Looking for gold

I've spent the whole day watching football. And, I'm puzzled. I know a bit about the group of women who came up with the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness/research support. Frankly, it was marketing genius. These days, any corporate overlord can slap a pink ribbon on more or less any product, and VOILA! sales!

We even have the whole NFL sporting pink all over the field . . . from caps to gloves to socks to ribbons sewn on their uniforms. And, I don't believe it's just marketing. I believe that many of the men playing in the NFL genuinely want to support breast cancer awareness/research. They all have wives and mothers and girlfriends and sisters and aunts and friends who may have faced breast cancer.

But, the fact of the matter is that there are other issues that take a bigger toll on our society that don't get nearly the attention or support, despite pretty ribbons. Violence against women effects more women than cancer. Childhood cancers effect more children than breast cancer does women.

Autism seems to have picked up some of the awareness marketing, but people seem to really only care about young children with autism; we kinda forget about them when they get older.

I don't begrudge the pink ribboners. I just wonder how we can capture that gold for other pressing issues in our society.