You're an idiot.
On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 3:51 PM, Tommy News <[email protected]> wrote: > Reagan took about six years before he even mentioned the term "AIDS". > His fundie beliefs backed up his homophobic friends like Jerry > Falwell, etc. who went around screaming and preaching that gays > deserved to die and AIDS was their punishment from God. Reagan > abandoned his gay friends from Hollywood in favor of Conservative > politics. > > During those years of silence, thousands of deaths and many thousands > of infections could have been prevented if Reagan had simply spoken > out, and ordered prevention, treatment, and research. Reagan was > indeed directly responsible for all those deaths and infections due to > his inaction and silence. > > Ronnie did NOTHING while thousands of people died. > > Nothing beats diversity, especially when it's a diversity of scary-stupid. > > > On 2/7/11, THE ANNOINTED ONE <[email protected]> wrote: > > Shit Tommy, I can't get a 20 dollar hooker to screw me without a > > condom yet 17,000 more gays per year are infected in the US because of > > this simple item.... > > > > Again..... Why should I care about an IDIOT ??? > > > > On Feb 7, 4:57 pm, Tommy News <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Ronald Reagan’s Real Legacy: Death, Heartache and Silence Over AIDS > >> by Karen Ocamb on February 6, 2011 | 12:12 PM > >> > >> Reagan AIDSgate poster via ACT UP New York > >> America is gushing Sunday over former President Ronald Reagan in > >> recognition of what would have been his 100th birthday. Produced by > >> Reagan groupies, the long-weekend celebrations at the newly primped > >> Reagan Library and Museum in Simi Valley are glitzy and reverent > >> evocations of an imagined man. > >> > >> In this white-washed version of history, Reagan, not Soviet Prime > >> Minister Mikhail Gorbachev (remember “glasnost,” “perestroika,” and > >> the impact of Levis, Coke and “Dynasty”?) is credited with “tearing > >> down” the Berlin Wall; the trillion dollars in debt Reagan wracked up > >> during his “conservative” presidency is ignored; “supply-side” or > >> “trickle-down” economics” still works, even though theory-originator > >> David Stockman says it doesn’t; the Reagan-approved secret Iran-Contra > >> scandal was patriotic, not subversive; and he is still the “Great > >> Communicator” – who conned working-class “Reagan Democrats” while > >> catering to the rich, creating a huge surge in homelessness, reveling > >> in unchecked deregulation and extolling union-busting with the mass > >> firing of the over-worked, striking PATCO flight controllers – even > >> before there were trained replacements. > >> > >> After the depraved Vietnam War, the perennial dark and disgraced > >> Richard Nixon, the short-term Gerry Ford and the confusing Jimmy > >> Carter (who orchestrated the Middle East Peace talks but couldn’t free > >> the Iran hostages or prevent long gas lines) – Reagan, the “ah-shucks” > >> bad B-movie actor (Bedtime for Bonzo), huckstered his scripted > >> “vision” of “Morning in America” viewed from some exceptional shiny > >> city on the hill. Reagan was the imaged Mount Rushmore president, the > >> right wing conservatives’ longed-for King Arthur who would crush the > >> Democratic Dream of FDR and the Kennedys and anyone who believed in > >> social and economic justice promised by the “counter-culture”1960s. > >> He’d already proven his anti-Communist bona fides appearing in 1947 as > >> a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee. > >> > >> For LGBT people, Ronald Reagan’s presidency was the far different > >> “mourning in America.” And unlike Nixon who was forced to resign for > >> covering up the political Watergate scandal, Reagan didn’t even bother > >> covering up his cold disdain, his deliberate neglect, his abject > >> refusal to help gay men stricken in 1981 by a strange new communicable > >> disease that turned out to be AIDS. But there was no “AIDSgate” for > >> Reagan; the White House agreed with the Religious Right that gays > >> deserved what they got – they deserved to die. > >> > >> Rev. Jerry Falwell, head of the Moral Majority, said, “AIDS is the > >> wrath of God upon homosexuals.” Patrick Buchanan, Reagan’s Press > >> Secretary, said AIDS was “nature’s revenge on gay men.” Antigay Gary > >> Bauer, Reagan’s domestic policy advisor, kept Surgeon General C. > >> Everett Koop (selected because he was an anti-abortion Christian > >> fundamentalist) away from Reagan: > >> > >> ”[In 1986] President Reagan asked the surgeon general to prepare a > >> report on AIDS as the United States confirmed its ten-thousandth case. > >> Leaders of the evangelical movement did not want Koop to write the > >> report, nor did senior White House staffers who shared Koop’s > >> evangelical convictions. As Dr. Koop related to me, “Gary Bauer > >> [Reagan's chief advisor on domestic policy] … was my nemesis in > >> Washington because he kept me from the president. He kept me from the > >> cabinet and he set up a wall of enmity between me and most of the > >> people that surrounded Reagan because he believed that anybody who had > >> AIDS ought to die with it. That was God’s punishment for them.” > >> > >> In his extraordinary book And The Band Played On about the early > >> history of the AIDS epidemic, gay journalist Randy Shilts, who later > >> died of AIDS, wrote that two events dramatically changed the course of > >> AIDS in America. The first was the announcement that closeted gay > >> movie star Rock Hudson had AIDS and the second was the report by Koop. > >> > >> In an interview with me for the 25 anniversary of the June 5, 1981 CDC > >> report of six gay men with what turned out > >> > >> Rock Hudson - publicity photo > >> to be AIDS, Hudson’s publicist Dale Olson said Reagan called his > >> longtime friend in July 1985 when Hudson was in a Paris hospital > >> desperately looking for a cure for AIDS. Nonetheless, the “Great > >> Communicator” remained silent. It’s not as if Reagan was unaware of > >> AIDS by then: on April 23, 1984, the CDC had reported 4,177 case and > >> 1,807 deaths – something that came to the attention of the National > >> Democratic Convention when a candlelight vigil of more