.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

So about that T-shirt.

You know the one. Lime green with three words printed on it, worn by a Rio Rancho firefighter posing in a photo with his sister, both with freshly shorn heads, both who in a cruel case of sibling symmetry were diagnosed with cancer within days of each other.

The T-shirt and the photo appeared with my column about the siblings on the front page of the Journal a week ago today.

The headline was “Siblings battling cancer find strength in each other.” Some of you found offense in those three words on the T-shirt.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

................................................................

For those who missed it, the T-shirt bore a cartoonish man extending a middle finger. Above the pointed finger was a pointed epithet expressing rage against cancer – and it began with an F-bomb. Not the actual word, mind you, but the “F” and the “K” book-ending two non-alphanumeric symbols – well, you get the drift.

Many of you wondered why the Journal would publish the finger-flinging F-word T-shirt.

“Why in the world would you put that in the paper?” reader Sylvia wrote. “No wonder this world is a mess.”

In the first of four eloquent emails, reader Wayne opined: “The mere fact that the goal in question – to fight or beat cancer – is a laudable one is not a justification for printing this photograph; the point to be made, however high-minded you believe it to be, does not give one carte blanche to say or do anything one feels. To think otherwise is nonsense and antithetical to anything resembling an orderly society.”

And then there was reader Peggy, who let it be known that she despises my “liberal” bias but disliked even more having to hide Saturday’s newspaper from the grandchildren.

“This isn’t civilized,” she said.

Neither is cancer.

So let me be clear here. This isn’t about trying to change your minds if you were among those who objected. This is my effort to provide a bit more context from my point of view. (Each person who sent in a written complaint or left a message with a return phone number received a personal response from the editors.)

Allow me to explain a few matters. After I interviewed sister and brother in their respective homes, it was clear that it would be impossible for our photographer to shoot them together, given their weakened conditions.

Instead, I asked the sister to send me some photos via email. She did. I wrote photo captions, processed the photos and went home.

I am told that the editors deliberated for some time on whether to use the photo. You know the outcome of that discussion. I didn’t know it until that Saturday morning.

I know many of you disagree with the Journal’s decision. I can’t say that I do.

The photo with the brother in the T-shirt was the only one I received of just the two of them together after their cancer diagnoses, and it was taken the night they and other family members shaved their skulls in support of the sister, whose long auburn hair had already been falling out in clumps because of the chemo.

In other words, it was a touching moment between a brother and sister facing a crisis together.

In other words, it was taken without me, a photographer or an editor present to question the brother’s choice of clothing – not that I could imagine doing so. Do I wish he had worn a different T-shirt? Sure. But only because I wish he or his sister didn’t have cancer.

The slogan on the T-shirt, it should be noted, is nothing new. It was made popular by the F C Cancer Foundation, a California-based charity that raises funds by selling T-shirts, hats and other items boldly displaying variations of the phrase complete with skull and crossbones.

That phrase was the battle cry of its founder, Brandon McGuinness, who fought Hodgkin lymphoma for two years before it killed him at age 26.

The foundation acknowledges that some may find its stark slogan too crude but explains its position this way: “We are sorry if you are offended or have a problem with the word. … We are offended and have a problem with the word CANCER!”

In 2012, I wrote about Gen Chamblee, an Albuquerque mother who created the Sierra Rayn Foundation in honor of her blue-eyed baby daughter. Sierra was 21 months old when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a horrific cancer that left her tiny body riddled with tumors and racked with vomiting. That little girl lost her fight 10 months later.

To channel her pain and her rage, Chamblee created the foundation and began selling fund-raising items, among them wristbands with the slogan, but with the F-word spelled out.

The context made perfect sense to me.

Using the F-word is provocative and certainly it should not be published with reckless abandon in the pages of our newspaper or elsewhere. Context, though, matters.

In the case of last Saturday’s column, It was life and death, rage and defiance, uncensored, raw and real.

That’s what this brother and sister are dealing with.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.