Gipper-porn

large excerpts quoted from the Chigao Reader:Chicaga Reader: Rick Garcia meets the SCLM:By Michael Miner

AIDS came in and the cold war went out with the 80s. How you remember Ronald Reagan, who was president for most of that decade, could depend on which of those two great historic events touched you more profoundly.


Rick Garcia, political director of the gay rights group Equality Illinois, hasn't joined in the national mourning. He happened to be in Springfield last Friday when a display of Reagan memorabilia was being dedicated in the capitol's rotunda.

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The ceremony was over, and the crowd had dispersed. Garcia got in line behind a man and his two sons who were signing the memory book. When his turn came he wrote: "My memory of President Ronald Reagan: Thousands of American men, women and children were dying from HIV and AIDS during his administration. The president did nothing. The president said nothing. Not until the very end of his second term was he even able to utter the word 'AIDS.' Reagan's silence and his administration's policies contributed to the suffering and dying of thousands of men, women and children."


Two other people in the nearly empty rotunda had also decided to write in the book -- Julie Staley, a reporter for WICS TV in Springfield, and Curt Claycomb, her cameraman. Having covered Blagojevich, they were headed to lunch, but before taking off they wanted to pay their respects. Staley says, "So I walked up there and waited for this guy taking an immensely long time. And I thought, 'He must really love Ronald Reagan.'"


Garcia continued writing: "I mourn the president the way he mourned these men, women and children -- with silence. May God forgive him, I can't. Rick Garcia." Then he went on his way.

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Julie Staley says, "... It was very cruel. It was inappropriate, and it made no sense whatsoever that he would do that. I was very incensed. I loved Ronald Reagan!"

... "I turned the page," she says. "I said, 'I'm not signing on that page.' I wrote my thing, and the photographer wrote his thing. As we were getting ready to leave we saw a security guard walking up, and the photographer mentioned it to him. He said, 'Some guy wrote something defamatory.' You know, you don't write hate messages in a public book."


Just then, Garcia happened to walk back into the rotunda. He saw a guard, a TV reporter, and a cameraman gathered at the memory book. He heard the guard say, "Was it the guy with two kids?" and the reporter respond, "No. It's signed 'Rick Garcia.'" He headed toward them.

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Garcia e-mailed me his version of their confrontation. "She walked toward me and screeched 'That is just tasteless and classless.' She repeated 'You are tasteless!' I told her 'Speaking the truth is not classless.' The cop said 'Why don't you show some respect.' 'Why didn't President Reagan show some respect?' I replied and walked away. As I walked away the reporter shouted at me 'You are classless, totally tasteless. You are a big loser.' She repeated that a couple of times."


"I don't deny that I said that," says Staley.

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Garcia writes, "I called the station to complain. I was told that someone would call me back. No one did. I called again and said that I wanted to submit a formal complaint and indeed I told the woman that I would not go away silently that I would pursue this. No one from the station has called. . . . In my thirty years of activism I have had many many occasions to have interaction with reporters. Never have I encountered such unprofessional behavior. I want to lodge an official complaint."