Hero, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #231

July 11, 2011 Mike Gold 5 Comments

If the modern Republican Party regards Barack Obama as a socialist, then they must see Betty Ford as a card-carrying communist.

Of course, back in her day they called her a “Republican.” Back in her day most people still didn’t talk about cancer in public; many wouldn’t even do so in private. Talking about cancer was, at best, impolite and more likely tempting fate. Roe vs Wade had just become the law of the land. On January 21 1973 people were still being arrested for abortion-related services. On January 22 they were not and, ironically, the Religious Right movement was born. They immediately started their take-over of the Republican Party by legitimizing zealots like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Betty Ford, not so much. In her day, if you had a drug problem you went to straight to prison. The idea of giving therapy a try was unique. Lots of people thought those dirty hippies deserved prison and not “coddling.”

Betty Ford changed all that. Not only did she talk about cancer, she talked about her own breast cancer. She brought the issue to the public and tirelessly encouraged women to talk about it, get tested, test themselves, and get survivors out on the circuit to tell others. Together they left no stone untouched: television (long before Oprah), radio, PTA meetings, insurance company conventions, everywhere. They even got teevee programs to show how a woman should conduct self-examinations. This was at a time when the phrase “breast cancer” actually, and fantastically, carried sexual undertones.

She believed in a woman’s right to choose. The rhetoric of the day centered on the concept of women controlling their own bodies. Betty believed in that and advocated on behalf of that overriding concept… and it worked. At a time when the pro-abortion forces needed the most big name help – excluding today’s modern era – her support came from the very top. It came from The White House. Her husband, the President, didn’t run away from that.

At a time when virtually all drug users who were put into the system were tossed in prison, Betty Ford established a clinic that not only saved lives but also proved that getting treatment was far superior to incarceration. More subtly, Ford showed the world that when it comes to drugs, alcohol was at least as dangerous as the illegal stuff. Okay, today we take that for granted, but back then drug dealers were mostly local and they didn’t have lobbyists. The alcohol industry did, and they contributed mightily to politicians. Betty suggested our pro-alcohol culture was antithetical to public health and safety, and she tried to cure as many of its victims as possible.

Count up all the people saved from breast cancer deaths, all the women who did not die in alleys with hangers sticking out between their legs, all the drug users (including alcohol) who survived due to their therapy, and it is likely Betty Ford was responsible for saving more lives than any President of the United States. That count is still growing.

Betty Ford certainly meets my definition of hero. She got 93 years, which is a good run, and her work will live on for a long time.

I hope we still have a postal service in 2021. I’ll be buying that Betty Ford stamp.

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Hero worshipper and www.ComicMix.com editor-in-Chief Mike Gold will resume performing his weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking bizarro music and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com starting this very Sunday. When that happens, his Weird Sounds show will be available on-demand. Yay!