Jesse Helms, now deceased, the role model for Sally Kern? 

(OKLAHOMA CITY) “Jesse Helms is DEAD—Arch Homophobe Goes to Just Reward!!!”

This is the headline I gave recently to a posting from the New York Times I made on a yahoo group.  A criticism leveled at me about this choice of words was that I was no better than Sally Kern and even though Helms was not generous to our LGBT cause he deserved respect as a human being. 

I have to ask in this dawning of the age of Orwellian newspeak aren’t adults still responsible for their words and actions unless it can be proven the adult in question is mentally deranged or under the influence of reality-altering substances?

Former Republican Senator Jesse Helms, from North Carolina, was a vociferous, vocal, vehement homo-hater (probably first among his favorite hatreds, with African-Americans being a close second) and he died earlier this month on the Fourth of July, the same day as Presidents Adams, Jefferson and Monroe.  Tell me the sky gods and goddesses don’t love campy humor!!

In the 1980’s on the floor of the Senate Helms lead the fight against adequate AIDS-HIV funding, among other anti-gay gambits, for education when it would have made a difference in getting the news out about this deadly disease and what was known about it at the time.  Remember that even President Reagan wouldn’t say the “A” word until the last of his eight years in office.

The only equality Helms showed in his lifetime was his balanced disdain for all minorities, be it gender, skin color, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin.

As many of us know from the now famous YouTube video monologue, Oklahma Republican Rep. Sally Kern has blasted gays as being worse than terrorists and Islam.  She further amplified her analogy by comparing gays to toe cancer.

I have to wonder if Mrs. Kern used Senator Helms as a role model for her own intemperate remarks which she is sticking to as a tick sticks to your groin.

It’s odd she never, ever, says the “L” word referring to lesbians.  What are we to make of that?  Does she approve of the same-gender female sexual orientation?  If she could have her own way, oh Lord, would she only outlaw man-to-man sex?  I’ll leave that interpretaton to the licensed psychiatrists. 

I think one important difference between Kern, Helms, and myself is that I’m not advocating mental or physical violence or defamation against anyone.

Nor am I comparing Kern or Helms to disagreeable diseases or activities that bring death and suffering to innocent people who only want to live a life much as others do, that is with security, responsibilities, and the benefits of the laws, justly drafted and upheld.

I’m only advocating for the full equality and protection of the law, both Federally and in the 50 states, for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation or gender presentation. 

What bible-bangers pound in their own or others privacy is none of my business and I want them to leave me and my LGBT brothers and sisters alone!

But I can and will continue to comment on the actions of our LGBT movement’s enemies, be they alive or dead, which they knowingly make, despite available knowledge that shows them to be as wrong as a sharp stick in the eye. 

If our enemies prefer to stick their heads where the sun doesn’t shine and remain ignorant, promoting this ignorance as the final word of their religious belief, insisting that this medieval dogma be passed into civil law, than I will speak and peacefully act out my firm disagreement.

The glass homophobic ceilings built by the backwardly religious or the double-speaking politicians and candidates of any party won’t break unless they’re pushed.

It’s up to us and our allies to apply that pressure until the ceiling becomes a kaleidoscope.

It won’t be done by others; it has to be done by us!

Jesse Helms, now deceased, the role model for Sally Kern?

(OKLAHOMA CITY) “Jesse Helms is DEAD—Arch Homophobe Goes to Just Reward!!!”

This is the headline I gave recently to a posting from the New York Times I made on a yahoo group.  A criticism leveled at me about this choice of words was that I was no better than Sally Kern and even though Helms was not generous to our LGBT cause he deserved respect as a human being. 

I have to ask in this dawning of the age of Orwellian newspeak aren’t adults still responsible for their words and actions unless it can be proven the adult in question is mentally deranged or under the influence of reality-altering substances?

Former Republican Senator Jesse Helms, from North Carolina, was a vociferous, vocal, vehement homo-hater (probably first among his favorite hatreds, with African-Americans being a close second) and he died earlier this month on the Fourth of July, the same day as Presidents Adams, Jefferson and Monroe.  Tell me the sky gods and goddesses don’t love campy humor!!

