Amazing cancer story

This week I post an earlier story for your study and enjoyment. For you journalists, see how I attempt to bring the reader into the interview by describing what is going on around us. It is a feature I did on a family and a controversial treatment for cancer. Please share this story with anyone you think would enjoy reading it.

Stranger helps Aledo family in fight with cancer

Christopher Amos

It sounds like a fairy tale: A loved one is dying of cancer after all treatments have failed, a stranger comes to the home and offers a mysterious homemade elixir, and then everyone is healthy and happy ever-after.

But to get to the fairy tale part, one must first go back to when Brian and Jackie Capers of Aledo, Texas were told their son was going to die.

“He was walking along beside us and leaning on me like he was being lazy and tired,” Jackie explained as we visited at their modest home. “I kept telling him to straighten up. Later on, he just flat-out fainted.”

Caleb Capers was diagnosed with an accelerated brain stem cancer called astrocytoma. The life-degenerating growth in the back of the three-year-old’s head blocked fluids, hindered normal body functions and was quickly spreading its roots deeper into the child’s brain.

“The doctors said we can let the tumor grow and watch what happens – basically, watch our son die – or try a new high radiation thing called gamma-knife,” Jackie said. The family decided on the dangerous but possible life-saving operation.

The following brain operations, five in all, were experimental last-ditch efforts to extend the child’s life. Then came the staggering news that destroyed what little hope the family held. The child now had two separate tumors.

The family was told the child would die shortly after Christmas and he was medicated and released so he could enjoy his final Christmas at home. However, Brian was not their normal son when he returned home. With much of his brain affected by cancer and conflicting medications pushing his life a month further, the child was almost out of his mind.

“His brain was frying. He was seeing bugs crawling all over the wall and he had to have everything in a certain place. He had horrible dreams. I just couldn’t see him like that,” Jackie said. “That’s when we called the guy.”

A relative had seen a small classified ad offering possible help for cancer suffers, and the desperate but skeptical parents reluctantly called.

He was a very simple man, the parents recall, and he came to their home in an older model white pickup truck. He put two bottles of clear liquid on the table with homemade labels and told the family his own son died of cancer before he discovered this medicine and he was now seeking parents who would try the remedy. He boldly told the couple that in three days Caleb would begin to act like a normal kid again.

“I hate to say it, but I flat told him to his face that he was full of it,” the mother recalled.

The bottles contained hydrazine sulfate, a controversial substance that has been both praised and buffooned for decades. The man left instruction for doses to be taken with fruit juices over two weeks.

“It must have tasted bad because we had to watch Caleb to make sure he took all of it,” Brian said.

“Three days after giving my son hydrazine sulfate, he started bouncing around the house like a normal boy,” the father recalled. “He started playing with his brother and running around. He was Caleb again.”

Brian said he later learned hydrazine sulfate, although used as a treatment for some cancers in a few countries, is not approved in the U.S. by the FDA and is normally available only in highly diluted forms as a dietary supplement. Some articles written by hydrazine sulfate supporters offer a “Big Brother” theory, surmising that a medicine which may be effective against some forms of cancer would tumble the nation’s multi-billion dollar cancer industry. Other articles on the internet flatly stat the elixir is a hoax.

At this point, the conversation is suddenly interrupted by a now ten-year-old Caleb as he bounds into the room shadow boxing and kicking as he makes “pow-pow” noises with his mouth.

“I like to exercise,” the aspiring super-hero exclaims as he takes more swings at an invisible opponent before leaping abruptly into his mother’s lap.

“It cost us nothing!” she exclaimed as she struggled to contain the bundle of energy squirming in her lap. “The man charged us nothing. He gave it to us for free! I feel bad that we can’t find him now, but look – I have my son.”

Jackie said the mysterious man returned once a few weeks after his first visit to check on Caleb, told the family to “enjoy your life,” and left.

Caleb still sees his doctors and his cancer is classified as being in remission. His parents report the doctors now schedule him for less frequent visits to monitor his progress.

“They were totally against it back when we told them we were giving him the stuff and they were very serious about it,” the mother said of Caleb’s doctors. “After a while they were like, ‘Whatever you are doing, just keep doing it.’”

Jackie reflects on what might have caused the drastic improvement of her son’s health.

“We can’t honestly say if it was the new medicine or God’s will,” she said. “We were praying for him and we had others praying for him and we gave him this stuff. Now look at him.”

