundraising (gotta
     spend money to make money, right?) and “administrative
     costs” (a delightfully vague term that could mean absolutely
     anything — they may as well have said “We spent it on stuff”)
 ■   spent 55% of donated money (about 200 million dollars) on
     “awareness education” and the promotion of mammograms
         (Source: LA Times article “Moving Beyond Pink Ribbons”)

Let’s look at that last one for a second. Why do they need to spend
such an ungodly amount of money to advertise a problem of which
we’re already painfully aware, and why is a company with the word
“cure” right in its name pushing a method of detection that is FAR less
effective than previously thought, and does NOTHING to stop the
disease itself? Despite what the Cena article would have you believe,
a high number of people whose cancers are detected early still die,
either from either the disease or from the effects of treatments that
they’re told are their only options.
And regarding how much of your money SGK spends on itself, The
Washington Post had THIS to say:

Nancy Brinker, founder and chief executive of [SGK], took home
$417,000 in salary in 2010… and paid 50 top executives more than
$100,000 each.
[Brinker] traveled first class on airlines with the explicit permission of
the board she chairs.
…the latest financial report shows Komen making severance
payments to four people, three of them former staffers who each
earned more than $100,000 annually.
Compensation for top officers, directors, trustees and other key
employees was $2.7 million in 2010. Other salaries were listed at $17
million, not including millions more for payroll taxes, pension
payments and other benefits.

The majority of Komen’s revenue appeared to come from
contributions and grants.
[UPDATE: After this article’s October 2012 revision, I discovered that
Brinker’s salary jumped 64% in 2012 to a reported $684 717 per year]
                                              (source: DallasNews.com)

That’s right — when you run, bike, play road hockey, fight, pogo stick
or do the freakin’ Watusi “for the cure”, you are funding a truckload of
high salaries, perks and payments to SGK executives, a number of
whom don’t even work for them anymore.
How is this deserved when there are MORE people dying of
breast cancer than there were 30 years ago? SGK has accepted
BILLIONS in donations to fix a problem, only to pay its people fat
salaries while the problem got worse.

As a man whose own family was deeply affected by cancer, John
Cena should know all of this. It’s the responsibility of everyone in his
position to find out what’s really being done (and NOT done) to help
their loved ones, but instead he’s using his international profile to
support a corporation that prioritizes a massively-lucrative revenue
stream over people’s actual lives.
Mr. Cena, as altruistic a man as you obviously are, you didn’t do your
homework on this issue and now you’re out there telling lies to millions
of fans, a huge percentage of whom are children. While you’re a truly
unique individual who has done, and I’m sure will continue to do, a
great deal of good, this time around you’ve dropped the ball horribly.
Shame on you, John Cena.

If you want to do some actual good, donate to groups like the Lazarus
Health Project (which saved my “incurable” friend’s life) or The
Rotary Club hospice program.
For more information on how to contribute to the solution instead of
the problem, read the articles at the Peggy Orenstein link and check
out Breast Cancer Action and Breast Cancer Deadline 2020.
You can also watch the documentaries Burzynski: Cancer is
Serious Business, Pink Ribbons, Inc. and Cut, Poison, Burn.
And finally, you can click HERE and HERE for more evidence of
SGK’s tactics of disinformation in the name of the almighty buck.