Friday, May 8, 2009

Zombie pirates/Arlen Specter

People are inspired to write for different reasons.** Some by love. Some by loss. Or some, like me, by the repulsive tactics of politicians. Earlier today I learned that Sen. Arlen Specter, who recently volunteered himself for the Democratic Party, decided to sink to new lows of election campaigning.

Senator Specter launched a new website, called specterforthecure.com. Upon first glance, the site appears to be focused on raising money to fight cancer – not much of a surprise since he is a two time cancer survivor himself. Afterall: money = research = advances in curing cancer = good. According to the website:
Senator Specter has launched “Specter for the Cure”, a bold new initiative to reform our government’s medical research efforts, cut red tape and unstrangle the hope for accelerated cures.

The sufferers of cancer, autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and too many other afflictions have waited long enough. It’s time we unleashed the cure.
But scroll farther down and you learn that any money collected from this excuse of a project goes not to cancer research, but to his own re-election campaign.
Become a member, today, of Specter for the Cure. Please contribute to Senator Specter’s re-election Committee – Citizens for Arlen Specter.
It’s one thing to use your personal experiences and triumphs over a horrible disease as evidence of perseverance and strong leadership. But it’s another thing to use your cancer survival and passion for finding a cure to get people to donate money to a completely different cause. Granted, if he wins, he might do a lot for the funding of cancer research. If not, the money just went out the window.

As a health reform advocate, I understand that Specter’s party switch could be a very good move for the passage of a bill. But that does not excuse his shameful tactics.

**Author's note: This blog has been in hibernation for well over four months. While I’d like to admit that I was captured by zombie pirates, I was warned that any disclosure of the truth would result in my recapture. In short: This blog is back from the dead.

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