Snow on Edwards

"As somebody who has been through this,'' Snow said, "Elizabeth Edwards is setting a powerful example for a lot of people, and a good and positive one. She has been on top of diagnosis and follow-up. When you have cancer it's very important to keep checking. She's being aggressive. She's living an active life. And a positive attitude, prayers, and people you love are always a very good addition to any kind of medicine you have. So for Elizabeth Edwards, good going; our prayers are with you.''

Tony Snow had the benefit of experience to see clearly that you don't have to crawl into a corner and hide from the world because you get sick. Now Snow has had a recurrence of cancer and I hope to see him at the podium just as long as he is able. We have a deviant relationship to sickness in this country, even though it eventually affects all of us; we seem to think that our life-force will be drained away if we come in contact with an ill person. We want them to hide like we want all of our problems to hide, to go out of sight so that they're also out of mind. The sick should not be forced to be entombed before their time, and the so-called healthy need to get over their sickness aversion.

Ezra Klein wrote a piece for the New York Sun that was about Elizabeth Edwards, but it applies here as well.

Americans have a strange relationship with illness. It was shocking when Mr. Edwards forthrightly said that Elizabeth's cancer was treatable, but not curable. In other words, it will kill her.

That is, dare I say it, un-American. In this country, we make people better, or they die while we're trying. Illness is something you fight, not something you stall. And so we are not used to accepting it as a constant presence. The sick retreat to sanctums and hospital wards to do battle with their ailments, and they either emerge or they do not.

That, it seems, is what many wanted the Edwards family to do. I received countless e-mails arguing that he should have dropped out and wondering if, given the early support expressed for his projected decision to withdraw, there would be a backlash against his choice to continue on. Such questions ask more than they realize. They ask that the Edwardses allow the cancer to force them off life's stage. They ask that they accept death for Elizabeth before it has been decreed [...]

Mrs. Edwards's sickness scares us, and we do not want to be faced with it. That something is killing her reminds us all that we are dying, as are our loved ones. But we soldier on, and live on, and continue trying to change the world and make our dreams manifest. The Edwardses deserve the chance to do the same. They don't deserve special consideration while they're doing it. But that is not what they are asking for.

For the record I thought Katie Couric's performance with the Edwardses on 60 Minutes was somewhat regrettable, but it also gave them the stage to amplify these views. And I hope that these dual events will show to everyone the importance of cancer research and how we need to put the full force of the medical community to stop this disease in its tracks.