Reagan and AIDS

[rm]

Ronald Reagan didn't say the word AIDS in a speech to the public until 1987. That this sin of omission is being recommitted in the endless coverage of his legacy that refuses to note this is appalling to me. He was our first AIDS-time president. And what he didn't do, and the vitriol with which he was reviled for it, is as critical to today's political and social landscape as anything else.

I don't think he was as craven as our current leaders (words I never thought I'd say). But people died because of him and the rhetoric he and his supporters spewed and perpetuated. In the 80s it was a perfectly normal idea that some AIDS patients were innocent -- meaning that many were not. That was fucking appalling; it remains fucking appalling.

It is the nature of being president that all of them must at some point take responsibility for terrible things. For people that were once here and are no more.

But it should never have happened like that.

And while he was an old man, with Alzheimers, and there may well not have been much of a point in being angry anymore, I can't believe that we are somehow supposed to forget that we were.

And while we're quoting Reagan in the comments -- read this folks: http://www.livejournal.com/users/insomnia/422922.html?mode=reply

Comments

[camfangrrl.livejournal.com]

Also, from a Reagan press conference, September 17, 1985:

Q. Mr. President, the Nation's best-known AIDS scientist says the time has come now to boost existing research into what he called a minor moonshot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the Nation's health workers and even its schoolchildren. Would you support a massive government research program against AIDS like the one that President Nixon launched against cancer?

A. I have been supporting it for more than 4 years now. It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be 126 million next year. So, this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer.

[rm.livejournal.com]

As I said above in a public speech by his own choice. I should have been more clear, and I will edit the above post to say so, but get the hell out of my journal, right now.

It's worth noting...

[reive-d.livejournal.com]

That Ronald Reagan continually tried to reduce spending on AIDS. The Congress kept giving him more money than he would ask for, and each time this happened Reagan or the Health Secretary would announce the "radically increased funding," in effect taking credit for that which he had actively resisted.

As for the figures quoted, $100 million in '86, over half a billion for AIDS research over the years, includes every dollar spent on immune system research. Money spent looking into the common cold, or leukemia, or the effects of chemo-therapy - all included. Despite the fact that those dollars weren't doing anything to help with actual AIDS research except in rare, unanticipated, peripheral instances.

Like so much of the Reagan presidency, this was all smoke and mirrors. If you read the book "And The Band Played On" by Randy Shilts you'll discover that early on the Regan administration decided to make "AIDS the nations number one health priority." Unfortunately that ammounted to little more than saying the words - time and again it was congress that forced the administration's hand, even while the administration denied congress access to CDC reports, budget estimates and AIDS statistics.

If you're looking for info on the history of Ronald Reagan about the last place you want to look is at quotes he made to the press!

My thoughts.

[00goddess.livejournal.com]

Although he made those claims regarding the budget, they were not at all accurate.

And please, 1986 is still too late. AIDS came to the US in 1976. That's ten years of people suffering and dying.