It’s NOT a “reversal”, it’s a weasel word filled press release.

Hey, before anyone takes a victory lap.

The last three days of wading through outraged FaceBook, Twitter, email and phone calls about the stand the Susan G. Komen Foundation took to withdraw funding for breast cancer screenings, has me worn out. I certainly found out who believes in women’s wellness and who doesn’t.

Then mid day today comes another deluge of posts about Komen’s “reversal”.

Except it isn’t a reversal.

Below the flip is the Press Release, read it carefully…does it say we apologize to Planned Parenthood? No, only to the American people? Really all the people…sheesh.

Does it say future grants will been given every consideration in the future? No, it says, Planned Parenthood will receive the pledged money for this year.

That’s right, all they’ve done is honor their previous commitment. A whopping $600,000 out of a $750 million dollar budget. Seriously, could you f’ing spare some pin money for low income women to get their ta-ta’s tested?

I’ve long had issues with the juggernaut disease fundraisers, Komen just affirmed all my suspicions.  I don’t need “made in china” rubber band bracelets or pink covered trinkets and certainly not this!  My God did you see that Komen store, seriously it’s like a museum shop for a  deadly disease.

When they hired former failed Governor candidate Karen Handel, I knew they’d never get a red cent of mine. Hell if I was going to be part of her successfully tripping forward clutching her homophobia and bible while she did it. Bitch, please.

Do I think the inter webs and social media had everything to do with shining a giant ass klieg light on Komen’s decision to withdraw Planned Parenthoods funding, absolutely. But lets not all take a collective bow and run off to happy hour. The very same spot light should continue to shine on them for months and years to come.

We should take making donations to these groups very seriously.

I think our friend Andisheh Nouraee  said it best on Twitter.

“Beware pundits who call Komen debacle a “PR” disaster. Betraying the deeply held values of your core supporters is more than a PR disaster”.

Statement from Susan G. Komen Board of Directors and Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker

“DALLAS – February 3, 2012 – We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives. The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.

Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the public’s understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.

We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.”

 


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16 responses to “It’s NOT a “reversal”, it’s a weasel word filled press release.”

  1. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    I might have anticipated Jules’ most recent post here earlier, but I was on the road with little time to respond. In honor of the pic here, (that nasty white weasel/mink? above), we can all wonder about the efficacy, advisability or need for Ms. Handel to return to Ga. It’s sort of a bit like the lost art of ‘ferret legging’ to have her kicking around here for too long. Even when very friendly, she’s just got a way of gnawing away at her friends & erstwhile allies too.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferret_legging

    JMP

  2. ire Avatar
    ire

    I’m telling you its like I’m fucking Nostradamus over here or some such shit.

    Handel quits.

    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/02/07/us/AP-US-Planned-Parenthood-Komen.html?_r=1&hp

  3. c Avatar
    c

    Thank-you for the link……I’m just about speechless. My circle of friends have lost 2 to breast cancer. All of us rich or poor have taken a pledge to help stamp out this disease. My rich friends usually make big donations and purchase lots of “pink items”. The rest of us volunteer time and then $$$ when we can. I’m just sick. Planned Parenthood helped my one friend to the very end. Their funding for this came from Komen and they encouraged all of us to support Komen, How gracious they were. They could’ve said make donations to us, but they didn’t….they too felt research was the way to beat this, and Komen had the money and influence to do things. How sad that they have ruined their own organization. I found just a few minutes ago, that another friend took the time to e-mail and snail mail every company on Komen’s affiliate list (someone posted a link of it in a previous comment). They asked the companies to end their support of Komen, and never support a politically influenced charity again.

  4. ire Avatar
    ire

    I NO RITE.

    Figured something had to be up.

  5. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Yeah it gets more complicated too. Here from TP is the story that Ari Fleischer
    was also somehow involved. So I’m with Jules & others here, the rot is systemic:

    http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/03/418797/exclusive-ari-fleischer-komen-planned-parenthood/

    And of course all this was as predicted by Nostradamus, the Book of Revelations & others posting here. JMP

  6. c Avatar
    c

    I was so upset by all of this. I’ve helped raise money for them and purchased the pink/cure items as gifts. When they made their annoucement Tuesday, I felt betrayed. Cancer doesn’t ask if you are pro-choice or pro-gestation before it strikes. My friends and I contacted everyone we know and returned over $1.185. of merchandise purchased for gifts and told the retailers why they were being returned. We then drove to the local Planned Parenthood and gave them the cash….no strings attached. I don’t care that they reversed their decision. I’ll never trust them again. From now on my friends and I plan to donate and fund raise for Planned Parenthood. They don’t ask you your beliefs or party affiliations when you go there for help. They just help. At this point I’m still so angry I think they should fire every Republican who works for them. BTW, I’m an Independent who has voted all over the board for people, but right now I’m furious with the Republican Party and those who support there “holier than thou” policies.

  7. Peaches Avatar

    Apologies ire. We usually hang on your every utterance.

  8. ire Avatar
    ire

    I would like to point out, everything in this thread I had already posted in the comments earlier this week.

    You’re welcome.

  9. Peaches Avatar

    The close is a moving target.

  10. griftdrift Avatar

    Be careful you don’t sell past the close

  11. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    I’ve seen a couple links to corporate press releases… REMAX was the most recent.

    Big problem now for Komen is their rating with GuideStar and other non-profit rating organizations. In one case they went from a four star to one star. That isn’t easy to fix.

    Their ideology has cost them their reputation and very likely a huge chunk of their corporate donor base. Maybe the folks funding Romney and Gingrich SuperPacs will backfill their coffers instead of hard working people like me.

  12. Peaches Avatar

    I’m pretty sure much of the corporate funding they enjoy will evaporate, since large companies are notoriously conflict averse.
    http://ww5.komen.org/corporatepartners.aspx

  13. Catherine Avatar
    Catherine

    I think this…:
    “We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.”

    …is code for “We love all our anti-choice people the most and we’ll figure out a way to stop those liberals from getting your money”.

  14. Peaches Avatar

    That picture scared the crap out of me.

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