In the 1980’s on the floor of the Senate Helms lead the fight against adequate AIDS-HIV funding, among other anti-gay gambits, for education when it would have made a difference in getting the news out about this deadly disease and what was known about it at the time.  Remember that even President Reagan wouldn’t say the “A” word until the last of his eight years in office.

The only equality Helms showed in his lifetime was his balanced disdain for all minorities, be it gender, skin color, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin.

As many of us know from the now famous YouTube video monologue, Oklahma Republican Rep. Sally Kern has blasted gays as being worse than terrorists and Islam.  She further amplified her analogy by comparing gays to toe cancer.

I have to wonder if Mrs. Kern used Senator Helms as a role model for her own intemperate remarks which she is sticking to as a tick sticks to your groin.

It’s odd she never, ever, says the “L” word referring to lesbians.  What are we to make of that?  Does she approve of the same-gender female sexual orientation?  If she could have her own way, oh Lord, would she only outlaw man-to-man sex?  I’ll leave that interpretaton to the licensed psychiatrists. 

I think one important difference between Kern, Helms, and myself is that I’m not advocating mental or physical violence or defamation against anyone.

Nor am I comparing Kern or Helms to disagreeable diseases or activities that bring death and suffering to innocent people who only want to live a life much as others do, that is with security, responsibilities, and the benefits of the laws, justly drafted and upheld.

I’m only advocating for the full equality and protection of the law, both Federally and in the 50 states, for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation or gender presentation. 

What bible-bangers pound in their own or others privacy is none of my business and I want them to leave me and my LGBT brothers and sisters alone!

But I can and will continue to comment on the actions of our LGBT movement’s enemies, be they alive or dead, which they knowingly make, despite available knowledge that shows them to be as wrong as a sharp stick in the eye. 

If our enemies prefer to stick their heads where the sun doesn’t shine and remain ignorant, promoting this ignorance as the final word of their religious belief, insisting that this medieval dogma be passed into civil law, than I will speak and peacefully act out my firm disagreement.

The glass homophobic ceilings built by the backwardly religious or the double-speaking politicians and candidates of any party won’t break unless they’re pushed.

It’s up to us and our allies to apply that pressure until the ceiling becomes a kaleidoscope.

It won’t be done by others; it has to be done by us!

re: Conservative Yankee, July 9 at 11:49 am #

You got me there.

rage re# 167546

By rage, July 7 at 1:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

By Ed, July 5 at 5:36 pm # “I wonder if the possibility of a black president was just too much for the old fellow?”

