COMMENTARY: Everything Is Pink This Month

LITTLE ROCK — While I was out on an evening stroll earlier this month, the sight of the moon stopped me dead in my tracks.

There it was, in crescent form, perched just above the horizon. The apparent size of it was spectacular enough, but what really stunned me was its color.

Through some kind of atmospheric effect that I cannot begin to understand, the moon was what I would describe as a light shade of pink.

Yes, pink. And my first thought was: Man, those breast cancer awareness people will stop at nothing.

That’s a joke, albeit not a very funny one. I respect the job that the awareness people do. If they literally could paint the moon pink to make us more aware of their cause, I’m surethey would.

The question is, could we be any more aware? And has the effort to promote breast cancer awareness gone overboard?

I don’t pose this question lightly. Breast cancer killed a close family member of mine in 2008, so I can attest to its viciousness. Most people know someone - or at least know someone who knows someone - who has battled breast cancer.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s hard to be unaware of this. The pink-ribbon reminders are everywhere. A few examples:

Our favorite professional football players have been seen wearing pink shoes, gloves and other gear during games.

In the Sunday comics section of Oct. 10, many of the cartoons were drawn entirely in pink andincluded a pink ribbon with the message, “cartoonists care.”

A company that makes yogurt promises to donate 10 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for every one of its yogurt container lids that you mail back.

Another company produces pink-ribbon frosted sugar cookies.

I could go on and on.

This awareness blitz is impressive in its scope.

It’s also bordering on the ridiculous.

Last spring, a certain fastfood chain, known primarily for its buckets of greasyfried chicken, ran a “Buckets for the Cure” campaign. At the time, the Komen for the Cure website proclaimed, “Each bucket makes a difference.” Really now, how do you say that with a straight face? It makes you wonder, with whom will the awareness people pair up with next? What’s next - a “smoke a pack for the cure” campaign?

The Komen folks hold a “Race for the Cure” in Rogers and elsewhere each year, and that’s great.

Running and walking are associated with good health. Fried chicken? Not so much. There might not be any direct link between fried chicken and an increased risk of cancer, but there definitely is a link between obesity and cancer, and the fast-food industry is frequently cited as a reason for our nation’s enormous obesity rate.

Breast cancer awareness is terrific, but I would caution those who are behind the campaign thatthere’s always the danger of pink fatigue.

That said, there’s no doubt that the message behind all this pink is important.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the secondleading cause of cancer death for women, behind lung cancer. More than 200,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer were expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, and about 40,000 women were expected to die from breast cancer in 2010. The chance that an American woman will die from breast cancer is pegged at about 3 percent.

There are things you can do to reduce your risk of getting breast cancer.

Eating well and exercising regularly are two of them.

And the importance of early detection cannot be overstated, so make that mammogram appointment, ladies.

For those who aresuffering from pink fatigue, hang in there. November is only a week away.

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Last week, I used this space to question the Benton County Election Commission’s decision to take a chartered jet to Omaha, Neb., to pick up materials essential to the Nov. 2 election. That trip cost the commission $1,100. I pointed out that driving the 400 miles to Omaha would have cost considerably less.

In response, commission chairman Bill Williams has written a column that appears on today’s opinion page.

I encourage everyone to read his column. Whether you agree with him or not doesn’t matter to me, but I think his side of the story deserves to be heard.

DAVE PEROZEK IS AN EDITORIAL WRITER FOR THE BENTON COUNTY DAILY RECORD.