Ronald Reagan

My mother told me years ago about how when John Kennedy died one of her few Republican friends was not at all sad, possibly a little happy. She said everyone wanted to kill her. Now I'm the one in that position. Gloria is barely speaking to me. I still remember when I first learned that she had voted for Reagan -- I was appalled! Our politics are fairly similar in general moderate to liberal. I'm a little to the left of her, but not by much. The major difference, I think, was our age. She's only two years younger than me, but in this instance I think those years made all the difference. I voted against Reagan the first time in the Fall of my Sophmore year in college. She was still in Highschool then, a senior I think. I spent very little time watching or reading the news when I was in college. All I knew of Reagan before I voted was that he was VERY conservative, and that he was so stupid he confused carbon monoxide with carbon dioxide and said that trees create more pollution than cars! That was enough for me. I honestly can't remember anymore whether I voted for Carter or Anderson I was still debating on the bus on the way to the polls. When Reagan won Yale College mourned. People like the Bushies notwithstanding, Yale College was VERY liberal when I was there. It had been the Berkeley of the East during the Viet Nam war protests and the student body was overwhelmingly liberal. One guy I knew was for Reagan and we banned him from our room the day after election day because his glee was too annoying.
The next time I gave much thought to Reagan was when he was shot. I was walking past the common TV room that day and saw an inordinately large crowd, I stopped to ask what had happened, they told me Reagan was shot! Wow, I said, "Is he dead?" No, they replied, indicating that he was supposed to be OK. My response was "bummer" which got a huge laugh, not because I was so funny, but because I was about the 10th person to react in just that way. I came into the room and watched the coverage for a while and another 5-10 people after me had the same conversation with the crowd, until we started pre-empting them by answering "What happened" with "Reagan was shot, no he's not dead, and yes it is a bummer."
We didn't really wish him dead, don't come after me secret service, it's just that there was a little part of us that knew that life for the minority populations in the country would be a lot better if he were.
I am neith black nor gay, but many of my best friends are and so I relate to these two groups who will NEVER forgive RR for the suffering they endured as a direct result of his policies. There is little question that he was both mildly racist and rabidly homophobic. No doubt he comforted himself that the latter would suffer during the apocolypse that he truly believed would come to Earth some day. He steadfast refusal to do ANYTHING about AIDS, not even mentioning the word until 1985 cost millions their lives. With sufficient funding and proliferation of information, the US deaths from AIDS could have been GREATLY reduced. I will always hate him for that.
I personally felt the pinch of Reaganomics a few months after his inauguration. In my first two years of College, when you took out a student loan for $2500 you received, oddly enough, $2500. Not after Reagan. Then you recieved $2350 approximately. You were pre-paying interest, we were told. We were having to pay points like we were buying a home, we knew. It was a gyp, one of thousands that he inflicted on the people who need government the most.

Iraq I

OK, I've no idea what to do here, but lately, I've been frustrated about the news out of Iraq that is supposed to be surprising, but it seems I knew about a lot of this months if not years ago. However, I have no record of what I knew when before this stupid war. Therefore, I'm going to use this blog to keep track of my world view as it evolves then I'll be able to look back.

News for the day: Ashcroft announces lots of terrorist chatter. They know nothing concrete, of course, but they aren't even raising the alert level, so what does it mean??? who knows. Another CYA announcement. Also, some are claiming that it is politically motivated -- scare people into returning their support to Bush. NOT gonna work.

I'm not sure whether Bush will be remembered as the worst President ever, but I'm confident he will be in the bottom 5. He has no idea what he is doing. Instead he goes by his gut, which he interprets as divine inspiration!! I wonder how many decades we will suffer as a result of this Iraq folly. If we had ONLY stayed in Afghanistan, built up that country and really cripled Al Quada, think where we might be today.

Tonight I watched "The Fog of War" -- documentary about Robert McNamera (sec'y of Defense under Kennedy & Johnson). He states that we should never invade another country unilaterally. That if we cannot convince other countries with similar interests (ie: Western Europe) that what we want to do is necessary, than we should re-examine our need to go to war. Basically saying that the disagreement of major allies should be a red flag that we are NOT on the side of the angels, and might not accomplish our goal. GOD how I wish Bush would have seen that movie before he invaded Iraq. Almost 800 soldiers have died there so far, Lord knows how many have been wounded, and how many dead and wounded Iraqi's are there. Soooo sad. What must God feel when events like this occur. The sheer waste of human life must be heartbreaking!