“Well, first this young dark uppity Muslim, with his white-hating, Jesus twisting ways, from plum outta nowhere and nearly out the world, publicly whipped a good white woman, WITH WHITE SUPPORT, of all things unholy! Now, them dammed Democrats are turning that black demon loose on an old defenseless sinile white veteran of foreign aggression for what the good Lawd said was America’s by Divine mandate of Manifest Destiny and God’s Divine Will!”

~~~~~~

rage, this is absolutely hilarious. I can’t stop laughing. I’ve sent it around to everyone I know.

Thanks…

Ed, look what you started…too funny…

Just adding another voice to the tribute.  Somebody recently emailed me that Helms had died.  Of course I’d already heard about it on the news the day of his death.  The comment was made that he was 86 years old and that he lived 85 years longer than he should have, which I thought was prrettttty generous.  Seems like he lived 86 years longer than he should have.  There is no rejoicing that a zero of a person lived or died.  We do know a hefty portion of racism and bigotry died right with him.  So that’s a double plus for America.

re: Conservative Yankee, July 7 at 3:07 pm #

As long as “senior” members chair comittees which affect legislation which affects me, then yes I do care about how long other states senators serve.

I still believe the 17th amendment was wrong and states legislators should elect and replace senators.

I wish San Francisco would get rid of Pelosi and we can get on with impeachment.

Damn, I though Jesse was still in power as nothing has changed.  You would think new blood in office would affect some change.

I always thought Helms was in the same league as Sharon, pull the plug tomorrow and I would happily toast their passing. 

Helms had dementia while in office, and he, Strom, Byrd, Dole, Hatch, Lott and yes, Kennedy amongst many others have proven to me that term limits and mandatory retirement are needed to get America moving again and to flush out entrenched encumbents who are owing to various PAC’s for their continuing existence.

The Shepherd, July 7 at 7:09 am #

Inherit, so all you have to do is say your sorry and all is well?
******************************

Want me to get philosophical here? OK. There’s only two meaningful things you can say about a dead person.

1) What did he/she do that we can learn from to repeat or do more of?

2) What did he/she do that we can learn from to NOT repeat and do less of?

Rejoice in someone dying? Not my style. I leave that for the Klukkers and the right-wing-nuts and the religious fanatics who all claim “God” is on their side for whatever it is they want to force me to do or take from me.

Remember the old show “Kung Fu” where Kwai-Chang Cane says: “The taking of a life does no one honor”? I can’t see how anyone gets pleasure from another’s death.  I understand it bringing relief, but not pleasure.  In Jesse Helms’s case, he had been senile for 2 years, and out of power for 6.

By Ed, July 5 at 5:36 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I wonder if the possibility of a black president was just too much for the old fellow?

Ed
atalkinged.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ed, thanks for the chuckle. (actually, I laughed out loud).

Yep, that might have done it. Wonder if it would work as well with the younger racists?

I don’t mean to say that there was anything funny about Helms’ racism.  If I had lived in NC during his senate career I couldn’t have voted for him but what good is hatred?

The Shepherd, July 6 at 9:00 am #

What about the good ole Robert Byrd, grand wizard of the KKK, oh yea that’s right he is a Dem. so past ills are allowed… hippocrate asses..
*****************************

I don’t recall Sen. Helms recanting the way Sen. Byrd did.  I do remember Sen. Helms coyly saying both his Senate and campaign staff were lily-white because no Black person in North Carolina agreed with him on anything.

So….where’s the hypocrisy?

I’m sorry to upset most of the people here but to me Helms was a comic figure.  There was the NEA debate and another thing that stands out in my memory was his questioning of Pamela Harriman during her confirmation hearings for the post of ambassador to France.  She had noted her membership in the Monet Society an organization dedicated to the restoration of the artist’s home in France.  Helms mistook the group for some radical left wing group with a similar name and started one of his harangues.  It took some time to convince him that there really was an artist named Monet who lived in France…  Mark Twain would have loved Helms.

just read an article in the times about energy and repub efforts to derail higher mileage for cars. the end of the article has this.                              An article today in Sunday Business about missed opportunities to reduce America’s dependence on imported oil refers to a 1990 effort by Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, to block higher mileage requirements for vehicles and notes that Mr. Helms did not return calls seeking comment. The section went to press on Thursday, before Mr. Helms’s death Friday morning.

A good start!

I about gagged yesterday when someone referred to Helms as a “great American”. He was the worst of the worst in American politics. His obituary had a litany of the issues he was on the wrong side of and it was amazing. He may as well have been a slave owner. What does it say a about a state that continued to elect this man? The world is better off without men like Helms.

