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By Andrew DeMillo | Arkansas Advocate
Vials of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are displayed on a counter at a Walgreens Pharmacy on Jan. 26, 2015 in Mill Valley, California. (Photo by Illustration Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Anger and policy aren’t always good combinations. Betty Bumpers, however, proved that there’s an exception to that rule.
The former first lady of Arkansas was dismayed when her husband, Gov. Dale Bumpers, took office and she learned the state had one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates in the country.
That changed after she spearheaded a successful campaign to get more Arkansas kids vaccinated, an effort she later took nationwide with former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
Bumpers told the Los Angeles Times in 1994 that her campaign with Carter to get every child younger than 2 immunized was “fueled by anger.”
“Anger that we can’t figure out a way to care for our children,” she said.
Arkansas could use a little more of Betty Bumpers’ anger.
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