I have spent much of the last two weeks posting on the News & Observers web page. Jesse Helms' home town paper. I went there in the hopes of engaging in dialogue to help myself understand how they lived in the shadow of this twit for all those years. I discovered a great deal of local negative comment buT also a great deal of residual respect for Senator Helms. I attempted to take that into account in my posts: The persistence of ignorance...jt North Carolina is far too comfortable with bigotry and bigots for my taste. If Jesse Helms had no comfort zone of wide-spread social acceptance at home, he would not have had a platform in Washington to do such harm for so long. Getting to know a place that accepts utterly unacceptable bigotry, I'm beginning to understand why the people of North Carolina have no way to judge just how ugly and ignorant Jesse Helms made America and Americans look to the world. Charming...jt ========>>>>> COMMENT FROM HELMS SUPPORTER >>>>> Posted by: SFPNCNative 2008-07-20 10:42:54Rated: 0 by 0 users. re persistence of ignorance This article confirmed what I've always heard, that Jesse Helms was a true loyal friend whether you shared his views or not. Jesse Helms was a man who loved his state and fought for what he believed regardless of personal criticism. Bill Friday is a well-educated, very wise, genteel, Southern leader, and I listened to him weekly when I lived in N.C. It doesn't surprise me that he and Helms were good friends. I did not vote for Helms, but I always respected him. And he did have a sense of humor. The writer of the comment above has his opinion. But words come cheap. Actions come at a cost; sometimes a very painful, personal cost. The writer used words that only denigrate his name, not the name of Helms, Friday, and the state of North Carolina. <<<<< COMMENT FROM HELMS SUPPORTER <<<<<======= The Persistence of Ignorance, Part II...jt I have spent much of the past 2 weeks attempting to understand how a man who is so universally despised where I live (California, New York & Europe) for actions & positions that are considered both harmful & hateful, retains respect in the state that sent him to the US Senate 5 times. Much of what I've learned has come from the Cracker-Jack reporting of Rob Christensen. I respect the facts that Sen. Helms worked hard; served his constituents diligently and was a loyal friend. I see that he had charm & wit. The Persistence of Ignorance, Part III...jt I also found a quotation that I greatly admire on a Fundamentalist web page that I dislike: Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) said that he first arrived in Washington, DC, Senator Helms told him: “Young man, remember Washington is a city in which the urgent drives out the important. Your job is to get up everyday and put the important at the center of your job – and keep it there as long as you can.” I would like to see that inscribed onto brass plaques and installed on the wall of every Senate office. BUT... The Persistence of Ignorance, Part IV...jt None of those virtues stand up to the immensity of the harm that Senator Helms did to America. One must balance the stain of his unrepentant racism, virulent homophobia, disparagement of the rights of anyone who did not share his narrow-minded views, his imbecilic comments on AIDS, ultimately expressed in the "Helms Amendment" that caused hundreds of thousands of Americans to live & die with preventable HIV infections --- infections which continue to spread geometrically to threaten the lives of our children and grandchildren. I ask only that you put those accomplishments on the scale before you run up the flag for this national disgrace, Jesse Helms. The Persistence of Ignorance, Part V...jt I was hoping that other writers would step in so this would not become a monologue but there is more to be said. Senator Helms, with the complicity of a craven congress, passed the "Helms Amendment" which blocked Federal funding for aggressive proven-effective HIV prevention measures at the epicenter of the epidemic when HIV could have been effectively arrested before it spread. As a consequence, the State of North Carolina now has 32,583 HIV infections (cumulative through 12/31/07) many if not most of which would never have occurred if we had not been constrained from taking appropriate measures to contain the epidemic. Take that as Jesse Helms legacy to North Carolina. The Persistence of Ignorance, Final Comment...jt Unlike anonymous slanderers with cryptic screen-names, I post using my real name. Anyone can google it to see what I have written & done. For the last 25 years, I've devoted my life to prevent the spread of HIV. I've directed programs in the US, Eastern Europe & recently in Africa. In that time I have held dozens of wonderful men & women --- Including my partner, Jennifer, who was infected when she was raped --- as they died from this horrible disease. In that time, I've had to work against Helms' obstructions & listen to your elected-bigot talk about decent people, who I loved, as if they were dirt on his shoes. You can eulogize this vicious bullying coward, if you must, but you can not say that I've not earned the right to my words or my outrage.

Fighting for Human Rights When We Don't Know Our Own History

I spent the morning with a young friend (well, not that young) who knew little to nothing about the lethal legacy that Helms leaves after his long career of racism, homophobia, sexism, and hatred. For people who want a reminder of the Republican Party and AIDS during one of the many periods that Helms had enormous influence (1988), take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hG_iuU9wSE. And for people who can't imagine the level of hatred in those days, this is a nasty, accurate reminder

The tactics and language have changed over the years, but has the hatred really dissipated? It’s still very much present, perhaps less so and couched in different terms. I receive far less hate mail now than I used to. Does that mean that the hatred really is slowly disappearing? Are we getting closer to achieving what we must? I honestly don't know.

To watch another reminder of Helms' influence - but this is a joyous one - go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bngtgTwvKcE and see a still inspiring example of direct action by the Treatment Action Guerillas.
James

I agree with Walt– we cannot allow his death to whitewash (very appropriate term) the legacy of his words and actions. How can we ignore a man who used hate to further his personal agenda and whose actions are directly responsible for the unnecessary deaths of thousands? One historical note — the language of the Helms Amendment that Walt quotes about federal funds not promoting “sexual activity, homosexual or heterosexual” actually represented a compromise that was widely accepted at the time. Originally Helms was pushing for an amendment that would have solely targeted drug use and gay sex (known to folks working on the issue at the time as “No Promo Homo”) and he probably had the votes to make it happen. After extensive negotiations with Kennedy and other allies of the AIDS community, it was altered to include “homosexual or heterosexual”. The idea at the time was that it would allow federal funds to be used to talk honestly about gay and straight sex as long as they weren’t “promoting” or “encouraging” it. (Of course if you make safer sex sound like it could be fun, you could probably be accused of promoting and encouraging. So as long as you make it sound awful, you can talk about it with federal funds). Rather than allow the funding to die or the original Helms language to be accepted, the language was accepted by most AIDS advocates at the time– that explains the overwhelming votes in favor by both parties. I won’t speculate retroactively whether that compromise was the proper course at the time. (As for deleting it now, I am not sure if it remains in effect -- it was originally attached to appropriations bills for HHS (CDC & HRSA). I think (although I’m not sure) that it eventually stopped being added to funding bills — and I don’t remember if it was ever incorporated into a permanent law instead of just annual appropriations. But the spirit of the Helms Amendment continues to haunt federal HIV prevention programmes. ) But there is no question that, whatever people thought the “compromise” meant at the time, it has had a chilling effect on HIV prevention ever since — leaving many public health officials cowering and afraid to spend money on effective prevention programmes, and leading directly to later atrocities such as content review panels, abstinence only education, Souder/Coburn/Roland Foster’s harassment of Stop AIDS and other prevention providers, retreat from behavioural interventions in favour of biomedical ones, the abstinence requirement and restrictions on family planning and prostitution work in PEPFAR, and the continued growth of new infections. How do we observe the death of a mass murderer like Helms? Certainly not by quietly sitting by while he is remembered as a “great American and public servant,” “a kindly southern gentleman of a different era,” “an eccentric advocate for his beliefs,” or other platitudes that we will hear over the coming days. The man hated people of colour, GLBT people, women, and anyone else who didn’t fit his narrow supremacist ideology. As he is remembered, we have an obligation to make sure the voices of those he killed or harmed are clearly heard.