Column:
Cancer fight unites political foes
Published April 8, 2005
Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity president Steve Sternberg is not a likely candidate to receive my praise.
Case in point: Two years ago, a forum at Speaker's Circle concerning the impending war in Iraq eroded into a screaming festival. Not even the most stoic individual was safe from the passions of the moment. Sternberg was there, spiffed up in a forest green Washington University shirt and denim shorts. He held up a sign that said, "Peace is Patriotic."
I don't know if I exchanged barbs with him, but I did snap a picture with my digital camera for posterity before wandering away from the fray.
The summer came and went, and my focus shifted away from matters of war and peace. The quest for acceptance into my father and grandfather's fraternity, AEPi, was my top priority.
In this frantic time when I was trying to absorb everything about the brotherhood, I trailed into a room near the middle of a hall known as "The T," and found, sitting at his computer, the man who had been my sparring partner at Speaker's Circle just months before.
I soon discovered, after a long conversation, that Sternberg was more complicated than a faceless partisan holding a sign. Dubbed "Nebraska" by his brothers, he was a well-learned and high-strung fellow from Omaha with twin sisters, a love for music and an insatiable loyalty to his fraternity.
But as amiable as he came across through that conversation, it became quite evident through the passing weeks that the summer had done little to squelch Sternberg's radicalism. Arguing with him about current events was like yelling at a thousand-year-old brick wall — there was just no hope in making him budge.
Yet the game of politics once again took a backseat when I learned Sternberg's mother had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died soon after, leaving Sternberg and his family devastated.
Stories like Sternberg's are common throughout the country. An intimidating adversary, pancreatic cancer has rocked thousands of lives, and will take the lives of more than 32,000 individuals this year.
But rather than remain placid in the face of overwhelming sadness and pain, Sternberg's fraternity brothers have decided to rock back. We've taken to the streets for Rock-A-Thon, the largest fraternal philanthropy in the country, in an effort to fund the fight against cancer.
Since its inception in 1969, the event has raised more than $130,000 for the American Cancer Society. Over the next couple of days, AEPi men will dedicate their time and energy to trying to ensure fewer people experience losing loved ones to the disease. In honor of Sternberg's mother, we chose to place her son in the organization's most honored position — in the rocking chair on a stage at the corner of Ninth Street and Broadway. Sternberg will rock for 63 hours while his brothers canvass the area collecting contributions.
The goal is to raise more than $25,000. The only way we can meet this goal is if the real muscle of this community — the students at MU, Stephens College and Columbia College — contribute. Even the tiniest donation will go a long way in saving lives, and it will bring solace to families that have been through the hell of pancreatic cancer.
And while this momentous event will probably not bridge the enormous political chasms that separate us, Sternberg and I can come together to fight a disease that takes life, regardless of political persuasion.