15
on
F uneral =P rotest
Beloved activist remains political even after death,
by Bob Roehr
PHOTOS BY BOB BOEHR
laying a powerful statement before the White House
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The politics of mourning: Steve Michael’s funeral procession on Pennsylvania Avenue
IDS activist Steve Michael, who
died May 25 at the age of 42,
wanted a political funeral. It was
his final request, and it was hon-
orcd.
The drumbeat was slow and solemn as
Michael’s funeral procession wound its way
through the streets of the nation’s capital on
June 4- His mother, Barbara, and Wayne Turner,
his partner of seven years, led the cortege.
Behind them rolled the casket holding Michael’s
fxxly; mourners strained to push it up the incline
of 15th Street toward the White House.
They stopped in the street in front of the
mansion and, with measured ceremony, opened
the coffin. Michael lay within the white satin
lining, stiff and waxen in death, dressed in a
necessity calls forward great leaders. Here is a
great leader.” Pointing again across the fence, he
continued, “There is an empty suit."
Michael’s finest hour was when he was
“hounding and haunting the president,” said
Michael’s former presidential running mate,
Ann Northrop. “And I remain secure in the
knowledge that he will haunt this president for-
ever.
She added: “Bill Clinton is a murderer. This
death and tens of thousands of others must be
laid at his doorstep.... We will not rest until this
crisis is over. We will not rest until the crises of
poverty, race, class and gender that drive this
epidemic are over.”
Fellow activist Michael Petrelis recounted
first meeting Michael in 1992. He recalled how
Michael urged, “We have to hold
Governor Clinton accountable, just
in case he makes it to the White
House.”
Petrelis added: “Let’s remember
all of the broken promises, lack of
needle exchange, lack of full educa­
tion about prevention of AIDS.
“I have one thing to say to the
president: Clinton lies, we die.”
Bishop George Stallings called
Michael “a man of deep passion who
pursued justice wherever there was
injustice.... He was a man who gave
his life in defense of human rights
and human dignity.”
Turner, meanwhile, said: "Barbara
Wayne Turner and Barbara Michael view the deceased and I are here to say goodbye to
white T-shirt with ACT UP emblazoned on his someone who we both loved very much. The
man sitting in the building behind us promised
chest.
us
six years ago that, if elected president, he
“In 1992, [Bill Clintonl made very clear and
specific promises, commitments to people living would make AIDS a top priority of his adminis­
with HIV disease and to a nation living at risk,” tration.
“This president committed—to this man
said Bill Freeman, former executive director of
the National Association of People With AIDS. lying here right now—that he would launch an
“And where are we now? This is a president who all-out research effort to find a cure for AIDS,”
said the right thing and did the wrong thing. continued Turner, "that he would appoint an
Integrity isn’t something you take off a shelf and AIDS czar to lead this country’s efforts against
this epidemic. He promised universal health
put it on when you want to.”
Freeman praised Michael as “a man whose care, regardless of the ability to pay. The man
words followed his deeds.” He then pointed who lives in the White House made those
toward the White House and, referring to promises and did not keep them....
“Shame on you Bill Clinton. Shame on you.
Clinton, said, “There sits a man whose words are
Bill Clinton, you say you feel my pain. Bill
used conveniently.”
Turning to the coffin Freeman added, “Great Clinton, you have caused my pain.”
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