We are approaching the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.  I read that there may be terrorist attacks planned for the anniversary, possibly car bombs in DC and NYC.  It made me worry, made me feel sad.  I remember how depressed I felt after the Sept. 11th attacks.  I was supposed to be in NYC on Sept. 11, 2001, but instead went there Sept. 5th and 6th.  I saw the Twin Towers and took pictures of them just days before they went down.  I was there again sortly after and visited Ground Zero.  We lost 3000 Americans that day.  The whole country was saddened.

But I think now….I’ve been in the cancer community for 10 years.  We lose 500,000 Americans a year to cancer.  The same as losing 3000 Americans every other day, but we don’t feel the shock and sadness at that statistic as we did the Sept. 11th statistic.  Cancer terrorizes us too.  It is a much bigger enemy.  I think of the saying, “one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic”, and it really is true.   It’s how our minds work. 

I looked it up once, we spend a fraction of the money on cancer research as we do on fighting terrorism.   Makes no sense….