Surely he is in hell, unless he saw the errors of his ways and accepted Jesus Christ as his savior.
One of the most hateful men in American politics is dead:Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican who became an icon to conservatives, died Friday at the age of 86, a senior congressional source told CNN.
Can't even begin to think of anything nice to say about this guy -- but a lot of other people will start praising Helms as if none of the hateful stuff matters. The hateful stuff matters. Let's reminisce on the life of one of America's biggest bigots who ruined the lives of so many.
Jesse Helms on "negroes":As an aide to the 1950 Senate campaign of North Carolina Republican candidate Willis Smith, Helms reportedly helped create attack ads against Smith's opponent, including one which 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 himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. (The News and Observer, 8/26/01; The New Republic, 6/19/95; The Observer, 5/5/96; Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms, by Ernest B. Furgurson, Norton, 1986)
The University of North Carolina was "the University of Negroes and Communists." (Capital Times, 11/22/94) Black civil rights activists were "Communists and sex perverts." (Copley News Service, 8/23/01)
Of civil rights protests Helms wrote, "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." (WRAL-TV commentary, 1963) He also wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced." (New York Times, 2/8/81)
Helms on "degenerate, weak, sick homosexuals":Over the years Helms has declared homosexuality "degenerate," and homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches." (Newsweek, 12/5/94) In a tirade highlighting his routine opposition to AIDS research funding, Helms lashed out at the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988: "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)
Helms being a racist:And the man ABC News now describes as a "conservative icon" (8/22/01) in 1993 sang "Dixie" in an elevator to Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the Senate, bragging, "I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing Dixie until she cries." (Chicago Sun-Times, 8/5/93)
Helms filibusters making Martin Luther King day a national holiday:A year before the election, when public polls showed Helms trailing by 20 points, he launched a Senate filibuster against the bill making the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. (David Broder, Washington Post, Aug, 29, 2001)
On cutting AIDS funding:Sen. Jesse Helms says the government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct," The New York Times reported Wednesday....
"We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts," Helms told the Times.
And before anyone says that Helms came around on AIDS in his later years. No he didn't. He came around on AIDS in Africa. Still didn't want to help Americans with AIDS because, you know, they were homersexuals.
I do love your posts F'stool.
A little correction is in order. From Wiki SMITH, Willis
19 December 1887 -
26 June 1953) was a
Democratic U.S. senator from the state of
North Carolina between
1950 and
1953. Born in Virginia, he moved to North Carolina before age 2. After graduating from Trinity College (now the undergraduate liberal arts college of
Duke University) in 1910 and
Duke University Law School in 1912, he became a practicing attorney -- but interrupted his work to serve in the United States Army during World War I. Smith served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1928 to 1932, and was briefly the speaker of that body in 1931.
[1] He also served as a U.S. observer at the
Nuremberg Trials in 1946, as chairman of the American delegation to the
Inter-Parliamentary Union in Bern, Switzerland in 1952, as chairman of the
Duke University board of trustees, and as president of the
American Bar Association.
[2]
In the Democratic primary of 1950, Smith defeated incumbent Sen.
Frank Porter Graham for the nomination. Graham had been appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
J. Melville Broughton and had served only a little over a year at the time of his defeat. In the campaign, Graham, who was well known for his antiracist sympathies, was supported by President
Harry Truman and the state's liberal Democratic faction, while Smith employed some dubious racial overtones and was aided by a young strategist named
Jesse Helms.
Each year, Duke University Law School awards the "Willis Smith Award" to the graduating law student with the highest academic average in the class.
[3]
Smith's service in the Senate was brief and unremarkable. He died suddenly in 1953 and was interred at the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
From bioguide.congress.gov
SMITH, Willis, a Senator from North Carolina; born in Norfolk, Va., December 19, 1887; at the death of his father, moved with his mother to North Carolina in 1889 and attended the public schools in Elizabeth City; graduated from Atlantic Collegiate Institute, Elizabeth City, N.C., in 1905, Trinity College (now Duke University), Durham, N.C., in 1910, and from the law school of Duke University in 1912; admitted to the bar in 1912 and commenced the practice of law in Raleigh, N.C.; during the First World War served in the United States Army at Fort Monroe, Va.; inheritance tax attorney of North Carolina 1915-1920; member, State house of Representatives 1928-1932, serving as speaker 1931; member of commission preparing rules for federal courts in North Carolina in 1933; observer at Nuremburg Trials in 1946; United States delegate to the Interparliamentary Union in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1951, and served as chairman of the American delegation to the Interparliamentary Union in Bern, Switzerland, in 1952; elected as a
Democrat to the United States Senate on November 7, 1950, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of J. Melville Broughton and served from November 27, 1950, until his death in the naval hospital at Bethesda, Md., June 26, 1953; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, N.C.
Seems that Jesse was a Democrat back then supporting a Democratic candidate. You don't know your history very well either. You one of those who think the Civil Rights Act was pushed through by Democrats also.
At least do your research before you post such drivel.
