"It's A Disgrace To Celebrate George H.W. Bush on WORLD AIDS DAY," The Nation
The Nation, Dec. 1. "Its a Disgrace to Celebrate George H.W. Bush on World AIDS Day." The 41st presidents civility hid the vast nature of American state violence. By Steven W. Thrasher. EXCERPTS:
Just after midnight on December 1, World AIDS Day, I learned that President George Herbert Walker Bush had died. And I was dismayed not just that the hagiography afforded dead presidents would overshadow Bushs own appalling legacy on AIDS, but that his death would eclipse the tens of millions of lives we should be remembering today.
When I teach AIDS history, I always show a clip of ACT UPs October 11, 1992, ashes action at the White House, in which brave activists took the cremated bodies of loved ones who had died of AIDS and hurled them onto Bushs lawn.
But at a presidential debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot the day after the ashes action, journalist John Mashek asked Bush: Mr. President, yesterday tens of thousands of people paraded past the White House to demonstrate about their concern about the disease, AIDS. A celebrated member of your commission, Magic Johnson, quit, saying there was too much inaction. Where is this widespread feeling coming from that your administration is not doing enough about AIDS?
Looking annoyed, Bush listed what his administration was doing before saying, seemingly irritated, I cant tell you where its coming from. I am very much concerned about AIDS. And I believe we have the best researchers in the world at NIH working on the problem. But then he added: Its one of the few diseases where behavior matters. And I once called on somebody, Well, change your behavior! If the behavior youre using is prone to cause AIDs, change the behavior! Next thing I know, one of these ACT UP groups is saying, Bush ought to change his behavior! You cant talk about it rationally!
Bushs words are not just cruel; they fundamentally misunderstand what causes AIDS and how to effectively address it. And while he was nominally better than his predecessor (a very low bar) at addressing the consequences of AIDS, hed been unforgivably quiet as Reagans vice president. But as director of the CIA, vice president, and then president, Bush exacerbated the material conditions that allow AIDS to flourish in the first place; Bush created political instability in nations around the globe where AIDS would thrive.
He hyped up racism with his Willie Horton ad, by replacing civil-rights titan Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court with Clarence Thomas, and by vetoing the Civil Rights Act of 1990. And, of course, in starting the 1991 Iraq War, he set our country on a nearly three-decade-long disaster which has left millions sick, disabled, and deadmany of them LGBTQ soldiers and civilians...
MORE, https://www.thenation.com/article/george-hw-bush-world-aids-day-obit/
ACT UP's "Ashes Action" Sunday, Oct. 11, 1992 the White House, Washington, D.C,
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,884 posts)appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)People around the world suffered from decisions and policies that were his responsibility. Own it.
Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)I was right there on that day with my friends.
Thank you for posting especially on this day before GHW Bush is canonized.
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)when viewing the video. All the beautiful, committed and engaged people advocating for change from the needless suffering and death. Like so many others in the same situation back then, my younger brother was young, healthy and a wonderful, generous person beloved by all. He died 5 days after this event and had been involved in Act Up and LGBTQ activism in NYC. We must remember.
Peace and To Life ~ A.Blue
Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)Words are not enough to convey my condolence.
I lost some friends who were with me on that day. Your words are powerful because they're exactly how I remember all of them. And one beautiful mind, my best friend diagnosed during her pregnancy who died in childbirth.
Thank You
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)experiences and losses of loved ones we cherish like your dear friend. Thank you and take good care. Love the Josephine Baker panache glam shots, a remarkable artist who lead a interesting life in Paris and southern France, favorite places.
Nitram
(22,663 posts)the best thinking on the subject? I'm not talking about "gay behavior," whatever that is. Campaigns in Africa, for example, focus on the use of condoms, which is an enormous change in behavior for some cultures there. I believe the same is true in the U.S., where the failure to use condoms is still an issue, and the sharing of needles is still a common way in which the disease is communicated.
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)works, no harm using the phrase in that regard. But advocates knew that wasn't what he meant when he said 'change the behavior.' Rather and in effect, it was 'stop being gay,' ie the natural way you were born. Which is like saying- 'stop being an extrovert, a redhead, an animal lover, a lefty- handed person, etc.' My take and most people's interpretation.
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<Snip>: "But as director of the CIA, vice president, and then president, Bush exacerbated the material conditions that allow AIDS to flourish in the first place. For what causes AIDS? And why has it always so disparately affected black people?
Medical research and pharmaceutical interventions are important in dealing with the consequences of seroconversion and limiting onward transmission of HIV.
But AIDS is caused by broader social problems: homelessness, inadequate access to to health care, political instability, racism, homophobia, and the violence of capitalism.
>And on these fronts, Bush is guilty; his behavior matters. As a former head of the CIA, Bush created political instability in nations around the globe where AIDS would thrive. He hyped up racism with his Willie Horton ad, by replacing civil-rights titan Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court with Clarence Thomas, and by vetoing the Civil Rights Act of 1990."
Nitram
(22,663 posts)Bush did have some noble qualities, and he had some very destructive conservative tendencies. Cokie Robertson on
NPR this morning observed that all the talk of how "bipartisan" Bush was rings false. He vetoed 44 diffferent bills, about 4 times the number of vetoes by Bush the Younger and Obama.
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)has done several excellent programs on Bush, including the controversial actions and policies in Latin America, Iran Contra, the Aids Crisis and much more.
A couple journalists have mentioned that Bush looks even better in comparison to Trump and it's a faulty analysis. Cokie Robertson was correct.
The landmark legislation ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990 was supposedly spurred by the Bush family doctor who treated their daughter and urged GWH to enact it, according to some posters here.
A few years before the ADA when I worked at an organization for the visually impaired in Bethesda, I attended an excellent WH Conference on the Handicapped in DC.
Many people here are old enough to remember Bush's admin., so I don't know about the devotion going on, unless because of Trump and time he looks more benign now or something.
>Bush's legacy.
Nitram
(22,663 posts)He was a very polite person, I'll give him that. He had good manners. So did Reagan.
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)'a paragon of Wasp respectability' as journalist John MacArthur said on Democracy Now! this week. One time I saw Bush I walking down the aisle of a drugstore in NW DC. The SS had come through, I turned down a lane and there he was calmly strolling with his arms behind his back, looking at men's shaving items on shelves. I was taken by how tall, string bean and human he was, lol.