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Proposi-tion 15 is the right medicine to help cure cancer
Gov. Rick Perry and John Sharp
Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Opinion
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We all have the face of someone in mind when people talk about cancer. Someone who is no longer with us. Someone in treatment. Someone who survived. Cancer is one of our most formidable enemies. It is the number one cause of death for Americans under the age of 85 and claims the lives of more than 37,000 Texans every year.
It is largely out of our control if cancer strikes, who it strikes and where. We can commit to an exercise regime, champion our friends not to smoke and teach our children to eat their vegetables. But we do not know what causes some cancers or who they will victimize, and while cancer treatments continue to advance there is no cure.
With such a great Goliath before us, the questions remain: When will there be a cure? And who has the grit to get us there?
Texans have an opportunity to answer these questions on November 6th. We can choose to take up the gauntlet and slay this giant by making a decade-long commitment to infuse cancer research with $3 billion. We can choose to provide cancer research with $300 million annually at a critical point when cancer research continues to make medical leaps towards targeted treatments, but the federal government is ratcheting down funds for cancer research.
There are 400,000 cancer survivors in Texas right now, and approximately 95,000 more Texans will hear the dreaded words "you have cancer" this year. We believe passing Proposition 15 will inspire doctors, patients, and their families to persevere in their fight, knowing that there is a renewed effort underway to find a cure.
While scientists have made many advances in their understanding of cancer, there is still much we don't know. We cannot pinpoint a single cause. We do not know why normal cells that divide and grow in an orderly fashion morph into cancerous cells that grow out of control to ravage the human body.
We believe that three billion dollars will help produce answers that ultimately save lives.
It is largely out of our control if cancer strikes, who it strikes and where. We can commit to an exercise regime, champion our friends not to smoke and teach our children to eat their vegetables. But we do not know what causes some cancers or who they will victimize, and while cancer treatments continue to advance there is no cure.
With such a great Goliath before us, the questions remain: When will there be a cure? And who has the grit to get us there?
Texans have an opportunity to answer these questions on November 6th. We can choose to take up the gauntlet and slay this giant by making a decade-long commitment to infuse cancer research with $3 billion. We can choose to provide cancer research with $300 million annually at a critical point when cancer research continues to make medical leaps towards targeted treatments, but the federal government is ratcheting down funds for cancer research.
There are 400,000 cancer survivors in Texas right now, and approximately 95,000 more Texans will hear the dreaded words "you have cancer" this year. We believe passing Proposition 15 will inspire doctors, patients, and their families to persevere in their fight, knowing that there is a renewed effort underway to find a cure.
While scientists have made many advances in their understanding of cancer, there is still much we don't know. We cannot pinpoint a single cause. We do not know why normal cells that divide and grow in an orderly fashion morph into cancerous cells that grow out of control to ravage the human body.
We believe that three billion dollars will help produce answers that ultimately save lives.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Brooke
posted 10/18/07 @ 11:39 AM CST
Thank you so much for covering this important proposition. Texas is a powerhouse and is the right place to get the job done!
pounds
karen
posted 11/05/07 @ 11:51 PM CST
I would like to support this Prop toward finding a cure for cancer... but until we have the moral courage to open research to all avenues of knowledge, not limiting what we research then we can not possibly get to the core for a cure. (Continued…)
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