Jimmy V

I tuned into a college basketball game tonight (Davidson vs. West Virginia - great game), and, as it happens each year, turned out to be watching the Jimmy V Classic, the memorial tournament held at Madison Sqaure Garden in honor of the former North Carolina State coach who died of cancer in the mid-1990s.

I watched the end of the first game and then, as usual, ESPN showed Valvano's acceptance speech for receiving the Arthur Ashe award for courage in 1993. The speech is one you can't turn off. I remember watching it live, and now, I watch it every year. (It is re-shown during the intermission between the 7 and 9 o'clock games.) Valvano was, and still is, an inspiration. His messages are important. He says to spend some time every day doing three things: laugh; spend time in thought; and be emotional. When he gave the speech, he had cancerous tumors throughout his body, so his message was profound, coming from someone who knew his time was limited.

But what amazed me tonight, beyond his message, was thinking about the amount of money raised for cancer research. The Jimmy V Foundation claims to donate 100 percent of its donations directly to cancer research, and over the last 15 years, it has raised $80 million. I'm not sure what exactly that has helped to fund, but you hope it's being used intelligently and in a useful way.

I thought that it is unfortunate in a way that a private organization has to raise money for a deadly disease, to help seek a cure or at least better treatments. I turned to my wife and said, "Man, why can't the federal government fund cancer research better?"

And she made a good point: the federal government is busy bailing out banks and car makers.

I'm not sure we have our priorities straight on this.

The Jimmy V Classic is an important fundraiser, and Jimmy V has inspired millions to give money to help this cause. More people should spend time in deep thought, particularly lawmakers and government officials, to figure out ways in which public money can be used to fund new treatments and research, without having to rely on private funds.

But as I was telling my wife - perhaps the government isn't doing enough about chronic and fatal diseases like cancer because, if cancer was wiped out, there wouldn't be a need for as many cancer doctors, and ultimately the health care system would suffer the effects of this lack of treatment, from body scans to chemotherapy. I'm sure hospitals make a lot of their money because of the disease itself. Take it away, and it's a huge financial loss.