Category Archives: Community

Shell Suber on things we should know about prostate cancer

Last month, we did what we could to fight breast cancer. Now, we tackle another nemesis.

I’ve known Shell Suber since he was the Richland County chairman for the Republican Party several years back. Some of you may know him, too. Good guy.

Whether you know him or not, those of you of the male persuasion should listen up to what he has learned, the hard way, about prostate cancer. This being Movember, the message is timely. Actually, it’s always timely. This is from his blog:

I have prostate cancer

By Shell Suber

NOTE: This was originally published as a small series of posts on Facebook on November 6, 2013. Published here in its entirety with minimal edits.

I have prostate cancer. I found out a few months ago and I haven’t told many people. I didn’t see the point. After some surgery next week I won’t have it any more so why make a federal case of it? I had my gallbladder out last year. How is this any different?

But it is different. Read on to see what I mean.

First, I need to assure everyone I feel fine. No symptoms at all. In fact, I might have gone years without even knowing I had prostate cancer if not for a lucky break. More on that later.

Second, and this is important, PLEASE DON’T SAY ANYTHING TO MY KIDS. They are 9 and 5 and we decided to just tell them Dad is going to have another thing taken out, like that gallbladder last year. No sense bringing up the “C” word when it’s not going to be an issue after next week. Sadly, Abby and Walt have ample reason to associate hospitals/cancer with funerals and we don’t want them to be scared that this is anything like that, because it isn’t. Thanks.

This is a good place to share a few quick facts about prostate cancer. If you don’t have time to read all this, just read the capitalized part at the beginning of each paragraph.

CANCER IS ALWAYS BAD, BUT SOME IS WORSE. It depends on size, speed, and location. Prostate cancer, if it is caught early like mine, is on the “not as bad” side of the cancer spectrum. To be sure, prostate cancer can be serious, but most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it. In fact, more than 2.5 million men in the US have been diagnosed at some point and are still alive today, like me. This is because it’s usually a slow moving cancer and it’s in an organ that doesn’t have a lot of high-level involvement with your blood (like your liver, lungs, and pancreas do.)

IT’S RATHER COMMON. Only skin cancer is more common. About 1 man in 6 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The older you get, the more likely the diagnosis. About 6 in 10 cases are guys 65 and older. It’s rare before 40. At 47, I’m on the “fairly young but not unheard of” side.

ONLY MEN GET IT. If you didn’t know that already, you aren’t quite sure what a prostate is, are you? I wasn’t either, to tell you the truth. Anyway, I won’t go into what role it plays. You can look it up. Just know that any man can get it. And it’s also worth noting that black men get it at a noticeably higher rate for some reason. And, as far as they know, there aren’t really any behaviors that “cause” it (like smoking/lung cancer).

IT’S EASY TO FIND. Prostate Cancer is, as cancer goes, an easy catch. There is a simple blood test called a PSA test that gives the doc a fairly good indication that all is good or, if not, more testing is needed. If you want to read more about the PSA test and your PSA “number,” there are a million articles out there. All you really need to know is that it’s a blood test like all the others you have ever had – one needle in the arm and you are done. The OTHER way to check is… well… do you remember the Moon River scene in “Fletch?” [ Moon River ] Anyway, Dr. Babar was checking to see if Irwin’s prostate was the size and shape it should be. If it’s not, you may be in for more testing. In my case, that meant a biopsy. It’s an outpatient procedure that takes no time at all and they even give you a Valium afterwards if you want. Sort of like getting a really great lolly-pop.

IT’S NOT NECESSARILY HEREDITARY. There are some cancers that are very hereditary. Breast cancer, for instance. But prostate cancer doesn’t work quite that way. So don’t go thinking you are in the clear because nobody in your family has ever had it. You aren’t. I wasn’t. Nobody in my family has ever been diagnosed as far as I know. Some of you may know cancer took my mom five years ago and her father last year. Both of those were unrelated to mine and to each other. Oh, and when I say “nobody in my family has had it,” that’s probably not true. Read on.

IT’S USUALLY TREATED IN ONE OF THREE WAYS. Because it’s such a slow cancer, sometimes when they find it in an older fellow, they just watch it to see if it’s growing so slow it won’t cause a problem. I mean, why bother if it’s not going to kill you before you’re 110, right? Other times they just try to slow it down with radiation. Again, so it won’t get you before something else does. Then there’s me. I’m only 47. They can’t slow it down THAT much. Besides, the risk is always there that it could “get out” of the prostate and that would be, um, bad. So for me, it’s removal of the prostate, a treatment you avoid if you can (because of the side effects) but it’s a virtual cure (as long as the cancer is all in the prostate.)

If you just read all that, you now know a lot more about prostate cancer than I did.

