EDITORIAL: Laurels & lances: A public battle with cancer, a wayward officer

May 14—Laurel: To a brave journey. State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, made a hard and honest announcement Tuesday. She has Stage 1 breast cancer.

She isn't the first woman in the public eye to battle the disease or even the first legislator to face a diagnosis while serving. What she is, though, is remarkably forthcoming about a personal issue that affects many Pennsylvanians who struggle with it in silence.

In an interview with the Trib, she detailed her journey from the highs of a November election win that moved her into the high ranking seat of Senate majority leader, the first woman to hold that job. In December, she had the low of her cancer diagnosis.

"My regular screening was late because it would've been right when (the covid pandemic) started," Ward said. "It hasn't been late for 36 years, but that's how they caught it."

Ward said she had surgery and is receiving treatment. She was also very forthcoming about further plans for mastectomy and reconstructive surgery after finding she has the BRCA gene, which indicates breast cancer susceptibility.

She also discussed the role of insurance in her care and in state legislation, which points to an understanding and perspective that would be valuable in Senate health care discussions going forward — especially given high rates of breast cancer in Pennsylvania.

We join her family and friends in wishing the best for Ward as she undergoes treatment and pursues a steady recovery.

Lance: To failing to serve and protect. Former Mt. Pleasant police officer John Brown is on the other side of the law now.

On Monday, Brown was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison and another five years probation. He was convicted by a Westmoreland County jury in October for sexual assaults at an Allegheny County bar in 2014, a Donegal home in 2015 and at North Park in Allegheny County during a police-sponsored rib festival also in 2014.

He will receive 2 1/2 years for time already served, making him eligible for parole in 2023 — far short of the 25 to 50 years prosecutors requested.

Brown did not just violently assault the women in question. He violently assaulted the responsibility he had to his community.

Police officers might not be saints. They are human. They get scared or nervous and make mistakes. But nothing about these crimes was a mistake. They were choices. And now he has time to think about them.

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