 

 

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Freedom of the Press

Many of us understand it, but a few journalists erroneously believe freedom of the press is the journalistic right to print whatever you want – a shield against retribution for slandering, printing incorrect information or stretching facts.

My favorite journalism teacher, Millie Thompson (bless you, Miss T), taught the First Amendment in a way that scared it into us. With hands on hips she leaned forward like a coach and gave the class a serious glare, “Freedom of the press, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Do you know what they all have in common? Anybody? Anybody?”

Freedom of the press is a myth if you believe it is a shield.

Here it is in the Constitution:

 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

Congress shall make no law abridging (to cut short, hinder or curtail) the press. In other words, Amendment One means the reporting of, access to, the printing of, distribution and all the things that make up reporting news will not be hindered by law.

Amendment One is one of the reasons every AP Stylebook has a section on how to execute a Freedom of Information Act request, so if a company, government entity, police department or institution withholds information from you, you have the legal means of forcing the release of that information.

You have the Constitutional right to report the news. However, you or your company may be held responsible in a civil court if you slander or stretch facts, and no amendment is going to protect you then.

That includes printing an advertisement with false information that slanders a company or an individual. Yes, in a paid advertisement. It also includes quoting a source giving false information without you also reporting the opposing side. I attended an informative seminar by the Texas Press Association featuring an attorney who specialized in press law and he put to rest many misconceptions about what some reporters, including myself at the time, thought they could do.

I worked with a young reporter at a daily that believed she and the paper were shielded from the consequences of what she wrote because of freedom of the press, even when she stretched the truth for the sake of a good story. When I prevented her from doing such things she would say “Freedom of the press!” like it was “Shazam!” and would make me allow her to slander. She claimed she was a journalism major, but how do you go through journalism school and not know the First Amendment to the Constitution? She needed someone like Miss T to scare it into her.

I covered another aspect of Amendment One in an earlier post HERE.

 

Separation of church and state

Today, there is another story concerning separation of church and state in the news. City council members of a small New York town are considering banning prayer before their public meetings saying it violates separation of church and state. Many city councils, government boards, schools and chambers of commerce have considered the same matter, but the New York case is going to court.

It is approaching that time of year where my county courthouse erects a lighted Nativity scene on the east side of the courthouse square and self proclaimed atheists write letters to the editor in the newspapers saying it violates the constitution and separation of church and state.

So, what is this "separation of church and state" that keeps coming up? One side interprets the First Amendment as meaning there should be no religion in state, public and government. Another side believes separation of church and state is for government to ban religion in public and government places.

Both sides are wrong.

Here it is in the U.S. Constitution:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Once again: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

The Constitution states laws should not be based on a religion or favor a religion. Laws can be created for good, wholesome, moral, just and beneficial reasons, but not religious interpretation or to favor a particular religion.  Furthermore, Congress should not pass laws to hinder the free practice of religion. That's it.

Sound simple? Not so. With the most controversial legal battles right now - abortion and gay marriage - argument from some of our government leaders is based on religious interpretation.

Do you still think laws should be based on religion? Consider countries whose religious laws are the laws of the country. Think about what human rights are violated in the execution of these laws and you may begin to think our founding fathers knew what they were doing when they wrote Amendment I in the Constitution.

Amendment One came into spotlight in my area school district when morning announcements that once began with a reading from the Bible were reduced to a student reading a generic prayer and further reduced to a moment of silent prayer. When that moment of silent prayer was challenged, some parents protested sternly in school board meetings and the moment of silence stayed. My thought at the time was if you want to see parents get really angry, wait till a student faces east and kneels on a prayer rug during the silent prayer and the poop would really hit the fan!

The First Amendment has nothing to do with banning prayer. Neither does it give leaders the right to use religion to justify laws.

PS. Because the holidays are upon us I want to mention a 1984 Supreme Court decision, Lynch v Donnelly, provides for publicly sponsored holiday religious displays on public and government property as long as it contains secular holiday symbols along with the nativity scene.

Coming soon: Another part of the First Amendment, freedom of the press, and why what some journalists believe about it is false. Hint: My Ninja Journalism master, teacher Millie Thompson, used to say, "What do the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Freedom of the Press have in common? Anybody? Anybody?"

