Okay, I know I'm gonna get flamed big time, but I HAVE to post this.
The whole Kili thing has taken a life of it's own. Does she or doesn't she have cancer. Will she or won't she accept help. Do we believe her or not. There are two sides to this issue and people at various distances from the dividing line.
I would like to believe the best in all, but that always isn't the case. I am playing Devil's Advocate here in that I am looking at the worst that could be, not that I am taking that stand personally, but I am throwing it out for discussion.
Recently in our local paper, the Allentown Morning Call, there was an article regarding a girl named Cbuttie Weierbach (Morning Call, June 4, 2006, article by Sam Kennedy. Follow-up column by Margie Peterson on June 8, 2006). Cbuttie has stated that she has had HIV/AIDS as she was repeatedly raped as a child by her best friend's father, both the friend and the father have since committed suicide. She says she is the spokesperson for AIDS awareness, that she is too sick to work. Churches and individuals took her in, paid her bills, paid her rent, bought her food and clothes. The only problem.....Cbuttey doesn't have AIDS. The article located both her best friend, who surprisingly wasn't dead nor had they both been raped by her father. The orphan Cbuttey's father was interviewed and declined to support her because of all the fantasies attached to her 'health issues'. She had even stated her parents were deceased in order to claim survivors benefits. She played doctors, she played the system. Not bad for a a 20 year old girl. She was actually on 'the payroll' for an AIDS support group who provided speakers around the country. All started to fall apart when symptoms didn't match medical records, medical records didn't match what she had told buttistance organizations, she played church off against church to see who would give her the most.
I am stating that questions have to be asked. As I stated in a private email to another RFCer. I worked in an ER, and no doctor worth his salt would say 'looks like stage 4 cancer' without doing everything in his/her power to verify that statement. Bloodwork shows 'markers' if cancer is in the system, mammograms, xrays, PETscans, MRIs, CATscans and biopsies are usually done to give a definitive diagnosis. If a mbutt is too 'solid' for a needle biopsy, then either a sliver of the mbutt is removed, or the whole 'lump' is removed and tested (I KNOW this was what was done to mine, it was removed and tested). I also know that medical care cannot be denied due to failure to pony up. There are programs, albeit with hoops to jump through, to provide care to the indigent. If you earn too much to qualify or for whatever reason you do not have insurance, there is the Hill-Burton Act which makes payments available on a sliding scale.
It seems all too cut and dried. A diagnosis on what-ifs. Major surgery without any tests. Paypal accounts set up directly to the recepient without any checks and balances. (Hey, when the church the local boy scout troop met in needed bills paid to keep the heat on, we paid the provider of the service, not the church directly). Too many other questions have been raised and not sufficiently answered, so more questions are asked.
RFCers slamming one another doesn't solve a damned thing. If Kili does have cancer, she needs to have a proper diagnosis and treatment. If she doesn't know what is going on in her system, she needs to find out what is going on, damn the cost, the bills can be dealt with at a later more healthier time. If she doesn't have anything wrong, then that is between her and her maker. What we should be doing is making educated judgments based on factual information. Asking questions is not bad, it is trying to garner information to make an educated decision on whether or not to render buttistance. To attack a person because they question is just as unethical as to automatically deny buttistance to someone in need based on the buttumption that the person is faking it, like the Cbuttey in the story I quoted.
To quote Joe Friday.....'Just the facts, ma'am.' That's all I think any of us has asked for....just the facts. -ginny
