On 12-18, Ryan Whites Lawyers responded to Mike Huckabee's refusal to retract his statement 15 years ago that people living with AIDS should be isolated, the attorneys for Ryan White, a teenager who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion and died of AIDS-related illness in 1990, have written a letter to the editor of the Journal and Courier, an Lafayette and West Lafayette Indiana newspaper. The letter in it's entirety after the fold.
The letter to the editor in it's entirety.
We were astounded to hear Mike Huckabee reaffirming his statement in 1992 that people with AIDS should be isolated from the general population.
He said of AIDS that a "deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."
Evidently he did not read any newspapers in 1985, when Ryan White battled to educate the country that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact and that Ryan should be placed in school with the general population.
Ryan White's story was the No. 1 news story, and exercising his civil right to be in the classroom with his fellow students and the education of the public on how AIDS was transmitted were the other issues.
Ryan's story was also the No. 2 most-covered news story in 1986.
Evidently Mr. Huckabee did not read a newspaper in 1985 or 1986.
It seems to us Mr. Huckabee reaffirmation of the statement he made in 1992, that AIDS patients should be isolated, is incomprehensible.
That this man, who is so cout of touch with reality, could run for president of the United States is more than disturbing.
Isn't it astounding that someone running for president of the United States could take a position that is so wrong in light of the medical evidence available in 1992?
In 1992, children with AIDS had already been mainstreamed in the classroom for at least five years.
Charles R. Vaughan and Charles V. Vaughan, Ryan White's attorneys,
Lafayette
Mike Huckabee is not a good man in my opinion. His campaign to run for Christian leader of the United States is just empty rhetoric in my book. He in his absurd and vicious statements regarding people suffering from AIDS needs to brought out and a bright light shone upon them. He has, according to the Los Angeles times agreed to meet with Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White. Perhaps his deep felt Christian beliefs have moved him in a small way to reach out to those he has hurt with his statements. Or perhaps, he has realized that in order to put the issue behind him during this campaign, meeting with Jeanne White-Ginder will allow him to reverse his heartless 1992 view that AIDS patients should be isolated.