The Good and the Bad
After less than 24 hours of the media's non-stop Reagan lovefest, I'm declaring Ronald Reagan the most overrated president of the 20th century. Certainly, I'm not saying good riddance or anything. It's a sad thing for his family and friends and I feel for their personal loss. Especially his wife, Nancy, who pretty much says her life "began" when she met him. And it has to be a million times more difficult to watch someone slip away slowly like he did. But...
I know he was popular when he served and he's certainly not the worst President ever *cough-W-cough* but they're painted a pretty unrealistic picture of how great he was. You'd think he'd tore apart the Soviet Union with his own 2 hands or something.
There are 2 things I always think of when I hear Ronald Reagan's name. One is positive and one is not. I'll start with the positive: His speech from the oval office after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. I've always thought it was a great speech. It was my first real memory of a politician and he seemed like someone to look up to that day and the weeks following. Let's face it, he was easy to like.
But unfortunately that memory for me is overshadowed by how long the Reagan adminstration ignored the growing AIDS epidemic. 40,000 americans had died of AIDS before he ever bothered mentioning it in a speech. Think of the thousands of lives that may have been saved if the government had started testing the blood supply earlier. Think about how much further along science could be in the research for a cure or vaccine if the proper funding had been given. And I know that just as it wasn't Reagan alone who ended Soviet Communism, it wasn't just him who ignored the AIDS crisis. But imagine for a minute, if West Nile virus kills 1,000 americans this summer and the President never mentions it... wouldn't that piss a lot of people off? Now times that number by 40 and imagine how pissed off I am. The president has a duty to protect all Americans and the fact that he'd allow the entire country to live in prejudicial fear & denial about a growing health crisis because he and his administration viewed it as a gay disease even long after science had proven otherwise is just wrong. Beyond wrong.
And that's how I'll remember Reagan. The good and the bad. Like I said, just because I don't agree with someone's politics it doesn't mean I wish them death but I also don't think we should pretend that he never did anything questionable in his life.
I know he was popular when he served and he's certainly not the worst President ever *cough-W-cough* but they're painted a pretty unrealistic picture of how great he was. You'd think he'd tore apart the Soviet Union with his own 2 hands or something.
There are 2 things I always think of when I hear Ronald Reagan's name. One is positive and one is not. I'll start with the positive: His speech from the oval office after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. I've always thought it was a great speech. It was my first real memory of a politician and he seemed like someone to look up to that day and the weeks following. Let's face it, he was easy to like.
But unfortunately that memory for me is overshadowed by how long the Reagan adminstration ignored the growing AIDS epidemic. 40,000 americans had died of AIDS before he ever bothered mentioning it in a speech. Think of the thousands of lives that may have been saved if the government had started testing the blood supply earlier. Think about how much further along science could be in the research for a cure or vaccine if the proper funding had been given. And I know that just as it wasn't Reagan alone who ended Soviet Communism, it wasn't just him who ignored the AIDS crisis. But imagine for a minute, if West Nile virus kills 1,000 americans this summer and the President never mentions it... wouldn't that piss a lot of people off? Now times that number by 40 and imagine how pissed off I am. The president has a duty to protect all Americans and the fact that he'd allow the entire country to live in prejudicial fear & denial about a growing health crisis because he and his administration viewed it as a gay disease even long after science had proven otherwise is just wrong. Beyond wrong.
And that's how I'll remember Reagan. The good and the bad. Like I said, just because I don't agree with someone's politics it doesn't mean I wish them death but I also don't think we should pretend that he never did anything questionable in his life.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home