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#Constitution

#churchandstate

Take My Picture

This post has little to do with journalism, but it is a fun story and this is my blog, so here it is.

Some of the most memorable incidents that have happened to me in photojournalism have nothing to do with reporting or photography.

Many years ago I was covering the Moritz Basketball Classic and dozens of high school teams were converging on all the gyms of an area campus. A typical occurrence when you are carrying a bigass camera in a school is to hear “Hey, take my picture!” from some of the little kids. I usually at least quickly pretend to take a picture so as to not disappoint the youngsters, but one round face kid with a big grin kept showing up wherever I went that day. I believe he was the son of one of the volunteers because when I went from the high school gyms to the middle school gyms a few blocks away he would be there playing in the lobby or laying upside-down in the bleachers, “Hey man, take my picture!” It got to be a joke all day to see who could say it first.

When I had to do other stories on the campuses I would occasionally see him in middle school and later in high school and we would give each other a smile and a “Hey! Take my picture!” as we saw each other. I did not know his name and it was just “Hey! Take my picture!” for years.

Fast forward more years and I am getting out of my truck at a store and I hear this deep voice, “Hey, man. Take my picture,” behind me. I turned around to see this same round face leaning out the window of a pickup. It was Dan Pennington, the “Hey, man!” kid. We talked for a while about work he was doing with area kids and it sounded interesting enough to finally take his picture and do a story about him in the paper.



Hey, Dan. Take our picture!

Fast-forward even more years to last week. I was hanging out on a couch in a church and I hear (drum roll) “Hey man…..” Yes, it is Dan Pennington again, and he attends the church where I work (cue spooky music and fade to black).

Story: Nike Missile Base

This week I share one in a series of stories I wrote about the Alvarado Nike Missile Base. I post this for my friends in Alvarado, and for you journalism Ninjas, notice small details that help the reader see and feel what I experienced during the interview. I shared in the earlier post, Face-To-Face, that these pieces of "word candy" nestle well around quotes.

Veterans plan reunion at Alvarado missile base
Christopher Amos
The Alvarado Star Sept. 26, 2010

Farm-To-Market Road 1187/E. Davis Road, used to have a different name as it wound east out of downtown Alvarado. The view was different, too.

The road, which now meanders past Alvarado Elementary South and Alvarado Intermediate School, was known as Nike Base Road, and less than two miles from downtown one could see as many as 18 two-stage war rockets pointing to the sky 100 yards south of the road.

Such show of force so close to home was commonplace for residents of Alvarado in the 1960s – the Cold War was at its peak and America and Soviet forces were flexing their military muscles while keeping a watchful eye out for attacks from each other. In retrospect, it is alarming to look back and know that such a military installation probably put the city in the crosshairs of the Soviet military, or at least on hit list.

If so, the list was long. The United States installed 265 Nike Missile bases across the country beginning in 1953. Most had a similar layout as the Alvarado base with barracks, a basketball court, a helicopter pad, a mess hall, a giant domed Target Tracking Radar and a smaller Missile Tracking Radar raising high above hay fields.

In time, development of mobile missiles and airborne radar made the bases absolute. The close of the Cold War also signaled the end of the need to guard major populated areas such as the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex from air strikes, and Alvarado C-Battery 4^th Missile Battalion, 562 Army Artillery Division was closed in 1969.

Age and nature have taken their toll on the site after the base was decommissioned and the missiles, radars and machinery have been removed. However, memories of comrades and life on the base came alive for Alvarado veterans Paul DeGrant and Able Sanchez when arrangements were made with the current property owner to visit the base.

The land is now private property were Jim Hughes and his family have lived since 1989, and Hughes is allowing the vets to host a reunion at the site. Degrant said he expects about 30 veterans to attend.

“This brings back old memories. I could actually cry,” Sanchez said as he walked behind what used to be the mess hall and over to the building that was once his barracks. “I haven’t walked this much since I had my stroke two years ago, but I am so excited it gives me energy. It just makes me feel good being back.”



The Target Tracking Radar at Alvarado Nike Missile Base, 1966

Inside, Sanchez walked on cracked tile of the empty and destitute barrack, wrenched the handle of his cane and held back tears as he recited the names of his comrades who once bunked near him. Outside, the veteran recited radar commands he used 42 years earlier.“Regain beacon. Positive pitch. Negative yaw,” he said as he walked past a large cement slab were a radar was located.