HOW I FOUND OUT I HAVE PROSTATE CANCER. As I said before, I might have never found out – for years maybe – but for a lucky break. Last year my wife and I decided, after much talk and, I feel, a sufficient period of procrastination on my part, that I should have a vasectomy. So I went to see my lifelong friend Tom Edmunds. Tom and I have known each other our whole lives and played a little football back in the day. He’s a urologist now and the man to see if you are going to get snipped. Blood work was done pre and post and my follow up PSA numbers gave him reason to be suspicious. [A note about PSA numbers: High is bad. Low is good. But CHANGE is what gets their attention. If your PSA number is the same this year as last, that’s good. If it’s higher, well, you may be in for more tests.] Anyway, had I not “manned up,” as Tom is fond of saying, who knows? We might not have known until it was too late.

LATE EDIT – After my original post, Tom, my urologist, shared this about PSA numbers…

Get a baseline PSA at age 40. 0.7 is the mean. If your baseline is above 1.5 at age 40, it needs to be watched yearly. Also, a rise of 0.4 in 1 years’ time is a reason to be checked out. Make sure your doc does an EXAM. Many don’t. African American men have twice the incidence. If your insurance company won’t pay for a PSA, get it anyway! What is your life worth? – Dr. Tom Edmunds

If you need more information (or a good urologist), contact Dr. Tom Edmunds at Capitol Urology, vasectomycolumbia.com, (803) 251-6602, info@capitolurologysc.com

SIDE EFFECTS. Next week I am going to have my prostate removed. Simple as that. They take it out and I don’t have cancer any more. Besides, after you are done making babies, you don’t really NEED it any more. So what’s the catch? (You just knew there must be one, right?) Well, there are two rather unpleasant possible side effects. Without getting too graphic, the prostate is right down there near a handful of nerves that we men are VERY fond of – the nerves that make it possible for our buddy down there do all his jobs. Removing the prostate damages these nerves. Most of the time the impact is temporary. But sometimes it’s not and that sucks, which is why they avoid taking it out if they can help it. But being dead is worse, so…

WHY AM I WRITING THIS? At first I was going just keep this quiet. I didn’t want to be “that guy with cancer.” People sort of treat you differently – you know what I mean – and I didn’t want that. Besides, after my surgery next week, it will be gone for good, along with my prostate, so why tell the world? Here’s why. Because this is one of those things that if more guys get tested, there will be more old guys for me beat in golf in 30 years. More PSA Tests = Less Funerals. Simple math. I’m too busy for funerals. So there you are.

Nathan Ballentine proposes solution for violent crime in Columbia: Sheriff Leon Lott

14 Replies

At the risk of seeming even more like a guy who thinks of himself as the Editorial Page Editor in Exile, allow me to call your attention to a second good piece on the opinion pages of The State today.

You should read Rep. Nathan Ballentine’s piece promoting Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott as the guy who can lead Columbia to solutions in dealing with its violent crime problem. An excerpt:

The answer to Columbia’s violent crime isn’t what, but who

Recently, the Midlands has seen a dramatic rise in gang violence and senseless shootings. Business leaders, elected officials, USC’s administration and many others have sought answers to the big question: What can we do to stop it? College students, victims’ groups and law enforcement officials all have met and pondered the same question: How can we combat violent crime?

Sheriff Leon Lott

There may not be just one answer, but I know one man who has the experience and sheer determination to find all the answers and get the job done here in Columbia: Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.

In the past, Columbia City Council has been reluctant to cede power to Sheriff Lott, apparently because of small turf battles and out of fear that council members might lose some control over the law enforcement they currently manage….

For many of us, the answer is clear: have Sheriff Lott take over control of city law enforcement efforts and allocate resources where he knows they will best be utilized, city or county. To do anything less is simply sanctioning further violence throughout Columbia.

Leon Lott is a unique individual who transcends politics and has a record of achievement…

Some may be surprised to see a conservative Republican lawmaker — one of Gov. Nikki Haley’s oldest and best friends in the House — praising a Democratic sheriff to the skies. Such people don’t know Nathan Ballentine very well. He will work with anyone, D or R, whom he sees as able to get the job done.

Others, unfortunately, will dismiss this as a white legislator (a Republican, no less — and from Chapin!) promoting a white lawman to ride in and show a town with a black mayor, black city manager and a series of minority police chiefs how to make Five Points safe for white college kids. Not that anyone will put it quite that bluntly, but there may be such a reaction, on the part of some, to that effect.

People who react that way will not be reassured by Nathan pointing out that Sheriff Lott was way out ahead of the city in recognizing the community’s gang problem, and doing something about it. That has long been a touchy subject along the demographic fault line in Columbia, with (and yes, I’m deliberately oversimplifying to make a point) white folks saying of course there’s a gang problem, and black folks saying, you white people see a “gang” wherever two or more young, black males congregate.

Setting race aside, some will react at the “great man theory” that underlies the Ballentine piece — the idea that this sheriff, this man, is the one to do the job. What happens, they’ll say, when Lott is no longer sheriff?