Outraged, July 4 at 9:23 pm #

I’m curious…why “shouldn’t” we speak ill of the dead…?  I’m glad Hitler and Mussolini are dead. In fact many, many, many, many others.  History has shown their detriment to society..so enlighten me..where’s the downside?
*******************************

At least wait until the family buries the guy.

There’s a time and place for everything—like at the dinner table you don’t talk about vomiting and excrement (at least not at MY table!)

At some point, usually a year or more after the person dies, historical analysis can begin and should be disinterested.

Of course, politicians then become iconic—notice that Republicans like to hold up Reagan as “ideal” but not Nixon, though Nixon was probably more competent.

As for Hitler, he was our enemy and we were at war with him when he died.  Even when Stalin died our leaders expressed sympathies.

Ask me in a year what I thought of Sen. Helms.

ITW..

•  “When I was 8 years old and in 3rd grade, John F. Kennedy was murdered.  A boy named “Jason Geofreyman” (not his real name) said “Good! I’m glad he was shot.  My parents voted for Nixon anyway!” Little “Jason” was lucky to survive that afternoon.”

With only very minor changes in the details, this exact same thing happened to me..at school, the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. I was in the 9th grade, and a 12th grader in my first period class that morning, (speech/debate class) said of MLK’s death, “Oh, no great loss”. I would have cheerfully ripped her a new one, and was working up to that when the teacher walked in. That’s the ONLY thing that saved her ignorant ass, and probably mine as well. If anybody was likely to get into hot water behind that, it would have been ME. That’s just the way it was.

I’m curious…why “shouldn’t” we speak ill of the dead…?  I’m glad Hitler and Mussolini are dead. In fact many, many, many, many others.  History has shown their detriment to society..so enlighten me..where’s the downside?

When I was 8 years old and in 3rd grade, John F. Kennedy was murdered.  A boy named “Jason Geofreyman” (not his real name) said “Good! I’m glad he was shot.  My parents voted for Nixon anyway!”  Little “Jason” was lucky to survive that afternoon.

I thought he was a turd and my opinion never wavered through to HS graduation, after which I never saw him again.

Fidel Castro said after the assassination something to the effect that only a fool would rejoice, because systems, not men are the enemy.

I refuse to rejoice in Jesse Helms’s death. I despised the man when he was alive, voted against him in 1978 (when he outspent his opponent by 28x and won by 3 or 4%, and I lived in NC) and could not understand HOW he could be re-elected.  But it’s not a condemnation of Helms, rather of NC for electing him.

Just like it’s every American’s fault that George W. Bush is president, even if he stole both elections, WE LET HIM!

So I won’t cheer Helms’s death. I expect, for his family, it’s a relief since he’s been senile for 2 years and out of politics for 6.

RIP Jesse! Rot In Perdition….....4 EVER!!!!!

HOW SHOULD PEOPLE BE JUDGED?

By what they have contributed to the betterment of mankind.  This man harmed people on purpose as part of his ideology. Probably people should dance on his grave.

One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on tv was
Jesse Helms on the senate floor inveighing against re-enactment of the NEA.  He was distressed about funding for performance art, much of which he considered obscene.  He described an example of performance art which had been funded by a grant from the NEA and consisted of a woman covered head to foot in chocolate while a man performed a body cavity search on her.  He called it a “gynecological examination” and got hung up on the pronunciation of “gynecological.”  He was an American original.

Rid at last, rid at last, great God almighty we’re rid at last!

i feel the same sense of loss,i feel every time i watch the brown banana swirl to the bottom of the bowl and down the sewer. let’s just flush this turd too.

It appears to be the only way to unseat encumbents now days.
***********************

Helms hasn’t been in office since 2002…for the last 2 years he’s been in a home for senile dementia. 

I hate to speak ill of the dead, even though it just got hotter today…...  I’ve been trying to find something nice to say about him and I found this:

Helms and his wife, Dorothy, had two daughters and a son. They adopted the boy in 1962 after the child, 9 years old and suffering from cerebral palsy, said in a newspaper article that he wanted parents.

I have enormous respect for ANYONE who adopts, but especially adopting a Special Needs child.

He was also reputed to be very gentlemanly to his colleagues even when they were vehemently opposed to him.

He also worked with Jim Hunt to save the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Since I can’t think of anything else nice to say about Jesse Helms I’ll just extend my condolences to his family.

Good riddance! I hope he will end in the “eternal inferno” his policies and ideology have caused many unfortunate people to suffer in this world of mortals.

I can only hope Jesus puts him into rehab and therapy when Helms gets up there.  A dead life is a terrible thing to waste.

It appears to be the only way to unseat encumbents now days.