No thread about Jesse Helms

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[voluptuary_manque]

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/...07/judgment_and_jesse_helms.html?hpid=topnews

Under God: Judgment and Jesse Helms
A daily look at the news and what we do in the name of God
by David Walters

Most of us have strong opinions about public figures, especially politicians and especially those we've never met. But my grandfather taught me never to speak ill of the dead.

So I'll pass on passing judgment on the late Sen. Jesse Helms, who seemed to spend so much of his life passing judgment on anyone who didn't fit his narrow view of what is right and good and Christian.

No doubt his family and friends loved, admired and respected him very much.

"Jesse Helms is one fine gentleman. He loves the Lord and that came through in everything he did," Religious Right stalwart Paul Weyrich wrote in 2005.

The gentlemanly Jesse Helms known by Weyrich was not the bigoted Jesse Helms known by so many African-Americans, homosexuals, liberals and others who were the targets of his mean-spirited words and deeds over the decades.

Clearly, the man who once called the University of North Carolina the "University of Negroes and Communists" was a product of a particularly exclusive, judgmental and nationalistic strain of Christianity.

In an insightful Commonweal article in 1995, journalist and professor Ferrel Guillory explained "the political theology" of the Baptist born and bred senator from North Carolina.

"He grew up a Southern Baptist at a time when few of its white congregations questioned the prevailing racial segregation of the region and when the denomination's pre-Depression struggle between fundamentalists and modernists still echoed," Guillory wrote.

"To those who read the Bible literally and who rejected efforts to mesh the scientific with the religious, disagreements were more than mere differences of opinion between reasonable people . . . Anybody who did not agree, it was automatically assumed that they were non-Christian, or even atheist. '

Helms saw atheism, socialism and liberalism "infecting" his Christian nation. To "halt the long decline," Guillory wrote, "the senator proposes his brand of conservatism -- a brand rooted in the Bible but practically oblivious to the implications of such critical passages as the Sermon on the Mount."

Practically oblivious.

In 2002, just before he retired from the Senate, Helms agreed to meet with the rock star Bono, one of the world's leading advocates for fighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Helms, who had spent many years slashing foreign aid budgets, had rendered his judgment on AIDS loudly and clearly. In 1995, for example, he told The New York Times that the government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct."

But after talking to Bono, Helms apologized and said he was ashamed. "I have been too lax too long in doing something really significant about AIDS," Helms said.

What did Bono tell him?

"Christ only speaks about judgment once and it's not about sex but about how we deal with the poor, and I quoted Matthew, 'I was naked and you clothed me, I was hungry and you fed me.' Jesse got very emotional, and the next day he brought in the reporters and publicly repented about Aids. I explained to him that AIDS was like the leprosy of the New Testament."

If a rock star can have that sort of impact on Jesse Helms, there's no telling what Jesus can do.


RIP.

Now if we could just have had him put in a good word for same-sex marriage . . .

 

[Boxlicker101]

If Jesse Helms could have shut down Literotica, he would have done so in a New York second. I seldom speak ill of the dead, so I won't say any more.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[Boxlicker101]

Well, that's the thing.

It didn't seem right not to mark his passing.

On the other hand, I couldn't really think of anything positive to say, so I just let the article speak for itself.

It did remind me of one of the reasons I like Bono, of course.

Most people tend to avoid saying bad things about the dead. I'm not really sure why not; it seems somewhat hypocritical to me. Maybe it's because dead people can't defend attacks against their reputations. There are exceptions, of course - people such as Hitler and Stalin and their ilk. Jesse Helms was not as bad as those two guys but, under differrent circumstances, he might have been.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Did he just die? I thought he'd been dead for years! How old was he? He was like 98 when he retured from the senate.

I thought he was animatronic.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

Most people tend to avoid saying bad things about the dead. I'm not really sure why not; it seems somewhat hypocritical to me. Maybe it's because dead people can't defend attacks against their reputations. There are exceptions, of course - people such as Hitler and Stalin and their ilk. Jesse Helms was not as bad as those two guys but, under differrent circumstances, he might have been.

It wasn't from a lack of effort. He gets no love north of the border with the ever so lovely Helms-Burton bill.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I adore you.



(He was 86. But I think he'd kind of been rotting from the inside out for a long time.)

Ask anyone who found themselves on his bad side in the Senate. He sure tried to be as tyrannical as Stalin and Hitler.

 

[Weird Harold]

No thread about Jesse Helms

The only thing I've seen prior to this thread was a comment in the GB's Cemetary thread: "Bozo and Jesse Helms died onthe same day? Seems approriate somehow."

 

[shereads]

The only thing I've seen prior to this thread was a comment in the GB's Cemetary thread: "Bozo and Jesse Helms died onthe same day? Seems approriate somehow."

Bozo died?!

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[shereads]

I know. He got barely a nod.

You'd think someone who brought joy rather than pain would be celebrated.

Then again, as I searched for a recent picture, it brought horror rather than joy.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/bozo.jpg

Jeeeezus!

Did you read about that study in Britain a few months ago, in which it was determined that children in hospitals don't benefit from visits by clowns? The research indicated that children find clowns "unknowable and frightening." Well duh.

Which begs the question: why is Ronald McDonald so popular? Is it because he comes with a side of fries?*











* Set-up for pornographic retort is non-intentional but acknowledged.

 

[rgraham666]

This is what clowns appear like to many.

http://www.amysmusings.com/wp-content/uploads/blogger/blogger/3721/532/1600/killerklowns3.jpg

Some people take advantage of that.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[shereads]

This is what clowns appear like to many.

http://www.amysmusings.com/wp-content/uploads/blogger/blogger/3721/532/1600/killerklowns3.jpg

Senator Helms?