DeGrant swept his hand across the grounds naming missing structures across the vista – a heliport, a hobby shack where some soldiers worked on remote control cars, a field used for football and soccer, and cement pads where numerous radars once stood. A large radar once rested on an octagon pad large enough for a house and a raised metal platform at the south end of the base once held a sweeping radar.

“This is hallowed ground here for these guys,” DeGrant said. “It is hard to explain. We lived here and we had the responsibility of guarding the United States. There are so many memories and feelings here it is hard to explain.”

The Nike Missiles across the country never had to take down an enemy aircraft or seek and destroy an incoming enemy missile, but they came close. The Cuban Missile Crisis of September 1962 had Americans in fear for their lives and the Nike Bases on full alert. An American U-2 spy plane discovered and photographed Soviet intermediate ballistic nuclear missiles being built on Cuban shores and in range of most U.S. major cities. President John F. Kennedy had a political stand-off with the Soviet leaders and the Cuban missile sites were dismantled.

“We came close,” Sanchez recalled. “That lasted nine days. We were under full alert and everything was fully armed. Guard dogs were everywhere night and day and the dogs were the only ones not carrying live ammunition. It was pretty intense.”

Story: A Peaceful Storm

Today I share with you one of the many amazing people I have had the pleasure to meet. I hope you have a wonderful day.

A Peaceful Storm

Christopher Amos

The Alvarado Star

January 7, 2010

 

There is something special about Stormi.

 

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see she has severe cerebral palsy ­­­– her movements are staccato, her arms twisted, her speech is strained and a wheel chair is her only mobility. However, there is something special about Stormi that might not be noticed unless you know her well, and those that do are profoundly affected.

 

Stormi Morris’ condition has made life a challenge. However, the Alvarado High School senior did not let that stop her from studying, competition and achieving – as much as possible – with her fully-abled friends and classmates.

 

With the help of her parents Chris and Lana Morris and a school district accommodating for students with special needs, Stormi has achieved more than many students with similar restrictions. When she tried out for and made the sixth-grade choir, it was a pleasant surprise. Six years later when she made varsity choir and then earned a position with the award-winning Alvarado Honors Chorale, some people were astonished.

Choir director Edward Smith was not at all surprised.

“Stormi has to try harder. She puts in more effort and more hours than any student I know, and that is what varsity choir is all about,” Smith explained. “Oh, yeah. She hits wrong notes and comes in at incorrect times, but so does everybody else sometimes.”

Smith and assistant choir director, Fran Leddy, oversee the choir program throughout the school district, and having a special needs student in the fold has not deterred them from giving adequate attention to all of their students.

“Treating special needs students like peers is exactly what integrating them into life is all about,” Smith said. “To tell you the truth, I believe having Stormi in the choir has helped us as much as we have helped her. The students agree and will not perform without her.”

 

Her parents would beg to differ on who is receiving the greater benefit.

 

“I can’t begin to express what the directors mean to Stormi and to us,” Lana said. “All her life she wanted to sing and all Stormi thinks about is singing in the choir. The directors have been so good to her. I can’t begin to tell you what they have done for her.”

 

She must learn everything by hearing, retain it to memory and be tested orally, because she can’t see or write.

“She is legally blind,” her mother explained. “Her eyes move constantly and she can’t focus on words or music, so she has to memorize everything.”

One day in sixth-grade choir, Stormi began vocalizing words properly for her first time. When her director, Leddy, heard her words, it brought her to tears – not because of Stormi’s progress, but because the words were so profound for the struggling girl in the wheel chair.

The choir was singing a selection from The Littlest Mermaid:

Up where they walk.

Up where they run.

I wish I could be part of that world.

Chris Morris knows Stormi cannot sing like her peers, but he knows his daughter has inner talent that makes up for her physical limitations.

 

“I know she doesn’t sing like the other varsity singers supposed to, but she has the heart of a varsity singer,” he said while distributing choir concert posters to area businesses before the group’s Christmas concert. “It is all because of the school district and directors like Mr. Smith and Miss Leddy that Stormi has a chance to do this, and choir has given her purpose in life.”

 

Smith credits Stormi’s parents for their diligence with their child. Her parents, however, believe Stormi is simply a hard working student that has been giving an exceptional opportunity.

 

“We always told her she can do anything she wanted to do, and choir has made our promise to her come true," her mother said.