Tobacco and The March on Cancer
Tobacco and The March on Cancer
by Cliff Douglas, Esq.President, Tobacco Control Law & Policy Consulting
Ann Arbor, Michigan
E-mail: tclpc@aol.com
September 27, 1998
I attended the March on Cancer's Friday night 'candlelight vigil' with some colleagues, including one, Susan Levine, who lost her daughter at the age of 26 (yes, 26) to cigarette caused lung cancer earlier this year. There were several thousand people attending the event by the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, and an enormous stage was set up with large screens, spot lights, and a large elevated platform for dozens of reporters and cameras. A number of prominent people spoke -- JESSE JACKSON, SCOTT HAMILTON (the skater), MICHAEL MILKEN (a leading sponsor), ANDREA JAEGER (the tennis player), among others -- some quite movingly. JACKSON, as always, preached well, but like the others, never mentioned cigarette smoking, tobacco or lung cancer (which in the anti- cancer community, is known as the "invisible cancer," getting relatively little attention because of the low survival rate and the general disinterest of the pharmaceutical and corporate medical community), although he mentioned diet as a particularly serious problem for the African-American community. This went on for a full hour. With only half an hour remaining, literally not one word had been said about tobacco.
Like others in our group, Susan Levine and I became increasingly incensed, to put it mildly. Finally, without saying a word to one another, we split from our group and started gradually to make our way together from all the way in the rear of the crowd up through the throngs of people cramming the area in front of and around the stage. The speaking continued to go on, the lights were blinding, and the scene struck me as having an air of Orwellian unreality about it.
I should say here that Susan Levine is a fighter. She is neither tall nor physically imposing, but she backs down to no one. Susan and her family watched her daughter suffer an agonizing death, and she and her husband, who was also at the vigil, wanted something said about what killed her, an addiction to cigarettes that started when she was 15-years-old.
We made our way around to the side of the stage, which was crowded with people, and managed to sneak through the first barrier. When we reached the second barrier, Susan worked her persuasive magic on the woman guarding the entrance to the stage, and we found ourselves on stage with a group of the next speakers - individuals, each of whom was holding a candle, who had been invited by the sponsors to step up to the microphone and say a few words of remembrance for a relative who had died of cancer. This was to be the emotional climax of the vigil. Susan and I, suddenly part of the group, were handed candles. A minute later, Susan said "come on," and we found ourselves stepping alone into the bright lights. No one seemed to be aware that we were gate-crashers. At the microphone, with my arm around her shoulder, Susan's voice rang out in the direction of the Capitol. She bravely told the audience that she was lighting her candle for her daughter Deanna, whom cigarette smoking had killed with lung cancer.
It was the first time such words had been uttered all night. With my arm still around her, I stepped to the mike and said (to the best of my recollection):
"I am here with my friend Susan to say that it is shocking that not a single speaker has had the presence of mind or the courage to talk about cigarette smoking, until now. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of cancer in America. Lung cancer, most of which is caused by cigarette smoking, is the leading cause of cancer deaths in America, and lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cancer killer of women in the past few years. Reverend Jackson mentioned diet. He should have mentioned cigarette smoking too."
It was then that a cheer went up, possibly one of relief on the part of those who, like the two of us, had been frustrated by what had been happening. Standing in that place, near the spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. once changed history, it was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life.
Shortly after Susan and I stepped back, lit our candles and stood beside the others, NORMAN SHWARZKOPF took his turn at the microphone, said a few prepared words, then pointedly added, "and I also light this candle for my father who died of lung cancer caused by cigarette smoking." He looked over at us, and Susan went over and hugged the man. (Michael Milken, standing behind me, looked a little abashed.)
The next day, at the march itself, JESSE JACKSON gave a modified speech. This time, he railed against the tobacco industry. I saw him backstage afterwards (Susan, former Winston cigarette model ALAN LANDERS, and I had sneaked through some barricades again), and he gave me a warm handshake. Some time later, Alan and I talked to singers DAVID CROSBY and GRAHAM NASH, whom we spied waiting under a tent, about the importance of focusing on tobacco. When they finished their second set near the end of the day, Graham Nash's final words, made at our request, were about the need to protect kids against cigarettes. Finally, I ran into General SCHWARZKOPF and introduced myself. He looked at me knowingly and said, "How'd you like what I said last night!" Much as I wasn't a fan of the Persian Gulf war (that involved another protest, and another story), I thanked him sincerely for what he had done on Friday night. So, in the end, perhaps we made some small progress.
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