RIP: Jesse Helms

When a politician dies, it's become fashionable to laud him, no matter how offensive or wrong-headed his or her policies and actions. When Nixon passed, those who read his many obituaries and tributes would've have had a hard time telling he was the man responsible for shaming the Office of the President with clandestine, domestic spying against Democrats, that he cost the country billions of dollars in lost productivity and Federal spending to address his crimes, or that he ushered in a period of distrust of those in Washington, D.C.

So, while others are praising Jesse Helms for the way he stuck to his ideals and values, I think we ought to instead be pointing out how those "values" and "ideals" were hate and intolerance. The irony is that this man, who worked most of his life to deny equal rights to so many, died on Independence Day while so many Americans were celebrating that all men are created equal.

Some may feel this is unfair--that Helms was a product of his times, so we should ignore the bigoted and hateful things he said. I might actually agree with this if so many people don't still believe the same things. The fact these words were uttered by a man who influenced the thinking of so many others is why they deserve to be seen for what they are today, the day after his death.

• "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?" (1950) (Source)
  
• "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced." (1981) (Source)
  
• "The University of North Carolina (UNC)... the University of Negroes and Communists..." (1995) (Source)
  
• "All Latins are volatile people." (1986) (Source)
  
• "The government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." (1995) (Source)
  
• "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here [Fort Bragg]. He'd better have a bodyguard. " (1994) (Source)
  
• "Because she's a damn lesbian. I am not going to put a lesbian in a position like that."--Senator Jesse Helms after failing to block the confirmation of Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for the House and Urban Development Department, May 1993 (Source)
  
• "The Negro cannot count forever on the kind restraint that has thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic and commerce, and interfere with other men's rights."--Helms on "the Negro problem," 1963 (Source)
  
• "We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts."-- Helms on why he opposed approval of AIDS research. (Source)
  
• "I'm a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners, or niggers."-- Helms, 1985, quoted from the Democratic Alliance (Source)
  
• "Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade school classes that teach our children that Cannabilism, wife-swapping, and the murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior."--Helms from a fundraising mailer sent out by his campaign (Source)
  
• "The subject matter is so obscene, so revolting, it's difficult for me to stand here and talk about it. I may throw up." 1987, commenting on an HIV prevention comic book (Source)
  
• "There is not one single case of Aids reported in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." 1988 (Source)
  
• "Think about it. Homosexuals and lesbians, disgusting people, marching in our streets, demanding all sorts of things, including the right to marry each other. How do you like them apples?" 1990, during his re-election campaign (Source)
  
• On Larry King Live, Helms took a call from Tilk, Alabama. "I just think that you should get a Nobel Peace Prize for everything you've done to help keep down the niggers," the caller said. "Thank you, I think," Helms replied. (Source)
  
• "You were the best qualified for that job, but they had to give it to a minority." Helms' 1990 campaign ad (Source)

I will not rejoice in the passing of another human being, but I will not allow a person's death to turn him from ignorant bigot to saint. Helms' words speak for themselves. It's a shame a man in a position of power for as long as Helms was couldn't use his pulpit to enlighten rather than to reinforce false stereotypes and to deny other humans the right to equal protection under the law.