The Firefighter Cancer Support Network

Visited the Firefighter Cancer Support Network today.

Posted:
My father, the late Kenneth Afrates, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and subsequently died from it June 24, 1993. The only known cause of pancreatic cancer is beta-naphthylamine, which is only given off when oil burns. On June 24, 1971 (22 yrs earlier to the day), Ken fought the Roger Blough fire, a Lake Erie ship that caught fire while loading 30,000 gallons of fuel oil. The latency period between exposure to beta-naphthylamine and developing cancer is 20 - 30 years. He died from it 22 yrs later, to the day.

His love and guidance inspired me to fight for cancer presumption legislation. Fifteen years later, we are still fighting for it in Ohio (proposed S.B. 94).

My heart goes out to all the heroes battling this horrific disease. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Our Children Need YOU!!

Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz (Senator Brown's wife) posted "Looking for Hidden Messages in Obama's Education Speech" yesterday on Cleveland.com. You can read it, here: http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf/2009/09/looking_for_hidden_messages_in.html#comments

President Obama's education speech basically said: all children have gifts, they should do their homework and stay in school. Ms. Schultz wrote a colorful column supporting President Obama, which had garnered 161 comments before I posted my own.

Some of the comments were insightful; most would make good lunchmeat (they were total baloney). To which I responded:

Wow. 161 comments......because Barack Obama told kids to do their homework and stay in school.

Really?
This is up for debate?

Okay. Let's take a vote.

All Republicans who think children should not do homework and prefer they drop out of school, raise your hand. (Seeing none....)

Okay.

All Democrats who think chidren should not do homework and prefer they drop out of school, raise your hand. (Seeing none....)

Okay then. Do we really need to debate this? Or is something else going on here? While you are busy giving your two cents, there are kids on the streets doing drugs, kids running away from home, kids being recruited to join gangs, and kids being forced to prostitute themselves. Children are being abducted, raped, molested, murdered.

Don't you agree: we have better things to do than debate this. Kids should do their homework and stay in school. And we need to help them. So all you busy bodies: get off your butts, go away from your computer, and take the time to make a difference in the life of a child. Your energy is badly needed. At the end of your life, I think you would like to look back and say: "Thank God I took the time to help all those children." Rather than: "Thank God I took the time to heckle Connie Schultz."

Really.
We have better things to do.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown in Afghanistan; U.S Rep. Zack Space Tags Along

Ohio's Sherrod Brown calls out the corruption in Afghanistan; proposes trained officers and agricultural pursuits to end terrorism. This was his first trip there, where he also met with Ohio troops serving in the region. Ohio's Zack Space also tagged along. For more: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/08/us_sen_sherrod_brown_following.html