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That's damn progressive for that era. Nobody else would go near that subject.
President Bill & First Lady Hillary Clinton answered those cries for help.
And yes, on climate change, Gore should have been our President. That was his priority.
And I personally believe that Al Gor's Presedency was deneed him because of his brilliant & Progressive policies he would bring as Pres.
The Oil& Coal & Big money polluters of the world had to keep him from interfering with their profits by his environmentalist policies.
Thus, 2000 Bush vs Gore
On the Health of our Nation -1992
The Clintons, Gay Rights & AIDS
SNIP
Here’s what the Human Rights Commission had to say about Hillary Clinton’s national and international LGBT record:
“Clinton has a long record as a champion for LGBT rights both in the U.S. and, notably, around the globe. As Secretary of State, Clinton became the first in her position to robustly advocate for LGBT equality throughout the world, making a historic and forceful speech to the United Nations declaring that “gay rights are human rights.” In the Senate, she helped lead on bills to protect LGBT workers from employment discrimination, and had a strong record on key votes and legislation that mattered to LGBT Americans.”
Before President Clinton, no US President gave a damn about gay rights or the mounting death toll in the LGBT community from AIDS. This changed dramatically in 1992 upon the election of Bill Clinton.
Clinton set the tone for his presidency by inviting the N.A.M.E.S. Project to include sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in his 1993 inaugural parade. In his two terms in office, Bill Clinton never wavered in wrangling money in his budgets for programs caring for the sick or to preserve vital research funding for effective treatments and to find a cure.
How soon we seem to forget who our friends are!
When the AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed in the National Mall in 1992 it contained 40,000 panels and covered 24 football fields.
photo from NPR of the President and First Lady viewing one of the panels.
According to a recent story on NPR, from 1987 until today, the Quilt has grown to 48,000 panels – signifying the deaths of 94,000 people. Thru the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Quilt grew at a rate of 11,000 panels per year. Today it has dwindled to 1-2 a day.
Keith Molter shares his story of being at the Quilt in Washington DC in 1996 when by chance he witnessed Bill and Hillary Clinton visit the Quilt seeking out a specific quilt made in honor of a longtime friend of hers. Keith recalls:
It was stone silent on the vast Washington Mall. No fanfare. No hoopla. They simply went and we had stumbled upon it.
Silence. Stillness. They got out of their motorcade hand in hand and walked through the Quilt.
It was THE first time it was ever acknowledged by anyone of any higher level in government. They stood. They prayed. They looked at a few other panels. They wiped tears. We were 100 feet away. As they turned to leave, the still silence was broken by a squelching sound, like an animal in deep pain. It was me screaming “Thank you!” through my sobs, my voice cracking. They both turned. He put his hand up in a still wave and nodded his head -his mouth doing that mouth/chin thing he does. They turned and left.
I was there. They were there – maybe too late for some that we lost. But they were there as soon as they could – once the country elected two people who actually cared.
Now this is Democratic Progressive politics.
Environment, Health etc
Eventually, I believe the people of Sierra Blanca were spared thanks to the valiant efforts of Progressive Senator Paul Wellstone, but the dumping was relocated to another area owned by multimillionaire pal of (then) Texas Govenor GW Bush.
It was a case of toxic dump shopping of States & the profitting of the Big Corporate Millionaires who contracted that business.
It was a nasty classic case of the Little Guy vs the Big Corporation. What was on the line for the Sierra Blanca residents, was their health & their lives.
The toxic dump site simply got relocated but Sen Wellstone succeeded in single handedly saving the lives of Sierra Blanca.
Now THAT is a Progressive.
Mr. Wellstone fought on the floor to add amendments that would give this poor Hispanic community the legal right to stop this dump site if it could prove racial discrimination factored into placing the site, which Mr. Wellstone proved was in fact the case during his speech.
When it came up for a vote in May 1998, Sanders listened to 12 anti-dump delegates as they outlined their concerns. The next day, he spoke in favor of the bill because of its "strong support" in all three states.
Those amendments were opposed by Maine Yankee, which wants the right to sell off any unused space in the dump site, and Gov. Angus King and other state lawmakers, who said they would consider lawsuits a prohibitive delay to the project ever being finished.
If it were passed with amendments, the compact would also have to go back for approval to the three states, each of which has approved the deal. Voters in Maine gave approval by a three-to-one margin in a 1993 referendum.
When the House and Senate hammered out a single bill, supporters of the compact won out, and the amendments were simply tossed aside. Because of that, Wellstone has promised to force a fearsome debate on the issue and the overarching issue of what he calls “environmental racism.”
“I will use every parliamentary tool available to try and block this shameful bill,” Wellstone said.
Sanders eventually voted to have the Wellstone amendments stripped out of the Texas-Maine-Vermont Compact bill in conference.
https://archive.bangordailynews.com/1998/07/30/maine-vermont-nuclear-waste-compact-approved-by-house/
We need more Paul Wellstones.
A LOT more.
Fuck Susan Sarandon and her stupid philosophy!
Sorry. I just find it humorous.
Night DU.
It's (almost) the title of MLK Jr.'s book from 1967!
