OIT M Turns 13 and Looks Back

BY PAUL COOK

his issue marks 0ITM’s

I 13th anniversary, so I

thought I’d take this

opportunity to revisit some head-

lines from February of ‘86 to see
how things have changed.

Just for fun, a few statistics:
The price of a gallon of gas was
about $1.30, a new luxury car
averaged $14,000, a four bed-
room raised-ranch, $85,000, a
two bedroom condo, $40,000,
and the economy was thought to
be on a roll.

Talk about an eerie familiari-
ty!

Dominating news on the
national scene, the space shuttle
Challenger had recently exploded
and NASA was knee-deep in the
blame game. President Reagan (I
never thought I’d be using those
two words consecutively again)
told NASA to send the
Challenger up as scheduled, in
spite of strong opposition from
experts who were concerned that
the boosters were not designed to
function in the abnormally cold
weather Florida was experienc-
ing that week. Well, at least
Reagan wasn’t getting blown in
the Oval Office, right?

Another frightening national
headline read,
Robertson?” It was Februaryof
‘86 when Pat Robertson became
a candidate in the Republican pri-
mary. The evangelist (con-artist)
explained that he was on a mis-
sion from God. “I’ve worked for
the Lord for 30 years now and
obviously he’s going to give me
instructions as to how to carry out
his work.” According to
Robertson, Jesus had decided to
use the multi-million dollar
media approach to preach the
importance of intolerance and
bigotry.

After the gay-bashing
Republican crusade of this past
summer, I can truthfully say that
some things never change.

Speaking of things that never
change, there was also a raging

“President '

war in the Persian Gulf in 1986.
A country involved in that war
vowed to do whatever it takes to
get rid of Saddam Hussein. Only
it wasn’t the US; it was Iran. And
guess who was backing Saddam.
Even though he was gassing his
own people, he paid cash for the
weaponry he purchased from the

The price of a ‘
gallon of gas was
about $1.30,

a new luxury car
averaged $14, 000,
a four bedroom
raised-ranch,
$85, 000, a
two bedroom '
condo, $40,000,’
and the};__economy
 was though-t
be on

US. That was good for the econ-
omy, right? I '

The political climate in _VT-
was-pretty lively then, ‘as well. I
remember--the hallway "outside
‘Senator Pat Leahy’s office being
occupied by a group ofpeace
activists protesting the support of
the Nicaraguan Contras. Leahy
said, “Let them stay. I hope that
they will come to m‘e with their

ideas. There is no question that

there are atrocities being commit-
ted in Nicaragua.”

Meanwhile, since Leahy was
taking such a wimpy liberal
stance, Republican Dick Snelli_ng
decided to challenge Leahyin the
upcoming election. He pulled no
punches during the announce-

  
  

ment of his candidacy; Fonner
President Gerald Ford was at his
side. At his next fundraiser,
Snelling was accompanied by
Vice President George Bush, and
Senate majority leader Bob Dole.
I bet they would have saved
themselves a lot of time and
money if Fred Tuttle had not been
farming at the time.

And how could we forget all
the damage done to the gay com-
munity due to the stereotyping of
AIDS victims. Whenever the
subject of creating AIDS research
funding from the federal govem-
ment came up, the right wing
went into moral outrage. A play-
wright named Brent Earle who
had lost seven fiiends to AIDS
went on a crusade. “I hope to pro-
vide a point of focus by deliver-
ing the message that together we
can stop the spread of AIDS now,
“ Earle saidmoments before he
embarked on a nine-month,
10,000 mile run to raise money
and consciousness in the battle
against the disease; .

‘ In reaction to Earle’s effort,
the always eloquent'Jesse Helms“
said, “A disease that can only be
contracted by -engaging‘ in dis-

 gusting revoltin_g_acts doesn’t
..‘*i;*‘d_ese_rve a‘ dime of federal fund-

5!

ing

" So, fast forward to 1999. The,

“God-fearing Christians” are on
an insane crusade to take down

‘ I H the first president to even remote-

ly support gays. It is sad‘ to see

that the Monica story got more‘ V .v
press coverage than the first

moon walk, and it’s far from
over.’ 7
, So, take a moment to be grate-

iful that ‘we have alternative

papers,_the intemet, public access
TV, hate crime and equal rights
laws, and elected officials who
dare to be openly gay. The advent
of progress can be slow and frus-
trating work. Sometimes it helps
to take a look back, just so we
can see how far we’ve come and
get a better perspective on where
we have to go.V

OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — FEBRUARY 1998 — 5

[Happy IS-fh Birthday
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