than 100,000 > >> people marched from the Castro to Moscone Center. > >> > >> California Rep. Henry Waxman, who held the first congressional hearing > >> on the disease at the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in Los > >> Angeles in 1983, wrote Washington Post in late 1985: > >> > >> “It is surprising that the president could remain silent as 6,000 > >> Americans died, that he could fail to acknowledge the epidemic’s > >> existence. Perhaps his staff felt he had to, since many of his New > >> Right supporters have raised money by campaigning against > >> homosexuals.” > >> > >> Reagan finally mentioned the word “AIDS” in October 1986 and was > >> virtually forced to deliver his first major speech on AIDS on May 31, > >> 1987 on the eve of the Third International Conference on AIDS in > >> Washington. He was the invited by Elizabeth Taylor to speak at a > >> fundraiser for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, which Hudson > >> helped start with a $250,000 grant given to Taylor. (Here’s a link to > >> Reagan’s entire speech.) Outside the tented-event were protesters and > >> yet another candlelight vigil. > >> > >> Shilts wrote about Reagan’s 20-minute speech: > >> > >> “Reagan’s program, of course, would do very little to actually stop > >> the spread of AIDS. Though testing heterosexuals at marriage license > >> bureaus created the illusion of action, very few of thse people were > >> infected with the virus and very few lives would be saved. But then > >> saving lives had never been a priority of the Reagan administration. > >> Reagan’s speech was not meant to serve the public health; it was a > >> political solution to a political problem. The words created a stance > >> that was politically comfortable for the president and his adherents; > >> it was also a stance that killed people. Already, some said that > >> Ronald Reagan would be remembered in history books for one thing > >> beyond all else: He was the man who had let AIDS rage through America, > >> the leader of the government that when challenged to action had placed > >> politics above the health of the American people.” > >> > >> And not once did Ronald Reagan utter the word “gay.” > >> > >> Shilts: > >> > >> “By the time President Reagan had delivered his first speech on the > >> epidemic, of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 36,058 Americans had > >> been diagnosed with the disease; 20, 849 had died.” > >> > >> Photo from WebMD's history of AIDS > >> -www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/slideshow-aids-retrospective > >> > >> On the USAID website, the statistics read: > >> > >> “In 2009, 33.3 million people around the world were living with > >> HIV/AIDS. More than 60 million people have been infected with HIV > >> since the pandemic began. AIDS is the leading cause of death in > >> Sub-Saharan Africa, and the fourth leading cause of death > >> globally…..Almost 5,000 people die every day due to AIDS. AIDS caused > >> 1.8 million deaths in 2009. An estimated 25 million people have died > >> from HIV-related causes since the beginning of the pandemic….There > >> were 2.6 million new HIV infections in 2009, or almost 7,200 people > >> per day.” > >> > >> The terrible irony for LGBT people is that in the very beginning of > >> the epidemic there was hope that Ronald Reagan would DO something. > >> There was precedent for the government acting quickly to stem a public > >> health crisis. In 1976, just five years earlier, the government rushed > >> to stop an outbreak of Legionnaires disease at an American Legion > >> convention in Philadelphia. > >> > >> (Corrected) And perhaps even more importantly, in 1978, as former > >> governor of California, Reagan publicly opposed the Briggs Initiative > >> – the antigay measure proposed by associates of Rev. Jerry Falwell and > >> Anita Bryant. Opposition by the hugely popular governor helped > >> significantly in the measure’s defeat. As a result, Reagan received > >> gay support in his presidential bid against Jimmy Carter in 1980, as > >> well as the more effective Religious Right. > >> > >> But once in office, Reagan turned his back on the gay friends and > >> staff he and his wife Nancy had known for years. > >> > >> Most historians and political pundits will look at the ripple effect > >> Reagan’s two terms in office – from 1981-1989 – continues to have on > >> American politics. But for many LGBTs, myself included, I cannot hear > >> the man’s name without thinking of so many other names now effectively > >> wiped from the collective memory – names like Michael Callen and Paul > >> Monette and Connie Norman and Wayne Karr. So many names – and with > >> each name, memories of joy and rage and a kind of spirituality in > >> confronting death with dignity – in spite of the government’s > >> disgusting deliberate neglect. > >> > >> Names Project AIDS Quilt - via WebMD > >> -www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/slideshow-aids-retrospective > >> > >> Former President Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004 – 23 years to the > >> day when the CDC’s first report on AIDS appeared. Reagan had > >> apparently been living in seclusion with Alzheimer’s Disease — the > >> progressive disease that causes loss of memory and mental abilities. > >> People gushed for a week remembering the “Great Communicator” who was > >> entombed at his grand presidential library and museum like a political > >> Elvis: Simi Valley as the political Graceland. There his groupies > >> gather again, while those of us who remember his legacy of horror, > >> neglect and death still struggle with an un-ending heartbreak of what > >> might have been had our government cared and our friends not ... > >> > >> read more » > > > > -- > > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > > > * Visit our other community at > > http://www.PoliticalForum.com/<http://www.politicalforum.com/> > > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > > -- > Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time. > Have a great day, > Tommy > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at > http://www.PoliticalForum.com/<http://www.politicalforum.com/> > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
