Jesse Helms: A Legacy To Die For?
Former North Carolina Senator, Jesse Helms, has died at the age of 86. I doubt it’s possible, but I’ve often wondered if the dead can look back and see their legacy. It would be nice to know that Jesse Helms would want to modify portions of the one he leaves.
Controversial former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms has died at the age of 86. The following two quotes from Jesse Helms are not, on their surface, offensive…which is why they are so important.
I believe they provide insight into understanding the motivations behind all of the other reprehensible Jesse Helms quotations. You see, what you will find in the hearts of many who are outspoken is an unfortunate and misguided righteousness derived from their religious beliefs. He had every right to his beliefs. Unfortunately, some of his actions suggest he didn’t support the same for others.
“I want our government to encourage and protect freedom as well as our traditions of faith and family.”
“I have tried at every point to seek God’s wisdom on the decisions I made, and I made it my business to speak up on behalf of the things God tells us are important to Him.”
Note in the first quote how the protection of freedom is modified by the need to support traditions of faith and family. In other words, freedom should be available to those whose notions of faith and family comports with his own. The inference is that those who do not support his notion of faith and family may not deserve the same freedoms.
In the second quote, we see the certainty to enact the beliefs expressed in the first quote…and to do so unabashedly. Again, this Helms quote implies that God spoke to him…which entitled him to speak his mind…regardless of who it injured.
Further, I suspect he was convinced that it also granted him the authority to pass legislation to abridge the rights of those who didn’t follow his interpretation of God’s edicts or to block the passage of measures intended to grant equality to those he deemed inferior.
Helms’ legacy is therefore a testament to intolerance and intransigence. Rather than see himself as a cog in the wheel of humanity, he saw himself as the pilot designated to steer the course of his fellow man. In the end, his legacy is steeped in arrogance and wholly lacking in the ability to demonstrate the very humanity he must have believed his actions were upholding.
And now the quotes that the history books will undoubtedly use when defining Jesse Helms…
“I’ve been portrayed as a caveman by some. That’s not true. I’m a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners, or niggers.”
- Jesse Helms, North Carolina Progressive, February 6, 1985, quoted from the Democratic Alliance.“There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.”
(States News Service, 5/17/88)“I’ve never heard once in this chamber anybody say to the homosexuals, ’stop what you’re doing.’ If they would stop what they’re doing there would not be one additional case of AIDS in the United State.”
“To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn’t have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing.”
“The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that’s thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men’s rights.”
“Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches.”
- 1995 radio broadcast“She’s a damn lesbian. I am not going to put a lesbian in a position like that. If you want to call me a bigot, fine.”
- Explaining why he was opposing the appointment of a woman for a cabinet post.“They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro.”
- In response to Duke University students holding a vigil after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, 1968“We’ve got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaged in unnatural acts.”
- Arguing for reduced AIDS funding, The New York Times, 1985“These people are intellectually dishonest in just about everything they do or say,”…. He added, “They start by pretending that it is just another form of love. It’s sickening.”
- From Variety
Hey, man, take a pill. A little too much leeway in the interpretation of bigot Helms’ words y’know? Please don’t fall into the same groove the right wingnuts use when they “misunderestimate” what is said by progressive leaders. Helms, above, did not say freedom should be denied to those who didn’t share Helms’ ideas about faith and family. Helms did not say those who interpret God’s directives differently from him, Helms, were inferior.
Both of these quotes were of very blah and fluffy space-fillers that pols like Helms would throw off like water from a dog’s back. There isn’t any Deep Meaning in either of these quotes, and to read in a bunch of evil import to either of them is playing into the same bullshitious approach that the Medveds, Coulters, Limbaughs, etc. take when referring to anything said by Obama, Clinton, Edwards, or anybody else who speaks for progress.
We need to play by a different set of rules than the pond scum on the reactionary right. We’re better than them, eh? We have Enlightenment, right? We know better than to appeal to the base emotional level in our discourse, do we not? Okay, then, let’s stick to what we do best, which is to eviscerate knee jerk wingnutism with facts and clear arguments. Avoid the bullshitism, please.
True Patriot,
Thanks for the lecture. How about applying some rational thought? In fact, Helms’ actions demonstrated exactly what those two quotations impart. His actions were hostile to a number of groups…and he often justified them as a matter of upholding his religious beliefs.
Since you discount my views on what may have motivated that hostility and those actions, why don’t you tell us why Jesse Helms chose to behave in the manner in which he did? Do you suppose he just adopted his hostility by chance…or do you want us to think he consulted his Ouija Board? Or are you suggesting that calling it “wingnutism” provides an adequate understanding and serves as sufficient analysis?
You, my friend, are like so many people… you dislike the policies of the other side yet you’re not even interested in finding the core reasons they favor the policies that annoy you. So why don’t you tell me why Jesse Helms routinely voted against gays, against affirmative action, and against measures designed to afford equality?
And if you think your “we’re better than them” mantra and calling “them” pond scum, reactionary knee jerk wingnuts gets at the heart of their motivations, then you must know something I don’t. Further, your very words are in direct contradiction to the admonishment you seem to think you’re delivering to me. While suggesting that my reasoned attempt to understand what may have caused Helms to engage in his hostile statements and actions is an inappropriate “appeal to base emotions”, you offer a litany of ad hominem aspersions to label him and his ilk.
Your own words assail the right (absent a single fact, mind you), yet I’m not supposed to impart anything from words spoken by Jesse Helms that likely get at the heart of his animosities? Pardon me, but I seriously doubt you’d recognize “bullshitism” if it wore a name tag. Please!
Regards,
Daniel
Good riddance Jesse. May you nurn in hell.
gfm975, I’m thinking Helms, who defintiely believed in heaven and hell, might do some wheeling and dealing with St. Peter. He’ll throw out his support of the unborn, and hope Peter ignores his disgusting treatment of African Americans and AIDS victims. But I’d not like to wish anyone burn in Hell. That’s for others to decide.