Saturday, July 5, 2008

Jesse Helms, You Will Be Missed?

What's not to love about a guy who said this: "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."

Not a very loving quote? Well how about if I said he was also a big advocate of tobacco? That makes him sound like a real sweetheart, right?

Well someone has to love this guy, because he was the longest-serving popularly-elected Senator in the history of North Carolina.

I don't agree with his politics, but I still pause and dwell on his name because he's represents everything that the eighties and Regan politics were about; he is the symbol of an era.

President Regan's dead, Falwell's dead, and now Helms is dead. Perhaps we can now say the eighties is dead and it's time invent a new era of America whatever that means.

It takes all kinds of people to make this country work, and our thoughts and prayers should go out the families of those we don't always agree with...they to shape this country.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As Ben Gibbard once sang, "He was a bastard in life, thus a bastard in death."

But I still pray for his family.

Roland Saint-Laurent said...

Aside from being an advocate of tobacco, which I have no problem with, this man was a bastard and I'm glad he's dead. I can't imagine any sane person mourning this douche bag's death, except for his family and some scattered bigots.

If this trinity of numb nuts represented the death of the eighties, then good riddance. Politically, that decade was an embarrassment for the U.S. Yeah, Reagan ended the Cold War...the same way that Tila Tequila is responsible for gay marriage.

Scott, I hope your last statement doesn't mean that this country is shaped by reactionary, cold-hearted bigots. Maybe it is, but it sure as hell isn't something to be proud of, or to respect. I don't believe in god, but if I did pray, my prayers would go out to the people who've been harmed by the kind of hate-mongering spewed out by people like Helms and Falwell.