Reagan and AIDS
Jun. 6th, 2004 01:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmRonald 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
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
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It's worth noting...
Date: 2004-06-06 02:58 pm (UTC)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.