Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Inner Conspiracy Brother Special: The Reagan Years

This conveys exactly how I believe Reagan felt towards the lower income citizens of America. During Reagan's administration, the government and particularly the CIA ran wild either under the orders of Reagan or with the permission of Reagan. I say this because when asked questions concerning controversial topics, he always acted as if he did not know about anything. Many people have spoken out about AIDS and drug trafficking, saying that Reagan was prompted to do something about both and he continued to do nothing. Let's get specific:

CIA outta control: Iran Contra and Drug Trafficking

The Iran-Contra affair was a black mark on the credibility of the American government because of the discovery of the government exchanging weapons for hostages and CIA destroying important documents which could have revealed other crimes. But honestly, this is not even all that important to me because I believe deals like that are made a lot and may be the easiest choice to solve foreign issues at times. My issue government-sponsorship of the drug trade. The Iran Contra Affair was probably the first true opportunity to create direct pipeline for drugs to come into the US. Furthermore, the Kerry Committee report concluded that the CIA and State Department supported and even facilitated Nicaraguans smuggling cocaine into the United States. It is also argued that it was a plan by the CIA proposed to the Nicaraguans to funnel the bulk of the drugs into the Los Angeles area once it entered the United States. Coincidentally (sarcasm obviously), the CIA during this era grew tremendously from a mid-sized unit into the giant component that it is today. I don't think it's very hard to conclude that it grew so largely from drug money paid to them for their assistance. I don't believe the government is helping anybody do anything, much less somethin illegal, unless they are going to make good money or take some other significant benefit from it. When did LA and other major cities fall victim to the drug epidemic? The Reagan Years. I'm not naive enough to believe he never got even a whiff of that money. I think a whole lotta people got paid to look the other way. As much as Black people in the hood get a bad wrap for selling drugs and destroying lives in their own communities (which is a huge problem), remember who brought those drugs to this country.


The Refusal of AIDS as a problem to the general public

The earliest scattered cases of AIDS surfaced around 1979 or 1980. By 1981, it was acknowledged by high ranking health officials to be a potential problem in the future. Reagan ignored these claims, understandable when you're looking at a handful of cases in the midst of so much that is going. By 1983, over 1000 cases and almost 400 deaths had been reported in the US. This could no longer be written off as a fluke or a figment of anyone's imagination. As many of the cases were reported in the homosexual community, it was easier to deny the disease to the general public and in more intimate circles only acknowledge it as being a "gay disease." Reagan's communications director publicly claimed that this was nothing more than "nature's revenge on gay men." Even if this were the case, by 1984, there were over 4000 reported cases and almost 2000 deaths. It was so widespread that people were organizing awareness rallies and marches because so many people knew someone suffering from the debilitating disease. One march, intended to bring awareness to the topic before the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco (a town most affected due to the high gay population) included over 100,000 protesters. Surely the President would have to acknowledge this now, right?? Nope. Reagan decided not to publicly acknowledge the need for research and treatment of the disease until May 1987; this is near the end of his last term so it wouldn't be his problem much longer. By this point, over 36,000 Americans had been diagnosed and there had been over 20,000 deaths. Furthermore, there were over 50,000 cases worldwide in more than 100 countries. Whether it was the result of homo-phobia, a desire not to accept this topic as an issue during his presidency, or some other motivation, Reagan let thousands die before he decided that AIDS was worth mentioning, much less devoting concentrated attention too. As the foremost public figure worldwide, the President could have had much more influence domestically and globally to start initiatives to research, treat, and prevent the disease if he would have tried to be proactive. We know what AIDS and HIV have done to the US and the world at this point, I believe that things could have been a lot different.

So at this point, without even talking about the details of Reaganomics and the way that it helped open the financial void between the social classes, I've presented the reasons why I do not like the man or respect him as a president. He had vital roles in ignoring problems in their early stages that could've put us in much better situations today. So to the late Reagan, fuck you very much, I hope you're proud of yourself.

Harsh toward a former President, Yup. I've been called worse...

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