In other words, the barrier to communication runs a little deeper than “small turf battles.” Although that’s a part of it, too. There are multiple reasons why this hasn’t happened already.

There’s an opportunity here. Mayor Steve Benjamin has just gotten re-elected by a strong margin, and he has floated the idea of Lott taking over before. With the strong-mayor vote coming up the potential for change is in the air — although it’s tough to say whether the Lott idea has a better or a worse chance in light of that. (Better if it makes people more willing to give the major more power, worse if they say, if a strong mayor doesn’t run the police department, what’s the point?)

If he takes this up again, Benjamin has the political chops and stature to override a lot (if not all) of the gut-level objections out there, as well as the bureaucratic ones.

Is it doable? I don’t know. But letting the sheriff elected to serve the whole county actually run law enforcement for the whole county is an idea that deserves a full and fair hearing.

Would Halfacre be good candidate for McLeese job?

6 Replies

Speaking regionally: Randy Halfacre, speaking at Reality Check kickoff event in June.

This morning, I was talking with a Lexington county politico about Lexington Mayor Randy Halfacre’s re-election loss yesterday — we were both surprised, in varying degrees, at that outcome.Neither of us knew enough about the winner, Councilman Steve MacDougall, to have a clear idea of what happens next in the town.

Then, as has been the trend in such conversations the last couple of weeks, we talked about all the prominent deaths the Midlands have suffered.

I said, yeah, with Ike McLeese gone and Halfacre out as mayor, that’s two losses among advocates for regional cooperation.

My interlocutor reminded me that Randy Halfacre is still the head of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce. Then he added, “Who knows? Maybe he’ll come over here.” (We were standing in downtown Columbia as he said it.)

I found that intriguing: What if Halfacre were to become McLeese’s successor? There’s a certain logic to it. They were close allies, and he’s already invested in Ike’s regional initiatives — in fact, he has led them.

Halfacre was one of the four — along with Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, retired Maj. Gen. Abraham Turner and USC Athletic Director Ray Tanner — who eulogized McLeese at the Friday funeral. He told the story of how Ike was the one to realize that the region had to get its act together after it lost Southwest Airlines to Greenville and Charleston. He asked Halfacre to lunch, and proposed that local chambers needed to work in a coordinated manner going forward. Halfacre said sure, he’d help Ike any way he could. Ike said no, you misunderstand: You’re going to lead it, because it won’t work if it’s seen as Columbia asserting hegemony over the region. So he did.

Anyway, given that history, it’s an intriguing idea, now that Halfacre is no longer to be mayor of Lexington.

I have spoken to no one in a position to know whether Halfacre is, or might be in the future, under consideration for the job. Or whether he should be. I just found it to be an interesting suggestion…

‘We’re No. 9! We’re No. 9!’ bradwarthen.com Walk for Life team ends up in Top Ten

11 Replies

That’s me, Kathryn, Bryan and Doug.

A month later, with (presumably) all contributions counted, our Walk for Life team met the goal of making the Top Ten, which follows:

Pink Posse $10,050
Richland One – AC Flora High School Team Haddon… $9,292.14
Richland One- Satchel Ford $8,231.40
EDENS $6,370
Spirit Communications $6,096
Team Winkie $6,001
Richland Two-Ridge View High School… $4,527.41
Gowns and Crowns $4,431.50
bradwarthen.com $3,651.44
TeamRichlandone student nutrition services…$3,564.57

See all the teams on this page.

Of course, now we’ll be going for Top Five next year, which as you can see is going to mean at least $6,100. We’ll get an early start, think positive thoughts, adopt a clean and healthy lifestyle, give up fatty foods, and do opposition research on the other teams. OK, just kidding on the last two.

But we can do this!

For this year’s achievement, I want to thank our actual walkers, Kathryn Fenner, Bryan Caskey and Doug Ross (pictured above). Bryan and Doug were also our two biggest fundraisers ($1,715 and $1,191.44, respectively), while Kathryn made a generous personal donation.

Let’s also thank Diane Chinnes, Jeff Miller, Maria Medrano, Mike Fitts, Phillip Bush, Rick Shackelford, Kathy Moreland, Hunter Brumfield, Lisa Marie Field, my Dad, and a bunch of anonymous givers, every one of whom played a critical role in this year’s achievement.

Ike McLeese, longtime Chamber chief, dead at 69

3 Replies

I ran into Bobby Hitt this morning. I had last seen him at Lee Bandy’s funeral Saturday.

I asked Bobby how he was doing, and he said he hesitated to say for sure. After all, about five people he knew had died in the last week or so. We then chatted a bit about Steve Morrison, that having been the latest shock at the time we spoke.

Now, there’s another:

Ike McLeese, the President & CEO of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, passed away Tuesday.

