Daily Herald opinion: Something still to say: Let’s put politics aside and concentrate on the example Biden can be now
“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”
In announcing to the world this week that former President Joe Biden has Stage 4 prostate cancer, Joe and Jill Biden evoked “A Farewell to Arms,” Ernest Hemingway’s unsparing and unromanticized account of World War I. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” he wrote, adding they are grateful to friends and supporters who are “lifting us up with love and support.”
The line about broken places is frequently taken alone as a popular quote, to express how adversity can strengthen a person’s character and resolve. It changes meaning somewhat in full context, as Hemingway’s doomed couple, Henry and Catherine, are allowed mere snatches of joy amid the backdrop of hopeless chaos and destruction.
Similarly, Biden’s announcement, against the backdrop of chaos that is our current America, is in danger of being buried under a feverish political debate. That, plus recent revelations about his cognitive decline while still in office, threaten to overwhelm a lifetime of public service. To be sure, there are important questions that need answers, among them: When was he diagnosed with cancer? Did his overall health affect his day-to-day abilities as president? Did his physician speak accurately when he said Biden was fit to serve, after his final routine physical in February 2024?
We are confident those, and other answers, will come in time. Biden will not run for office again. The country has no immediate need to know how his health would impact public policy or the efficient running of government. Indeed, we have no doubt the truth will eventually be revealed more through the work of skilled, dedicated reporters than through shrill calls for immediate investigations.
So, can we now try to be patient, avoid politicizing this news and quit arguing about what might have been? Instead, let’s just have some respect and sadness for a former president who is facing a difficult time.
Indeed, Biden is in a position now to use this news to make an enormous impact of a different sort. Like Ronald Reagan, who went public with his Alzheimer’s diagnosis after he retired, and our own Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, who openly discussed the impending end of his life from pancreatic cancer, Biden can take the lead on living with prostate cancer and urging men of all ages — but particularly in their 40s and 50s — to get tested. The former president has reason to be optimistic despite his Stage 4 diagnosis, since incredible strides in treatment have been made even in just the last few years. Moreover, some of those treatments have been developed using federal money invested in research by Biden's own cancer “moonshot” initiative.
When Reagan talked about his journey with Alzheimer’s no one cared about his politics. People of all faiths listened to, and revered, Bernardin. Now, let us hear from Biden. The man still has something to say.