Jill Costello: A Profile In Courage And Leadership. The American Political Class: Not So Much

Jill Costello: A Profile In Courage And Leadership. The American Political Class: Not So Much

I hesitated to do this article for a number of reasons. First, I could never do consideration to the the fantastically written article that the following paragraphs are based on. The article is entitled " The Courage of Jill Costello " and was written by Chris Ballard. It appeared in the November 29, 2010 problem of Sports Illustrated. Second, I know my writing cannot do authorization to the courage and leadership that Jill Costello exhibited during her tide. Third, I really hesitated to compare Jill Costello to the behavior of our political class in the duplicate article, the chasm of leadership and courage between the two is unbelievably wide.
However, I decided to go ahead anyway, with regretfulness up front, if I do not capture the fine writing of Chris Ballard or the courage and leadership impact of Jill Costello.
Jill Costello was a 21 year aged subordinate and a coxswain on the crew team at the University of California when nymphet was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, the most fresh pattern, even though butterfly had never smoked a cigarette in her life. The survival standard is about 15 % for this type of cancer. The article describes the fight that Jill put up against the cancer:
- Witch put up with 14 rounds of chemo treatments.
- Bird put up with radiation treatments.
- Filly put up with aches and great enervate
- Piece put up with nightfall sweats, skin sensitivity, puffy cheeks, liquid retention, her stomach swelled, and her ankles and feet swelled up so much that damsel could not bum shoes.
- Canary was wobbly and susceptible to the slightest illnesses approximating as a common cold that could lead to pneumonia in her wasted attribute.
- Deb took an unexplored number of pills.
- Daughter self injected herself with anticoagulant that always resulted in an instant new bruise.
- After many chemo sessions blonde was so spent that doll could barely stand on her own.
- Witch elongate her studies at Cal, attaining a 4. 0 in her final semester despite having to use a powered cart to get to classes.
- Lady graduated with her class at Cal.
- Debutante never stopped dreaming of getting back to the Cal crew team as the coxswain in one of their boats.
What impact did Jill have on other people while mademoiselle was undergoing debilitating treatment:
- Dame organized a charity run which into 5, 000 people and raised more than $320, 000.
- Nymph spoke at Genentech, a cancer research firm.
- Cupcake exchanged emails with a half a dozen cancer patients around the world.
- Deb was interviewed on NPR as a spokesperson for those lung cancer patients who never smoked.
- When returning from treatments, Jill and her family commence mounds of food deposited on their doorstep from friends.
- Her teammates, who had all scattered and homeless school for the summer when mouse was diagnosed, remotely put together two videos which they send to her to lift her spirits.
- At the beginning of the spring season, her teammates went out for a two mile run and when they reciprocal they had taken off their sweatshirts to make plain tee shirts that scan " Cal Crew Cancer Killers. "
- While female was in France looking for a treatment and cure, her teammates shed their typic Cal uniforms for their race with their most heated opposition, Stanford, and wore marked uniforms in Jill ' s favorite color with the Cal bear logo replaced with a embodiment of Jill. Where the word " Cal " typically was on their uniforms, " Jill " had replaced it. Needles to rehearse, Stanford never had a chance.
Now back to her fantasy of returning to a Cal underside. On May 16, Jill got into the Cal varsity eight bottom, and despite a grim nose that developed in the middle of the contest, led the Cal women ' s crew team to a consummation over Stanford which allowed Cal to become the 2010 Pac - 10 champions. On May 19, Jill fashion out that there would be no cure for her individuality, the treatments had not stopped the hike of the tumors in her lungs, bones, and liver.
Despite the bad medical news, gal spent the next week or so such a regular coxswain would have and went about the duties of any coxswain. And despite her mark, Jill got into the Cal varsity eight bottom and led her team to a second seat finish in the nationals. Less than a month subsequent, Jill Costello passed away.
What an incredible story. Jill Costello ' s courage and leadership is run-of-the-mill unparalleled in any story I have ever heard. Lassie was focused on having a positive impact on the world and her teammates, despite constant and thorny pain. As a honcho, bird made others around her better in what they did and who they were. Woman made courageous decisions to train and relay and support her teammates despite chronic pain and prostration, pain and exhaustion that most others would have succumbed to and taken the easy way out. Butterfly was a manager in so many ways, focused on positively impacting those immediately around her and many, many more that cupcake customary never met. Scatterbrained.
Now, not to diminish this main childlike female ' s ethicality and positive angle, when was the last time any of Jill Costello ' s adjectives were used to represent our political class:
- Courage - infrequently, if ever, do you find a lionhearted politician. They will hide behind the spin doctors and campaign managers lest they test to take a set that might irritate a voting joker. Always best to take the easy way out to avoid the pain and fatigue a chin-up benchmark might work in
- Leadership - rarely, if ever, do you see a politician say so up and tell the country the insoluble truth about what is verisimilitude and then lead the country to face that solid reality. Better not to endanger their re - ballot chances, the good of the country be damned.
- Focus - when has our political class ever focused on contrivance? The 40 year old hostility on drugs is low-key a losing aim, the 30 year search for a coherent energy policy is still wayward in the woods, we still having a blunder public school system, our borders are a gag when it comes to illegal immigration, and a whole slew of problems never get fixed. No focus, no solutions.
- Make Those Around You Better - politicians have called segments of Americans some frightful names over the foregone two years including racists, un - American, Neanderthals, members of the Klan, " the adversary " and other denigrating names. If we had any Jill Costellos in our political ranks, they would not grant this behavior to eventuate. A precursor would make all of us better people and cats, homologous Jill did to those around her and around the world. Our politicians would reasonably run down others for their own cheap political gain.
As we sit here today, our politicians are arguing over how to tax moneyed Americans, a decision that will have scant impact on a $13 TRILLION national debt. They denied a tender to moisten all of America ' s small business owners the burden of filing massive and unavailable paper work associated with the health care reform legislation, not because it was a bad idea, but owing to they did not have the courage to find and cut $18 billion from a $3. 5 TRILLION budget, a. 5 % cut. Forasmuch as, their dearth of courage will burden millions of American small businesses for no impetus. They are objection about how to cut the out of control deficit spending since none of them wants to be a true captain and accept the political hits that might arise despite what might be best for the country. No courage, no leadership, no focus.
I prayer I knew Jill Costello, Chris Ballard writes about an boss growing woman. I also wish our politicians knew her, knew her good thing, knew her focus, knew her compassion, knew her courage, and knew her leadership. I also hankering they would start stagecraft in her spirit for the good of the country, even if it is gargantuan and fatiguing and has downsides to their own personal political careers.