McLeese led the Chamber for 19 years. He announced earlier this month that he would step down from his duties as CEO at the end of this year.

McLeese suffered a heart attack in September. When he announced plans to retire, McLeese said he would still work with military installations in the Midlands to help them through any future base realignment processes.

Many in the Midlands know McLeese for his leadership helping Midlands military bases avoid cuts in the 2005 rounds of base closings….

There was so much more that Ike led the way on — most recently last year’s penny tax referendum for transportation, and the current campaign for a strong-mayor system for Columbia.

Ike was everywhere, leading on everything, for almost two decades. We already knew we were losing that leadership, but we didn’t know we’d lose him, personally, so soon after the announcement of his retirement.

My greatest sympathy goes to his wife, Sue, and all his many friends.

Steve Morrison, a man of great intellect, passion for justice

5 Replies

Steve Morrison during his campaign for mayor, 2010.

The news being reported by The State today is a terrible shock:

A prominent Columbia attorney who fought for equity in the state’s public education system and left his mark on the community through extensive service to organizations championing the arts, education and South Carolina’s disadvantaged, has died.

Stephen “Steve” Morrison, 64, a partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Columbia, became ill and passed away unexpectedly sometime between Saturday night and early Sunday morning, said Jim Lehman, the firm’s managing partner.

Morrison was in New York attending a board meeting when he passed away….

This is a great loss for this community, and for South Carolina.

Steve may be best remembered for leading the legal team that fought in court for two decades to try to get the state to bring poor, rural schools up to par, so that the quality of education a child received wouldn’t be so dependent on the accident of where he or she happened to be born.

I never saw him in court during that lengthy case, but I heard him give presentations on the critical issues involved in speeches to community groups. He was always deeply impressive — not only for the intellectual force of his arguments, but for the passion and commitment that he exuded.

He exhibited these qualities in everything he did. And he did a lot.

By the way, here’s a footnote I wrote in 2010 about my own relationship with Steve:

Finally, a disclaimer — aside from the fact that Steve Morrison and I served together on the Urban League board, he has quite recently served as my attorney. Not a big deal, but I thought you should know. Aside from that, having known him for years, I’ve heard him give quite a few quietly compelling speeches, and asked him why he didn’t run for office. He always shrugged it off — until now.

I wrote that in the context of covering his candidacy for mayor. But back to Steve…

The bottom line is, the cause of justice for all in South Carolina has been set back.

Good turnout for Results Summit. More TK

3 Replies

This empty seat was one of the few at the event — and lots of folks were standing at the back.

TK is newsspeak for “to come.” I need to use it more often.

Lots of times I paralyze myself as a blogger by holding off on something until I can sit down, sift through a bunch of information, and give you a thorough report.

That serves as something of a drag on my immediacy.

It occurs to me that what I should have done last night, when the Midlands Reality Check Results Summit was over, was put up a quick picture, say a few words, and promise more later.

Since I still don’t have time to sort through all the stuff, I’ll do that now, and promise more later.

Until that “more” comes, here’s Roddie Burris’ report in The State. And you can also browse through my Tweets from the event last night, at #midlandsrealitycheck. (It was my unpaid job, as a volunteer with the program, to handle Twitter for the two events this week.)

Greater substance is TK…

Come to the Reality Check Results Summit TODAY

21 Replies

This is just a quick word to ask y’all to come on out to The Zone this afternoon for the following:

Growing by choice, not by chance:
Envisioning our region’s future

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Midlands is expected to grow by roughly 450,000 people in the next 30 years. That is equivalent to putting slightly more than the population of the four-county Asheville, N.C., metropolitan area into the Midlands by 2040. Will we grow by choice or by chance?

Yesterday, over four hundred diverse leaders and volunteers from business, government, the military, education, environmental, civic and other sectors came together to create a new vision for the Midlands of South Carolina. A full release with images from Game Day can be found below.

The results of yesterday’s Reality Check Game Day will be summarized and presented tomorrow, Oct. 24, when those who participated in Game Day and the general public are invited to the Reality Check Results Summit to hear an analysis of the Game Day exercise. Attendees at the Results Summit will have the opportunity to participate in live audience polling to rank the findings.

