Statistics seem to indicate that men are as likely to get prostate cancer and almost as likely to die as women are from breast cancer, but as far as national awareness, it gets a collective shrug of the shoulders. It doesn't make sense.

 

"We can put it at its most basic level," said Dick Miller, a prostate cancer survivor. "It's men versus women."
 

Not every disease can get national attention -- heart disease, for example, kills eight times as many women as breast cancer. There's just too many diseases, not enough time. But it would seem some sense of obligation of, shall we say, fairness awareness, would prevail when it's so obvious how similar these two cancers are.
 

Is it because women, starting with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, are just more motivated and organized? Is it because breast cancer strikes women of all ages, while prostate cancer primarily hits men as they hit their 50s? Did breast cancer groups just get to corporate America first? Is it political?
 

Major League Baseball can swing pink bats and wear pink wristbands on Mother's Day for breast cancer - and that's wonderful - but forget about returning the gesture on Father's Day with the color blue, which is rumored to be the symbolic color for prostate cancer. Why is that?
 

Why do other professional sports, which draw a majority of a male audience, do virtually nothing for awareness? You would think the U.S. Golf Association, the sport of many middle-aged men, the sport of Palmer and Tiger Woods' father, would take a lead role. Not really.
 

"You don't see any President's Cup people wearing blue ribbons," Miller said.
 

Miller and especially Ed Sellers, leaders of a local prostate cancer support group, have been vigilant in raising awareness.
 

But it's a lonely fight. Sellers has stood in front of Wal-Marts passing out awareness cards and mailed his share of birthday cards from the American Cancer Society as a reminder for checkups. He senses, and rightly so, it's an individual fight.
 

The thing is, I'd say men, more than women, are reluctant to get a checkup. We stubborn macho slobs probably need the awareness and encouragement more than smarter women. Yes, it may be the dreaded digital exam and the more appealing PSA exam, but it's better than the alternative.
 

"If you do feel the symptoms," Miller said, "let me put this in the most delicate way possible - you're screwed."



Maybe one day the footing will be somewhat equal and pink and blue can work in tandem. It would only make sense. But first things first. Prostate Cancer Awareness month is September. I looked it up.