In a message opposing what he perceives as the overaggressive treatment of prostate cancer in this country, Jim W. wrote in in one of the PC newsgroups: 

“It’s kind of like a lot of us are shooting before we take aim. In the Revolutionary War, General Israel Putnam rallied his green colonial troops with this cry:

‘Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.

“Translated to our situation, that would be:

‘Don’t get treated until it’s clear that you need treatment.’

“I understand and support that some men will want to go ahead with treatment ASAP regardless of their chance of success with active surveillance.  But those who make a choice of AS also deserve our support and respect. 

“After all, most of us are perfectly happy living with an appendix, yet an appendix can suddenly inflame and without treatment kill us in just a matter of days.  That makes me think the problem is in what we think and feel rather than the actual situation.