This is the wrapup session from the Reality Check exercise on Tuesday. And just to recap this, here are a few observations about that process. (If you want a real synthesis of what happened, come to the Summit. Since I was roaming around from table to table Tweeting — which is what I was asked to do — my impressions are necessarily somewhat fragmentary.):

I sort of marveled that complex, three-dimensional input from so many tables could be synthesized in time to have the Results Summit so quickly. I was told that when Charlotte did this, they had the exercise, went to lunch, and got results right after that. So this is a more deliberate process by comparison. The key appears to be the coordinators at each table, taking notes on the discussions in real time, on laptops.
I was interested to see the wildly different patterns of the Legos representing residential and commercial development at the different tables. For instance, this group really went vertical, stacking up residential development in the downtown area. Another spread residences more broadly across the Midlands. I noticed that the table where Ryan Nevius of Sustainable Midlands was participating, there were more green spaces marked off with green yarn.
After the exercise, we heard a keynote speech from MItch Silver, chief planning and development officer of Raleigh. He provided a lot of food for thought going forward. He spoke of the need to prepare for the “Silver Tsunami” (in Japan, more diapers are now sold for adults than for babies), the fact that fewer young people are marrying will mean a lower demand for single-family dwellings, and a high-rise office building is way, way more valuable to a community, in terms of good jobs and tax base and intelligent land use, than a Walmart. That last is probably obvious, but he flashed up a slide that broke it down statistically, and it was pretty impressive — although I failed to get a picture of it before it moved on. Sorry.
What, doubters may ask, is the value of such an exercise, if nothing about the plans made at the tables is binding on participants? Also, some participants said to me, how would we pay for all these grand plans were they to be implemented? Frankly, I think the value is the process itself — people from many backgrounds in business, government and nonprofits, getting together and having a discussion about how to guide growth going forward. A lot of these people would never have such discussions about overall regional goals. Also, there’s a ULI committee that will remind participants of their discussions going forward.

Here’s more thorough coverage from The State, and here’s video from WLTX.

Anyway, come on out and hear the results later today. Here are some pictures from Tuesday…

: I was impressed by this group’s highly vertical downtown residential development.

: By contrast, this group (where you see Samuel Tenenbaum holding forth on guiding principles) went for more evenly-spaced development across the region.

: Black yarn represented transportation arteries.

: As the time got short, more hands got into the act.

: Hey! The Shop Tart was there!

: As the groups finished up, there were sidebar discussions — such as this caucus between Reps. Beth Bernstein and James Smith.

Moe, Larry and Steve to debate on WIS Tuesday

6 Replies

Moe Baddourah at the Midlands Reality Check on Tuesday.

As a member of the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council, I’m happy to report that the organization is co-sponsoring a mayoral debate next Tuesday evening:

On this coming Tuesday, WIS TV and CRC will co-host a debate among the three candidates for mayor of Columbia; Moe Baddourah, Steve Benjamin, and Larry Sypolt. The event will be televised live from WIS studios….

Listed below are the specifics of the event:

Moderators: WIS TV news anchors Judi Gatson and Ben Hoover.
Location: WIS-TV Studio, 1111 Bull Street
Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Time: 7 p.m.-8 p.m.

Note that I had nothing to do with setting this up. This is actually the first I’ve heard of it. But I thought I should disclose the connection.

The council has been working lately to become a sort of convener of civil conversations in the community. We had that forum last year about the penny sales tax referendum, then another this year about strong-mayor (which I missed because of a conflict). The council is scrupulously careful to make these programs as neutral and as informative as possible. Watch and see how you think we’re doing.

Steve Benjamin at Midlands Reality Check on Tuesday.

Tweeting from ULI’s Midlands Reality Check

9 Replies

Here’s what the Midlands look like now, translated into ULI’s Lego language.

That’s where I am this morning, so excuse me if I’m not keeping up with y’all for a few hours.

It’s a worthwhile exercise, I believe — 300 community leaders from across eight counties gathering to talk about growing by choice, not by chance.

I’ll catch up with y’all when the exercise is over. If you’re interested in the meantime, follow @BradWarthen on Twitter…

Hey, that’s Duncan MacRae of YESTERDAY’S, y’all…

1 Reply

Thought it was sort of odd that thestate.com showed my old friend Duncan MacRae in a montage of mugs of people who spoke out about violence in Five Points last night, but didn’t identify him beyond his name — although other speakers were identified by their roles in the district.

For the record, Duncan, who was a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam, is one of the founders and co-owners of Yesterday’s, my very favorite Five Points spot.

Duncan has always been deeply involved in seeking solutions to challenges faced by the district. I identify him as much with Five Points as I do Debbie McDaniel (also pictured) and Jack Van Loan.

I’d like to know what Duncan had to say. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quoted in the story. Guess I’ll have to go by and see him to find out.

Anyway, now you know who that is, in case you didn’t already…

Your bradwarthen.com Walk for Life Team, in uniform

6 Replies

Brad, Kathryn, Bryan, Doug

Well, we did it — we walked, and a pleasant stroll it was.

The first order of business was to get a picture of Doug Ross with his hat on — the hat that was a condition of one the contributions he brought in as part of a more than $1,200 total.

We ran into Samuel Tenenbaum, president of Palmetto Health Foundation, before we started out, so I had occasion to brag on Doug to him, as well as to introduce him to Bryan Caskey and tell about his $1,715 haul. And about our more than $3,600 total.

And Kathryn Fenner was there, having donated generously herself. I was the deadbeat on the team, having contributed mostly by making a lot of noise and nagging people. It’s what I do.

