Posted by: twoblueday | July 5, 2008

A.M.F. Jesse Helms


Some old commercial building along a railroad siding somewhere.

Another race-baiting redneck bit the dust. Jesse Helms died, appropriately, on the 4th of July, a day for celebrating the freedom this racist pig would have denied to millions. If he truly believed in heaven and hell, as his dumbass religious ranting seems to indicate, and if there is anything to those beliefs, I think he’s getting a big surprise about which part of the afterworld he gets to occupy.

I have not a good word to say for this chump. He represented the worst of a terrible era in our country’s history. I refer here to the days of Jim Crow. I hope we do not see his like again.

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Responses

I can see that you are all broken up about the death of this great American patriot, staunch defender of all that is truly American. If you would like to send a small tribute to memorialize his greatness, here is the link:
http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/

By: Hattie on July 5, 2008
at 5:26 pm

I had not heard Helms died. I’ve been out of the news loop the last few days.

Helms really did represent a lot that is wrong with this country. I can’t say that I’m sorry he’s gone, and I also can’t say that the words “patriot” and “defender of all that is truly American” would come up as I describe him and his ilk. If racism, segregation and bigotry are “truly American,” then I think it’s time to reconsider my citizenship….

By: mrschili on July 6, 2008
at 11:15 am

I’m no fan of Jesse Helms, but let’s keep some perspective here.

There are many people of a certain age all over the political spectrum who once held abhorrent views. Certainly he has “earned” a goodly-sized discussion of his racism as part of his legacy, but let’s not forget that like many intelligent people of that generation, he tacked toward reason steadily and considerably as he grew older and wiser. (Excellent example: who could have foreseen his friendship and quest with Bono to increase aid money for poor African countries after initially opposing any federal AIDS funding?)

Is he so different from Robert Byrd in this regard?

Are we to roundly condemn anyone who was on the wrong side of the civil rights’ movement 40 years ago, no matter what s/he says today? I suspect more people would drop out of your life than you think.

Let’s try to keep some temperance here. Such is most important when it’s distasteful. This was a flawed man, not the Antichrist.

By: Bo on July 6, 2008
at 1:32 pm

He was on the wrong side of the civil rights movement 40 years ago, and never got on the right side. He was unashamedly proud of being a cracker racist during all of his political life.

By: twoblueday on July 6, 2008
at 4:21 pm

And let’s not even get started on his position on gay rights.

By: twoblueday on July 6, 2008
at 4:26 pm

He wasn’t just on the wrong side, he was proud of it. It was his home address; he put a white picket fence around it and planted azaleas in front of it. There wasn’t a cause of human decency that he didn’t oppose when he had the chance, and he had a lot of chances. And toward the end, he made friends with a socially conscious rock star. Maybe if he’d lived another hundred years, he’d have caught up with the 20th century.

By: decrepitoldfool on July 6, 2008
at 4:41 pm

I would have to say that someone who was on the wrong side of civil rights 40 years ago and reaffirmed his prejudices and biases at every opportunity since then is more than a flawed man. He teetered on the verge of heartless evil by trying to get these skewed views passed as Federal laws.

It may be a surprise to some, but I consider myself right-wing and conservative. Perhaps this is because I spent the past 20 years serving the Department of Defense killing non-white people around the globe. However, I strongly believe in civil rights, civil liberties, equality, and a right to privacy protecting the citizen from the government. I think I am in the camp of: “I can’t get a gun with an abortion, but I’m pretty sure I can get an abortion if I have a gun.”

I also believe in freedom of speech, [remainder of this paragraph deleted by twoblueday]

Trees and hugs,
-Zeno.

P.S. - I like red meat, and I like it medium rare.

By: Zeno on July 6, 2008
at 5:26 pm

Zeno– Bo is someone I really have come to respect despite some differing views, so let’s not put him in the A-hole category.

By: twoblueday on July 6, 2008
at 7:01 pm

All:

Again, a little perspective, please, this time on a more local level.

I did not like Jesse Helms, and led my comment off with that sentiment. I don’t know of a single social issue on which he and I agreed. I merely deigned to suggest that it might be a little more complex than writing the guy off. If you disagree, then God bless dissent, and feel free to stop reading here.

I’ve known a few otherwise decent people who could never fully overcome racism, primarily caused by ignorant parents. And I don’t mean they were going around dropping the N-word and running around in bedsheets. I mean subtle racism, like people who would have no problem interacting daily with people of color, but who wouldn’t have been happy at all had their children had interracial romantic relationships, for example. Perhaps my geography is a factor in that. I don’t know.

