Comments: Laura - 2004-06-09 21:28:29 As far as Reagan goes, I've read recently posted transcripts of his press secretary making light of AIDS and fending off reporters' questions about it with jokes. Jokes. After reading that, I thought my sentimental obit I posted the other day was naive. I hadn't realized, till reading reports that surfaced this past week after his death, how Reagan had turned a blind eye to the AIDS epidemic that started burgeoning during his time in office. Both Reagan and Laura Bush put misguided convictions or personal prejudices ahead of suffering people. * * * * * * * * * * * * Eric - 2004-06-10 00:34:05 Everyone turned a blind eye towards AIDS. Don't kid yourself into thinking it was Reagan who was the face of apathy. Who was the spokesperson for AIDS in 1983? * * * * * * * * * * * * Andy - 2004-06-10 05:04:31 Reagan didn't utter the word "AIDS" publicly until 1987 when 20,000 Americans had already died from it. It was strictly a political stance, seeing as how he wanted to keep the burgeoning Christian Right, Anita Bryant types happy. And I got this from somewhere as well (sorry, I forget where, but you can google it easily enough): "In a 2001 speech on U.S. AIDS policy, C. Everett Koop, who served as Reagan's surgeon general, said he was cut out of all AIDS discussion for the first five years of the Reagan administration. 'Because transmission of AIDS was understood primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs, the advisers to the president took the stand they are only getting what they deserve,' said Koop, now head of his own institute at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H." * * * * * * * * * * * * wide-open - 2004-09-04 21:59:20 open wide * * * * * * * * * * * * Girls-Amateur - 2004-10-03 08:24:49 Girls Amateur * * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: your name: your email: your url: back to the entry - Diaryland