We gathered for coffee afterwards, and the general consensus (no formal votes) was that we would get an earlier start and make that $5,000 goal next year!

Not that we couldn’t, technically, make it this year. Palmetto Health is still counting contributions toward teams’ totals for another couple of weeks. Just go here, click on “Give Now,” and follow the directions…

Gearing up for Reality Check, visiting old haunts

3 Replies

Earlier this week, I found myself in the editorial boardroom of The State, for the first time in, what — two years, I guess.

It was unchanged. And to show that I was unchanged, I shot a couple of pictures — something I used to do obsessively in that room, as long-time readers would know. I explained to those present, who were trying to talk while I was distractingly getting up and moving around the room for a good angle, that if I didn’t do this, Warren Bolton wouldn’t know who I was.

I had brought friends with me — Irene Dumas Tyson and Herbert Ames, co-chairs of the Urban Land Institute’s upcoming Midlands Reality Check, on Oct. 22 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. They were there to meet with Warren, and reporter Roddie Burriss.

That’s the event at which 300 people, from all walks of life in the Midlands, will get together and talk about how to prepare for the growth that’s coming over the next 30 years.

More about that later.

Anyway, I just thought I’d take note of the fact that I had been back to the old homestead, briefly. Below is a picture from earlier days, with one of our guests…

Walk for Life: One more thing I’d like y’all to try…

6 Replies

Well, I figure that most of y’all who are going to give before the event Saturday morning have already given.

And I thank you for your generosity. We’re now at $3,556, which is very good. Of course, I went wild a couple of days ago and raised the goal to $5,000, but as someone said on Twitter this morning, “If people aren’t laughing at your goals, your goals aren’t big enough.”

Before we give up on that, I’d like y’all to do one more thing for me — how about reaching out to some of your friends and family (as Doug and Bryan have already done so very successfully), and see if they’d like to give as well.

I did that night before last, and got a gratifying response. I even heard from our Tokyo correspondent, Hunter Brumfield, who contributed, and then wrote on our team page:

My wife Eiko also went through this so I know what you and Juanita have faced, Brad. We are in remission also, fortunately, after 5 years post-treatment. Early detection is SO important!

I’m so glad Eiko is doing well. Hunter, too, apparently. I also heard from Jeff Miller in Washington, who gave in memory of his mother-in-law, Stella Schwartz. And others. Very gratifying.

Anyway, what I did was send to Hunter and lots of other friends the following email. Feel free to borrow from it, and ask your friends and relatives to chip in to the bradwarthen.com team:

Dear Friend,

First, the bad news: As you can tell from that greeting, this is a form letter that I’m sending to lots of friends in addition to you.

Now, the good news: This is a form letter that I’m sending to lots of friends in addition to you. Which means I’m not just picking on you personally, and trying to put you on the spot.

I’ve organized a team through my blog to walk in Palmetto Health Foundation’s Walk for Life this coming Saturday. We’ve set (OK, I’ve set) an ambitious goal for the team. We’re trying to raise $5,000 to fight breast cancer. We’ve already raised $3,256. I’m asking you to help put us over the top.

All you have to do is go to this page, and click on the pink “Give Now” button over on the right-hand side, and follow the instructions. It’s easy, and relatively painless.

Some of my blog readers have had great success with personal campaigns among their contacts. Doug Ross has raised more than $1,100 for our team by offering to do such things as wear a funny hat. Bryan Caskey has raised more than $1,600 by sending a clever email to his friends.

I may resort to those tactics myself. But first, I thought I’d get serious and tell you why I support the Walk for Life, and look forward to it each year.

Twelve years ago, my wife, Juanita, was diagnosed with breast cancer. It had already spread to her liver when it was found. We found this out in a quick series of shocks: First the lump, then the exploratory surgery that found that the nodes were involved, then the biopsy that found multiple tumors in her liver. Stage four cancer. It is a brutal understatement to say that her survival chances weren’t good.

We lived the next few months in a fog of anxiety mixed with urgent determination to do whatever we could. There were the biopsies, and one bad report after another. Then a massive round of chemo. Then the surgery. Then a brief period of recovery, followed by another devastating round of chemo. Followed, after another brief time for recovery, by radiation. Then, the beginning a routine of milder chemo treatments every three weeks for the next eight years.

One night, early in the process, I was watching television, and for a moment, had stopped thinking about this horrible thing. My wife, who had been on the Internet where she spent so much of her time during that period, walked in and said she had good news — she had found a site that said she might live for five years if everything went right. That, she said, was easily the most optimistic assessment she had found. I was devastated. That might, in fact, have been my low point. I had not actually internalized, in a quantitative sense, how bad things were until that moment. And my shock was exacerbated by guilt, for having for a moment forgotten about this thing hanging over us. Watching stupid television.