Furthermore, I believe that anything confessed with a repentant heart can be forgiven, and we don’t know what was on Helms’ heart when he died. It does seem to me, however, that he took actions later in his life that were inconsistent with full-blown and seething racism.

But all too often, “tolerance” means “tolerance for what I agree with,” embodied perfectly in this thread by Zeno’s senseless and childish name-calling.

Sir, that you can glean “asshole” from what I wrote says much more about you than it does me, none of it flattering. That’s okay, though. Bring some more. If you wish to further diminish yourself at my (perceived) expense, enjoy.

By: Bo on July 6, 2008
at 8:15 pm

Wilco, Unca Ger. I’ll postpone final decision.

Monsieur Bo, I do see where you were going with tolerance and the caveats to Helms’s positions. However, I believe that giving a little tolerance to people in positions of power who have extreme views can lead people into very complicated and ugly situations. I dislike being so obvious to world events, but how else could we blatantly draw religion into our government, take away rights to privacy, and then invade other countries for silly reasons?

Also, a little trolling and a little name-calling never hurt anyone on the Internets. Let’s all take a step back and furrow our brows before this derailment turns into a full-fledged trainwreck.

By: Zeno on July 7, 2008
at 12:00 am

Zeno-calling other commenters on my blog assholes is not gonna get it. How about a flat-out apology for calling someone you don’t know an asshole.

Name-calling is not a part of the comments section of my blog, unless someone wants to call me a name, and I’ll make an editorial decision whether that remains.

I edited your commet, BTW.

By: twoblueday on July 7, 2008
at 2:01 am

Gerry, I appreciate your concern as a conscientious host, but it’s okay. Zeno, if you choose to apologize I will accept, but my nose isn’t out of joint either way.

Onward.

Zeno, I appreciate your follow-up, and I suspect there are a great many things on which we would agree. I utterly reject the notion that anyone who craves/maintains a career politician’s life in DC (no matter what letter is after his/her name) as it currently exists, is looking out for my interests. I’m deeply suspicious of anyone who aspires to it, and I just assume that anyone who’s been there any longer than five or six years is actively looking to screw me.

Doubtless I catch an occasional decent public servant in that dragnet, but it damned sure works a depressingly large amount of the time.

If we ever seat enough libertarians in Congress to make a consistent difference, I’ll see about adjusting my expectations.

By: Bo on July 7, 2008
at 2:58 am

I certainly would like to start this out by offering my sincere apologies for calling someone I don’t know an asshole. No excuses stated, just a real, “I’m sorry.”

I certainly jumped to a conclusion about you, Bo. Your follow-up posts show that you and I would probably agree on a lot of things indeed. Luckily, the interesting parts where we disagree remain yet to be possibly discovered some day.

Post #3 led me to believe that you were blindly defending the Senator in some sort of partisan loyalty, but now I believe you were actually being objective about the man’s service (please correct me if I am wrong). It does make me glad to know there is another person out there who doesn’t assume that our champions of public service aren’t always making decisions in our best interests.

Discussing politics and religion can always be dangerous in forums like this. In the forums of my daily life at the Pentagon, those of us trying to protect the lives of our men and women in uniform don’t get the opportunities to shout at the top of our lungs what we believe is wrong with our fearless leaders. Interjections like those are career-ending risks we must weight against the value of our daily accomplishments.

With that, I would like to introduce myself to you, Bo. I am a retired enlisted soldier who happens to be the son of Gerry’s sister, and I happen to be a bit of an internet redneck. Pleased to meet you, and I hope you accept my apology.

By: Zeno on July 8, 2008
at 1:08 am

Zeno: Definitely, onward. Thank you, and apology accepted.

Pleased to meet you. I enjoy Gerry’s blogosphere acquaintanceship very much, and enjoy making new ones as a result.

Me: I am a man of 37 years, an Alabamian of 37 years, a technical writer of 14 years, a husband of 11 years, a father of 7 years, and a blogger of 2 years. I know Gerry through Mrs. Chili (and if you don’t read her, please begin immediately (http://theinnerdoor.wordpress.com/).

Best to you, and let us both look forward to exploring our agreements and disagreements together in the months to come.

By: Bo on July 8, 2008
at 11:52 pm

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