 

[Varian P]

I have no problem speaking ill of the dead, particularly those who spent their life working their will on public policy. They should be remembered for who they were and what they did.

But the great thing about a guy like Jesse Helms, no one need speak badly of him after his death, because his life's work does it for you!

While working on Willis Smith's senate campaign against Frank Porter Graham, Helms helped create an ad that read, "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races." Another ad featured photographs Helms doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man.

Helms commented on the 1963 Civil Rights protests, "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."

He also wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced."

Helms worked on the unsuccessful 1960 Democratic primary gubernatorial campaign of I. Beverly Lake, Sr., who ran as a supporter of racial segregation.

Helms was an advocate of the tobacco industry.

Helms opposed the Martin Luther King Day bill in 1983.

Helms had close ties to the rightist Salvadoran death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson and was considered a main sponsor of D'Aubuisson's political party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance.[8] When confronted with evidence that D'Aubuisson ran death squads that systematically murdered civilians, he replied that "[a]ll I know, is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious."

Helms was "bitterly opposed to federal financing of AIDS research and treatment".[13] Opposing the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988, Helms stated, "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." When Ryan White died in 1990, his mother went to Congress to speak to politicians on behalf of people with AIDS. She spoke to 23 representatives: Helms refused to speak to her even when she was alone with him in an elevator.

Having attempted, and failed, to block passage of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Care (CARE) Act passed in 1990, Helms tried to block its refunding in 1995, saying that those with AIDS were responsible for the disease, because they had contracted it because of their "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct", and falsely claiming that more federal dollars were spent on AIDS than heart disease or cancer. [20] His opposition to the spending was consonant with his long term anti-gay rhetoric and opposition to civil rights for gay men and women generally. Helms had declared homosexuality "degenerate," and homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches."

note: the above are excerpts from the wikipedia page on Helms

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I didnt care for Jesse Helms and often wished that he'd be defeated.

But I want to take issue with David Walters, the author of the first post. He makes it clear he wont be judgmental about Helms then launches an attack on the man. I'm guessing Walters is pissed about Helms efforts to oppress people Walters likes.

Helms oppressed me, too. His actions made my life difficult.

But the people of North Carolina elected him many times, and I suppose they were very pleased with him. On closer examination, the groups Helms hurt were Democrats. Not the Reagan Democrats, but the Democrat activists. There wasnt a snowball's chance in hell any of these people would ever help him if he assisted their constituents with discrimination issues.

If a Republican can bet on unions trying to hurt him, why should he help them do it? When my neighbor fucks with me I'm not inclined to help her, even when its the right thing to do.

This is what politics is all about. You help your friends and fuck the other guys.

My team fucked with Helms and he fucked us back. That's fair.

 

[shereads]

You've no desire to pee on his grave?

That's noble of you.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I pissed on him when he was alive. That isnt noble, its honorable.

 

[john-the-author]

If Jesse Helms could have shut down Literotica, he would have done so in a New York second. I seldom speak ill of the dead, so I won't say any more.

I never said anything good about him when he was alive so it would sure be hypocritical of me to start now.

 

[john-the-author]

I pissed on him when he was alive. That isnt noble, its honorable.

Hear, hear, JBJ.

 

[cantdog]

Jeeeezus!

Did you read about that study in Britain a few months ago, in which it was determined that children in hospitals don't benefit from visits by clowns? The research indicated that children find clowns "unknowable and frightening." Well duh.

Which begs the question: why is Ronald McDonald so popular? Is it because he comes with a side of fries?*

Ronald-- popular? With whom?




* Set-up for pornographic retort is non-intentional but acknowledged.[/QUOTE]

 

[cantdog]

I have no problem speaking ill of the dead, particularly those who spent their life working their will on public policy. They should be remembered for who they were and what they did.

But the great thing about a guy like Jesse Helms, no one need speak badly of him after his death, because his life's work does it for you!

While working on Willis Smith's senate campaign against Frank Porter Graham, Helms helped create an ad that read, "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races." Another ad featured photographs Helms doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man.

Helms commented on the 1963 Civil Rights protests, "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."

He also wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced."

Helms worked on the unsuccessful 1960 Democratic primary gubernatorial campaign of I. Beverly Lake, Sr., who ran as a supporter of racial segregation.

Helms was an advocate of the tobacco industry.

Helms opposed the Martin Luther King Day bill in 1983.

Helms had close ties to the rightist Salvadoran death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson and was considered a main sponsor of D'Aubuisson's political party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance.[8] When confronted with evidence that D'Aubuisson ran death squads that systematically murdered civilians, he replied that "[a]ll I know, is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious."

Helms was "bitterly opposed to federal financing of AIDS research and treatment".[13] Opposing the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988, Helms stated, "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." When Ryan White died in 1990, his mother went to Congress to speak to politicians on behalf of people with AIDS. She spoke to 23 representatives: Helms refused to speak to her even when she was alone with him in an elevator.

Having attempted, and failed, to block passage of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Care (CARE) Act passed in 1990, Helms tried to block its refunding in 1995, saying that those with AIDS were responsible for the disease, because they had contracted it because of their "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct", and falsely claiming that more federal dollars were spent on AIDS than heart disease or cancer. [20] His opposition to the spending was consonant with his long term anti-gay rhetoric and opposition to civil rights for gay men and women generally. Helms had declared homosexuality "degenerate," and homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches."

note: the above are excerpts from the wikipedia page on Helms

Yep, he was an asshole.