Angels in
America: Context
Page Contents: 1985 | Reagan's America | Federal Courts and Reagan |Millennialism | Roy Cohn |AIDS |
What was happening in 1985?
- Shiite terrorists hijack TWA 847, disperse Americans in Beirut
- Rock Hudson, 59, one of the first public figures to acknowledge his battle with AIDS, is instrumental in raising public awareness of the disease.
- Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. sells 15 million copies. Other popular albums included Madonna's Like a Virgin, Bryan Adam's Reckless, and Tina Turner's Private Dancer.
- Reagan signs Gramm-Rudman bill mandating budget control.
- Out of Africa wins Academy Award for Best Picture. Other major films included The Color Purple, Back to the Future, and The Breakfast Club.
- Parents and local school boards fight over keeping AIDS-afflicted children in school.
- The "Live Aid" concert in Philadelphia and London is viewed by 1.6 billion on TV and grosses $70 million for famine-stricken Africa; the "We Are the World" record and video raises $50 million.
- Barbie dolls surpass in number the American population.
- Spy John Walker is turned in by his wife and daughter.
- The three best-selling fiction books of 1985 were The Mammoth Hunters (Jean M. Auel), Texas (James A. Michener), and Lake Wobegon Days (Garrison Keillor).
- Biloxi Blues and Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn open on Broadway.
- The Oprah Winfrey Show premieres. "Dynasty" and "Dallas" are the two most frequently watched shows.
-Columbia Chronicles of American Life, 1910-1992
"During eight years in the White House, Reagan had learned to value the loyalty and discretion of Vice President Bush. He also recognized that the results of the 1988 election would be seen as a referendum on his own presidency, and he campaigned strenuously for Bush, whose domestic advocacies were in large part a continuation of Reagan's policies. The problems that afflicted the nation in the Bush years were also seen as Reagan's legacy. The deficit-financed economic boom gave way to a persistent recession. The nation was hobbled by the costs of a mammoth savings and loan debacle, the product of congressional relaxation of the rules governing thrifts and a tolerant attitude toward irregularities by the Reagan administration. It quickly became apparent that the plight of the cities and of the poor had worsened during the Reagan years. One out of five children, many of them black, lived in poverty at the end of Reagan's second term in office. A 1989 survey showed that the richest two-fifths of Americans had the highest share of national income (67.8 percent) and the poorest two-fifths the lowest share (15.4 percent) in the forty years the Census Bureau had been compiling such statistics." -Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, 1994, v.3
"Reagan made a dramatic change in the Federal Courts through his appointment power. During his two terms he filled 372 of the 736 judgeships in the federal courts. Attorneys General William French Smith and Edwin Meese III set up a screening process that assured Reagan that he would be appointing judges who were in agreement with his conservative philosophy. In 1982 he appointed Sandra Day O'Conner to the Supreme Court, the first woman to sit on the court. He elevated Justice William H. Rehnquist to chief justice of the Court in 1986 and appointed Judge Antonin Scalia to the seat vacated by Rehnquist.
Reagan ran into problems with two of his other nominees. When he nominated Judge H. Bork in 1987 to succeed Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., the nomination met a firestorm of criticism. Bork was an outspoken jurist, the best-known conservative judge in the country. When the Senate defeated his nomination after he disclosed that he had smoked marijuana. On his third attempt, Reagan successfully appointed Judge Anthony M. Kennedy to the Court." -West's Encyclopedia of American Law, v.8
"According to many religions, [an angel] is a spiritual being created by God. The word angel comes from a Greek word meaning 'messenger' or 'one who is sent.' According to religious tradition, angels live in heaven and act as God's servants and as messengers between God and human beings. They also serve as guardians of individuals and nations. Angels traditionally are pictured as having a human body and wings. Poets and artists have portrayed angels as symbols of innocence or virtue." -The World Book Encyclopedia, v.1
"Millenarianism, known also as millennialism, is the belief that the end of the world is at hand and that in its wake will appear a New World, inexhaustibly fertile, harmonious, sanctified, and just. The more exclusive the concern with the New World, the nearer it approaches the utopian." -The Encyclopedia of Religion, v.9
Roy Cohn (1927-1986)
The real-life Roy Cohn, the inspiration for the
character in the play, was a political power broker and much sought legal talent
in New York City. In 1953-1954, he served as chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy's
communist investigation subcommittee. His illegal manipulations of the case
against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are a matter
of historical record. He was
tried and acquitted on
federal charges of conspiracy, bribery, and fraud. Two months before his death,
Cohn was disbarred.
A Definition
AIDS stands for "acquired immune deficiency syndrome". HIV stands for the "human immunodeficiency virus". HIV is a retrovirus that infects cells of the immune system (mainly CD4 cells and macrophages—key components of the cellular immune system), and destroys or impairs their function. HIV infection results in the progressive depletion of the immune system, leading to "immune deficiency".
The immune system is said to be "deficient" when it can no longer fulfill its role of fighting off infection and cancers. People with cellular immune deficiency are much more vulnerable to infections such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, toxoplasmosis, systemic and oesophageal candidiasis, generalized herpes zoster, cryptococcal meningitis, and to cancers such as Kaposi sarcoma. These diseases are very rare among people without immune deficiency. Some of these diseases, namely those that are strongly associated with severe immunodeficiency, are called "opportunistic infections", because they take advantage of a weakened immune system.
The symptom complex associated with acquired deficiency of the
cellular immune system was called "AIDS" when scientists realized they were
witnessing an epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency for which an explanation was
lacking.
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