“The Shore Action League (SAL) and the Historical Society of Ocean Grove are hosting its twelfth annual Victorian Tea, Paint the Town Pink, for Breast Cancer Awareness on May 18, 2017 at 1:00 PM. The event will be held at the Lillagaard Bed and Breakfast tea room at 5 Abbott Avenue, Ocean Grove, NJ. Our hostess, Jane Wehr, the owner of the Lillagaard, has graciously offered her exquisite tea room for this event. The menu will include a variety of teas, quiche, petite sandwiches, scones and desserts and there will be gifts and prizes. (gluten free available)
“Tickets are $30 and available at the Historical Society of Ocean Grove, 50 Pitman Avenue or call Deadra at 732-774-1869. The HSOG is a 501 3 © and donations are tax deductible.”
Editor’s Note: (By Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC) Soon our town will be once again pinkified by the Hackensack-Meridian system. They will promote breast cancer “awareness” by placing meaningless pink ribbons and banners all over. These pink signposts are somehow supposed to educate the public.
Their main message is that women should get yearly mammograms over age 40. Of course, they do have a conflict of interest since they are operating a large mammography industry in the area. The H-M organization has been coercing local businesses to pinkify their stores and offices, because if businesses ignore the plea, then they will be in danger of seeming to be indifferent to cancer.
So now we see that the Historical Society of Ocean Grove is engaged in this activity. It seems bizarre that they are going public and raising money for the Pink Campaign when they are never seen to publicly concern themselves with the wide variety of zoning and historic preservation issues that keep cropping up in town.
If they are not devoting their energies and knowledge to historic preservation here, then they might as well become a branch of the Chamber of Commerce—dealing mostly with tourists while avoiding blood and guts issues to keep this town alive as a historic place.
After all, the most historic attribute in OG would be our inventory of authentic Victorian buildings, some of which are deteriorating or being compromised by the Township’s policies. Where are they on this topic?
Lets paint the Grove another color besides pink and promote the message: “Save Our Historic Town.”
Physicians Still In Disagreement Over Mammogram Screening Recommendations
The Washington Post (4/10, Naqvi) reports that research indicates “primary-care physicians and gynecologists continue recommending breast cancer screening for younger and older women despite changes to breast cancer screening guidelines.” Researchers found that “trust in different guidelines and a physician’s specialization affect their screening recommendations.” The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
CNN (4/10, Howard) reports that researchers found that “many of the primary care physicians and gynecologists surveyed said they still recommended screening for women ages 40 to 44 last year.” CNN points out that “the US Preventive Services Task Force recommends biennial mammograms starting at 50 for all women.”
TIME (4/10, Park) reports, “The findings point out that while the recommendations about breast cancer screening continue to evolve, so too do doctors’, and patients’ decisions about screening.” According to Time, “For now, most health groups are learning toward a more personalized approach.”
Being against the ‘pinkification’ of town in no way means I’m not an advocate for awareness of the issue. What I am against is the commercialization of the issue and disease. It wouldn’t matter what the cause is, I’d still be against this type of event. The disease has touched my family so I am well aware and versed in it’s effects.
If the so called event were held in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month and was sponsored by an advocacy organization rather than a ‘for profit’ enterprise, it might, stressing might, be a different story for me. The Pink thing is a not so thinly veiled month long commercial for Hackensack-Meridian and that bothers me.
Commercial banners at the entrances. Pink bows on seemingly every vertical pole in town, which is a violation of local ordinances by the way and look quite sad after week or two of exposure to the weather. Free advertising stickers on every business in town.
Imagine the pressure on a business that doesn’t participate in this month long commercial. If individuals wish to ‘pinkify’ their home, as long as it doesn’t violate local ordinances, OK. Just don’t turn the whole town into one big commercial, please.
Greed, Greed. It’s all about Big Pharma and Big Money. This is crazy. Pink paint remains embedded in Neptune and Ocean Grove roads from 4 years ago.
Breast cancer accounts for only 6% of cancers treated in the USA. We have 63 more colors in the Crayola box the for rest of the year and many under-publicized diseases. Please give the pink a rest.
“We live in the State where the cancer cure is actually vaulted.
Long live the pharms!”
Editor’s note: What the hey?