We got through this time through the prayers and concern of many, through determination, through the skillful guidance of the folks at S.C. Oncology Associates, with the helping hands of friends (all sorts of folks brought us dinners during that period, including Samuel Tenenbaum, the head of the Palmetto Health Foundation, so I owe him).

Since that diagnosis, a lot has happened to us in our personal lives. Our children, three of whom still lived at home in 2001, have gone through all sorts of passages — graduations, and weddings for two of them. Most wonderfully, four more grandchildren have come into our lives.

Juanita was first told she was definitely in remission early in 2002. In 2010, our oncologist said he thought it safe to take her off chemo altogether.

For the past five years, she has spent most of her waking hours taking care of our youngest grandchildren. She is their Nonni, and it would be impossible to overestimate how much she means to them. She is an irreplaceable part of their world, as she is of mine, and our children’s.

We owe so much to all the dedicated people fighting cancer every day, in research labs and on the front lines with patients.

So help me pay a little of it back. Again, all you have to do is go to this page, and click on the pink “Give Now” button over on the right-hand side, and follow the instructions.

Thanks so much.

— Brad

No half measures for Walk for Life: We’re going for $5,000!

1 Reply

Might as well be bold, right?

Last week, we went from exceeding our initial $1,000 goal to topping the $3,000 mark in just two days. Yes, we had some extraordinary help. After Doug Ross had singlehandedly put us over the thousand mark, Bryan Caskey came in and raised almost half of our current total of $3,231.

But I don’t think the well is dry yet. So I just did another Col. Cathcart, and raised our team goal to $5,000.

Sure, it’s a stretch. But we’re well on our way toward the $4,000 mark without any additional effort the last few days on my part. Now, I’m going to take a page from Doug and Bryan and send an appeal out to a lot of my contacts — emphasizing people who may not be regular blog readers — and thereby give a broader audience a chance to chip in.

Basically, I’m going to do what I haven’t really done with y’all yet — get serious, and talk about the real reason I’m a supporter of Walk for Life.

And no, it’s not because my good friend Samuel Tenenbaum nags me about it weekly. It’s because of my wife’s experience as a cancer survivor, as I wrote about back here.

Of course, even if you don’t receive one of these emails, you’re still welcome to give (or give more, or ask your friends to give more). In fact, you’re encouraged to do so.

Just go to this page, and click on “Give Now.” It’s the button over on the right.

Walk for Life: We’ve surpassed our goal, again! So… what should the NEW goal be?

5 Replies

Well, we did it! We surpassed the new goal, only a couple of days after setting it!

Our Walk for Life team has now raised more than $3,000 — to be precise, $3,076 as I type this.

There have been a number contributions to the General Team Donation category (including one from my good friend and colleague Mike Fitts). But the big story remains the highly successful efforts of those shakedown aces, Bryan Caskey and Doug Ross. Remember when I told you that Bryan was in the Top Five individual fund-raisers among all Walk for Life participant? Well, he’s moved up from No. 5 to No. 4, as you can see on the right-hand side of this page. Way to go, Bryan! And you know Doug’s gotta be in the Top Ten, which is tremendous.

But all of you who have contributed need to form a circle, all turn to your right, and pat the person in front of you on the back. You all deserve it.

Now, that said, down to business. Of course, now that we’ve reached the goal, Col. Cathcart will set a new, higher number. You know how he is.

So I’m asking y’all’s advice. What should it be? $4,000? $5,000? I want it to be a stretch, but achievable. Thoughts?

Restoring the Curtiss-Wright Hangar looks like quite a challenge

10 Replies

Remember the recent post about plans to restore and preserve the Curtiss-Wright Hangar at the Hamilton-Owens Airport, turning it into a restaurant, museum and events venue?

Well, I happened to be driving by it on my way to watch the Twins playing soccer the other day, and got a good look at it.

The folks undertaking this really have their work cut out for them…

Colonel Cathcart raises our ‘Walk for Life’ goal

6 Replies

Col. Cathcart, Lt. Col. Korn, and Major Danby.

You remember Col. Cathcart, don’t you — from Catch-22? (And if you haven’t read Catch-22, you should.)

Here’s a reminder of who he is:

His main function in the plot of the book is to keep raising the number of missions that the men in his bomb group must fly before they can rotate stateside. He does this to curry favor with his superiors. He lives for “feathers in his cap” and lives in horror of “black eyes.”

This repeated raising of the number of missions is a key driver in Yossarian’s constant, growing anxiety, especially since the colonel always raises the number just before Yossarian reaches it:

Well, it seems that Col. Cathcart has slipped out of the pages of the novel and somehow gained access to our Walk for Life team profile, and raised our goal — much as Yossarian slipped out of his tent one night and moved the bomb line on the map to above Bologna.

