Excuse me, Hillary, we need to have a conversation about that word — conversation. I understand that the task of eulogizing Nancy Reagan required you to search long and hard to find the right words. Clearly you did not search long enough or hard enough.
“And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan — in particular, Mrs. Reagan — we started a national conversation, when before nobody would talk about it."
Conversation — you used that word. I think it does not mean what you think it does.
Unless it means silence. Unless a new definition can be added to the dictionary so that conversation means years of silence — cowardly silence, criminal silence. But you cannot stretch the meaning of a word that far without breaking it.
There is one memorable time the Reagan administration broke its silence. At an October 1982 press briefing, Press Secretary Larry Speakes joked about AIDS, which was killing tens of thousands of Americans. He led a roomful of reporters in laughing about AIDS. From 1982-1984, the Reagan White House press briefing laughed about AIDS 13 times, according to BuzzFeed.
Maybe, when you said conversation, you meant ridicule. But I don’t think the definition of any word should be stretched that far.
in fairness, Hillary, I understand that here you are in the heat of an election. And the funeral of Nancy Reagan offered you the opportunity to look and sound presidential while reaching across the aisle. Indeed, if your goal was to deliver the eulogy heard ‘round the world — well then, congrats! You knocked the ball right out of the park!
But if your goal was to say something about Nancy Reagan that was not untrue while respecting the feelings of all those involved and showing empathy toward those of us who’ve lost someone we loved to AIDS — you missed the mark.
To ignore the Reagans’ criminal silence — years of it — and to ignore the laughter at dying people in the White House press briefing room, and to completely disregard the feelings of people touched by AIDS — that is inconceivable. And that word really does mean what you think it does.