From WWL-TV comes a story of two plucky little girls who started a lemonade stand for a good cause. Feel-good City, right?
For a minute.
Then we learn the cause:
The tumor can't be removed, only reduced, and Dewayne Pullens has had chemotherapy over and over, coupled with four brain surgeries, the most recent two months ago.
. . .
The goal of the lemonade stand is to pay for chemo treatments that cost more than $800 every six weeks, on top of the travel expenses to get the treatments at M.D. Anderson in Texas. The treatments are not for a cure, because there isn't one. It's simply for time and that's what these girls are raising money for.
The Affordable Care Act is far from perfect. The lack of a public option combined with an insurance mandate was a ripe plum for private insurers. Exemptions and ramp-ups weaken the law's cost-saving potential. I could go on.
But the law was and is a decent first step toward making sure more Americans can get screening and treatment for what ails 'em without destroying their economic lives and forcing families into situations like that of the Pullenses. Last week, members of the House of Representatives voted 230-189 to defund implementation of the law, offering no alternative.
Two hundred, thirty lawmakers voted their approval of a system in which 9-and-12-year-old girls sell lemonade to pay for their father's chemotherapy.
The girls raised a whopping $600 in their first weekend of lemonade sales and they're hoping to do better with the creation of a Facebook page and theme for their effort, Lemonade for Life.
Hmm. Still two hundred bucks short for this cycle.
If every one of those lawmakers showed up and plunked down a buck a glass, Dad could make it back to M.D. Anderson for another round.
How 'bout it, Honorables? Thirsty?
Update: Commenters have helpfully looked up the family's donation link for those who wish to help.