The drumbeat goes on, despite the commenter on the previous post, who merely offered an extended echo of the “they had it coming” response. I tend to agree with Matthew Rothschild.
Spare me the heapings of praise for Ronald Reagan.
He was one of the worst presidents we’ve ever had.
…Reagan was responsible for a woeful response to the AIDS epidemic, which needlessly jeopardized the lives of millions of people. He also consorted with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who called AIDS divine revenge on homosexuals.
Anyone who’s read Randy Schiltz’s book, And the Band Played On knows that when it comes to responding to the AIDS epidemic, just about everybody stumbled, especially in the days before we even knew how the virus was spread. The gay community was stuck between a mysterious disease that was killing gay men, and a new conservative administration that offered them disdain at best, outright hatred at worst.
The gay community stumbled, but recovered. They formed community groups to take care of those who were ill, to fight for them and their loved ones. They formed activist groups to demand an adequate response from the government. Once it was known how the disease was spread, the gay community took the lead in educating its members, and others, on how to avoid or reduce the risk of infection. It was a realistitc response, because the reality is that—while not having sex is a sure-fire way to avoid infection—absolute, lifelong celibacy isn’t an acceptable option for most people.
After all, these days AIDS is far from just a gay disease. And it’s unlikely that everyone is going to stop having sex.
Reagan, and his administration stumbled. The difference is, they stayed down. It remains that the Reagan administration offered no response, and then an inadequate response, to the epidemic because of personal disdain for the group of people it was affecting. Reagan’s attitude, from his own words, can be paraphrased as “They had it coming.” In the early years of the epidemic, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control, could not get money from the Reagan to study the epidemic and determine how it was spreading; that knowledge would have saved tens of thousands of life, if not more. The problem was that Reagan, and his supporters, never saw those lives as worth saving.
So let everyone else honor and mourn Reagan today. I don’t mourn his death or honor his memory any more than I would anyone else who had his level of regard for human lives; any more than I would for the average serial killer.
Instead, I will honor and remember the lives of those who died due (in part) to his neglect, and that of his administration.