General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSpeaking of Reagan and AIDS, a story of public ridicule and pandering to religious right.
This from The Forward in 2003. It's a tragic story of a president who would laugh at the crude jokes of Bob Hope while Mitterand and wife sat appalled.
Rewriting the Script on Reagan: Why the President Ignored AIDS
As we read about and discuss the history of the American AIDS epidemic in class, my students all Reagan babies, born between 1981 and 1985 are often dumbfounded when faced with simple facts. Although AIDS was first reported in the medical and popular press in 1981, it was only in October 1987 that Reagan publicly spoke about the epidemic. By the end of that year 59,572 AIDS cases had been reported and 27,909 of those women and men had died. How could this happen, they ask? Didnt he see that this was an ever-expanding epidemic? How could he not say anything? Do anything?
But the public scandal over the Reagan administrations reaction to AIDS is complex and goes much deeper, far beyond the commander in chiefs refusal to speak out about the epidemic. Reagan understood that a great deal of his power resided in a broad base of born-again Christian Republican conservatives who embraced a deeply reactionary social agenda of which a virulent, demonizing homophobia was a central tenet. In the media, men such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell articulated these sentiments that portrayed gay people as diseased sinners and promoted the idea that AIDS was a punishment from God and that the gay rights movement had to be stopped. In the Republican Party, zealous right-wingers such as Rep. William Dannemeyer of California and Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina hammered home this message. In the Reagan White House, people such as Secretary of Education William Bennett and Gary Bauer, Reagans domestic policy adviser, worked to enact it in the administrations policies.
Throughout all of this Reagan said nothing and did nothing. When Rock Hudson, a friend and colleague of the Reagans, was diagnosed with AIDS and died in 1985 (one of the 20,740 cases reported that year), Reagan still did not speak out as president. When family friend William F. Buckley, in a March 18, 1986, New York Times opinion article, called for mandatory testing for HIV and said that HIV-positive gay men should have this information forcibly tattooed on their buttocks (and IV-drug users on their arms) Reagan said nothing. In 1986 (after five years of complete silence), when Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report calling for AIDS education in schools, Bennett and Bauer did everything possible to undercut and prevent funding for Koops too-little-too-late initiative. Reagan, again, said and did nothing. By the end of 1986, 37,061 AIDS cases had been reported; 16,301 people had died.
..... I told one of my students that the most memorable Reagan AIDS moment for me was at the 1986 centenary rededication of the Statue of Liberty. The Reagans were there sitting next to French President Francois Mitterand and his wife, Danielle. Bob Hope was on stage entertaining the all-star audience. In the middle of a series of one-liners Hope quipped, I just heard that the Statue of Liberty has AIDS but she doesnt know if she got it from the mouth of the Hudson or the Staten Island Fairy. As the television camera panned the audience, the Mitterands looked appalled. The Reagans were laughing. By the end of 1989 and the Reagan years, 115,786 women and men had been diagnosed with AIDS in the United States, and more than 70,000 of them had died.
From my view in my life in the South, I saw and heard some of this scorn. I heard preachers using words that shocked me.
If anyone wonders why so many reacted strongly to Hillary's words, there are several reasons why.
I am sure it forces those who lost loved ones during that time some pain to see false homage paid to such uncaring political people.
And to those of us who watched and cared it reminded of a time in which fellow human beings were mocked and scorned by national leaders in our country.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)This wasn't mispeaking, this was Clinton making hay.....until she got a massive outcry of dispair from those of us who lived through those horrible years. Hillary gets worse by the day. I want her gone, outta here. Disgusting woman!
jillan
(39,451 posts)I was not politically aware when this was going on, but after seeing that movie I did my research. Absolutely heartbreaking.
I always say that in society there are groups of 'throw away' people - people that are in need and are ignored because their plight is inconvenient & they are not an important voting bloc. Very very sad.
Reagan was the worst President in so many ways. And this right here is in the top of the list.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Amazing cast.
DawgHouse
(4,019 posts)A most excellent film about those early years.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)I DO remember that in 81 or 82 Raygun called AIDS a "gay cancer." I know this because though I am straight, I do have gay friends. My brother was gay, and got AIDS in the mid 80s. Raygun refused to fund early research, and as far as I am concerned killed my brother, and many of my friends.
Be that as it may, I shall NEVER EVER vote for a RepubliCON in my life. I never have either. I shall vote against them each and every time in every race from dog catcher to president.
Every time I hear that name it reminds me of his shitty words, and I want to just throw the radio, tv, or whatever, out the window.
I come close to puking when I hear him brought up in conversation, and I remind folks that he was actually one of the WORST presidents of all time, and tell them the truth about all the other things that he and his cronies did against the PEOPLE of the US!
Nancy can go rot in hell, alongside her piece of shit husband!
JEB
(4,748 posts)RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)There are times when whoopsy works as an apology and there are times you must make amends. This is a time to make amends and not say whoops I misspoke. She knew she would be asked about Nancy Reagan she had hours to think of an appropriate response this wasn't it. I know some people would say it would be wrong to say Nancy Reagan made the world a better place on March 6th, but that is what I would have said. So, lets say she doesn't want to be that honest, she could have said that Nancy did great things to push stem cell research and just leave it at that.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)If that's what you think.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)I think you are far to easy on her though. Many people here have lost a friend, a lover, a family member, or a coworker even to AIDS. They know what silence on the issue caused. Some people like my uncle died because of tainted blood, he was a hemophiliac and could have lived a normal life span, but instead he died at age 55 of AIDS complications.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)I did comment on another thread that she used her attendance at a funeral as a campaign stop, attempting to manipulate groups she wants voting for her. Whatta gal! NOT.
I only knew one person who died from AIDS - he was a travel agent we used in my job at an international relief agency. No one spoke about it openly once he got sick. He just had "good days" and "bad days" and finally died. It was hinted at that he was gay- he mentioned to me he was in a "chorus." When the AIDS Quilt came to NYC I went to see if "Bill" was in it. He was, in a NYC Gay Men's Chorus panel.
Condolences to you on your uncle's death. This is a painful example of how prejudice hurts us all.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)An apology would be admitting what she said was wrong and seeking some way to make up for it. What she said was "I mis-spoke" - leaving everyone wondering what the fuck she was trying to say, then.
Her "apology" was nothing more than an effort to silence the issue she had created, rather than address it.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)ladyVet
(1,587 posts)Mbrow
(1,090 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Because we lived it.
mountain grammy
(26,663 posts)Republicans have consistently denied,ignored or outright lied about the shenanigans and misdeeds of the Reagan administration. Hard to hear the Democratic candidate for the presidency do it.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,947 posts)No politicians from either party wanted to stick their necks out and talk about AIDS or demand funding for research because the victims were mostly gay or injected drug users, and the politicians didn't want to be seen as too sympathetic to gay people or drug addicts. It was a terrible time and a lot of people behaved shamefully. I suspect Hillary was in a political bubble even in those days, and the politicians didn't want to talk about AIDS at all.
Skittles
(153,261 posts)who had friends and loved ones DIE of something the PRESIDENT REFUSED TO ACKNOWLEDGE - it will forever disturb me to hear any accolades for Reagan and his gold-digging wife
Rex
(65,616 posts)Their glee at the suffering of families and friends as they watched a loved one wither away and die painfully. Some might not have that understanding of the Reagans, but the rest of us are permanently damaged by that as children growing up horrified.
MuseRider
(34,136 posts)It made me sick. The fear and suffering and they laughed. Jesus.