And I’m happy to report that I — I mean, Col. Cathcart — ran into Samuel Tenenbaum this morning, who is sort of the General Dreedle of Palmetto Health Foundation, and told him that our goal has been raised from $1,000 to $3,000. He was most pleased. I think this is quite a feather in my, I mean Col. Cathcart’s, cap.

And I’m sure, men (like Lt. Scheisskopf, I enjoy addressing you as “men” in a clipped, military voice), that you’ll be happy to keep flying missions until we exceed the new goal. Failure to do so would result in a black eye for me, your colonel, and I’m sure none of you men want that.

Bryan Caskey’s highly successful Walk for Life email: ‘Cancer: Are You For It or Against It?’

10 Replies

If you’ve been following the comments on this earlier post, you know that Bryan Caskey has now joined Doug Ross in raising more than $1,000 each for our Walk for Life team. Bryan is now in the top five among all individual fund-raisers for Walk for Life (look at the right-hand side of this page to see his name).

I asked Bryan how he did it, and he said he just “sent an e-mail out to a bunch of my other youngish-age (20-40) friends around Columbia. The group is mostly lawyers. (Don’t tell Juan!).” Here’s the email:

Cancer: Are You For It or Against It?

Hey! Stop what you’re doing, and pay attention for a second. It involves boobs.

Got your attention? Good.

On Saturday, October 5 (before the tailgating begins for the UK/USC game) I will be walking in the Columbia Walk for Life/Race for Life. Unless you’ve been living on the moon for the last decade, you know this is a big fundraiser to fight breast cancer. The reason I am sending you this e-mail is simple: I’m shaking you down for money. If you’re getting this e-mail, I know you have at least $25.00, and I hope you aren’t in favor of breast cancer.

We all know that breast cancer can be effectively and significantly reduced by early detection and treatment. That’s why I need your support. And by support, I mean money.

For the gentlemen who receive this e-mail, let’s take a little time to worry more about the health of women’s breasts, rather than their size. I’m challenging you to do more for breast cancer awareness than simply saying you’ve been aware of breasts for quite some time. I’m not guaranteeing you that donating will help you with the ladies, but it certainly won’t hurt. Don’t let cancer get to second base.

For the women who receive this e-mail, I don’t need to tell you anything. You know what’s up.

It’s an easy decision: You’re either for cancer, or you’re against it. Which is it?

The only way I will know that you’re against cancer is if you donate money. I’m taking care of the walking part, so you just need to take care of the donating part. I’ve donated $25.00, and I’m sending you this e-mail to ask that you do the same.

Follow This Link <http://www.walkforlifecolumbia.org/9055274?faf=1&e=7152699964> to visit my the web page and help me in my efforts to support Palmetto Health Foundation. You click the link, put your information in, and boom! You’ve declared your allegiance in the war on breast cancer.

This is the preliminary shake-down e-mail. Future communications will consist of the following in ascending order until you donate:

1.      Another e-mail, but this time IN ALL CAPS.

2.      A text message.

3.      A telephone call (You don’t want me to actually do this, do you?)

4.      I will show up at your house at 7:00AM

5.      I will send a tough guy named “Luca” to your house at 7:00AM the following day. (You don’t want to meet Luca, because hereally hates cancer, and he’ll assume that you’re in favor of cancer).

Don’t let Cancer steal second base!

P.S. More details below:

This year’s Walk for Life/Race for Life will be held Saturday, Oct. 5 in Finlay Park, Columbia, SC. The Walk/5K Race will begin at 8:30 a.m., and the 10K Race will begin at 8:15 a.m. It is with great enthusiasm that I will be participating in this year’s Walk/Race. I’m walking. Please consider sponsoring me with a donation so that Palmetto Health Breast Center can continue to save lives and raise awareness about early detection. To make a donation, visit the link at the bottom of the page.

Please consider making a donation today. No amount is too small, and whatever you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Bryan D. Caskey

Go, all of ye, and do likewise…

Walk for Life: Let’s shoot for the Top Ten!

12 Replies

This blog’s Walk for Life team exceeded its fundraising goal days ago, thanks to the unwavering efforts of the stalwart Doug Ross, who raised more than the $1,000 benchmark all by himself.

So now, let’s get competitive about this.

I don’t know how much other teams have raised for the Oct. 5 event to fight breast cancer, but if the pattern is anything like two years ago, we’re probably in the Top 20 already. In 2011, we came in 18th despite only having raised $982.

The amount we’ve raised so far this year, $1,309, would have put us in 12th place two years ago. So it seems reasonable to assume that the Top Ten is within our reach. (Again, I don’t know where we stand this time, but back then, anything over $1,620 would have put us there.)

Thanks to Kathryn Fenner, Bryan Caskey, my Dad, and one regular from the blog who gave anonymously, for joining Doug in bringing us this far.

Now I’m hoping to hear from some of y’all who haven’t acted yet. Join us, and Top Ten status can be ours…