I’ll bet Jesse is shaking his head in heaven, now that he knows what’s going to happen to our great nation. I can imagine his plea to our God for help. Let’s hope we get some more sensible folks like him back into our offices.

It is very refreshing to read about the goodness of a man who was consatntly trampled on by “compassionate thoughtful liberals & the completely un-biased news media”. Thank you very much for speaking up.

May your soul rest in peace Senator Helms. You will be sorely missed.

And if a man is indeed flawed and once uttered something hateful - is he forever a hateful person?
Lets be honest - most of are products of our environment, at least until we learn better.
If you (as a detractor) continue to spew such vile remarks against Senator Helms, what have you to say about the beloved Democrat, Senator Byrd? This man actually was in the KKK - Exhalted Cyclops in his local chapter… and is on record for the loving comment: “I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side… Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”

I have lived my whole life hearing hatred spewed against Senator Helms, always purported to be in response to his comments. It has colored my perspective of the man. Yet, I have never heard an actual recording of him saying the hateful things he is accused of.

So I find it very interesting to hear personnal stories from those who actually knew him, that are so much at odds with the “facts” about him.

Thank you for this different perspective.

How funny that folks who never knew him believe their bigotries trump your personal knowledge.

Tes, I can see why some people are proud of this excuse for a human being..

Some of Herr Helms’ “accomplishments”

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 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)

Real nice, eh?

They say you are only supposed to say good things about the dead.

Jesse Helms is dead.

Good.