Ta Ta Jesse Helms

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Y'all should join the Westboro Baptist Church. You have very similar belief systems.

The only way to belong to that church is to be in Fred Phelps' family.

I see no merit in defending someone who is a racist and a homophobe. The man opposed federal funding for AIDS research in the 80's. While my friends were dying, he was avidly and rabidly attacking them.

Here are some winning quotes:

"I've been portrayed as a caveman by some. That's not true. I'm a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners, or n*ggers."
- Jesse Helms, North Carolina Progressive, February 6, 1985, quoted from the Democratic Alliance.

"There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."
(States News Service, 5/17/88)

"I've never heard once in this chamber anybody say to the homosexuals, 'stop what you're doing.' If they would stop what they're doing there would not be one additional case of AIDS in the United State."

"To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing."

"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."

"Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches."

- 1995 radio broadcast

"She's a damn lesbian. I am not going to put a lesbian in a position like that. If you want to call me a bigot, fine."
- Explaining why he was opposing the appointment of a woman for a cabinet post.

"They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro."
- In response to Duke University students holding a vigil after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, 1968

"We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaged in unnatural acts."
- Arguing for reduced AIDS funding, The New York Times, 1985

"These people are intellectually dishonest in just about everything they do or say,".... He added, "They start by pretending that it is just another form of love. It's sickening."
- From Variety

Oh, yes. Let's defend him.
F*ck Jesse Helms.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Sorry, I don't get the reference.

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

The only way to belong to that church is to be in Fred Phelps' family.

I see no merit in defending someone who is a racist and a homophobe. The man opposed federal funding for AIDS research in the 80's. While my friends were dying, he was avidly and rabidly attacking them.

Here are some winning quotes:
Oh, yes. Let's defend him.
F*ck Jesse Helms.

The is a huge difference between not defending someone and his actions vs. celebrating a death.

Those who are celebrating JH's death are exercising the same rights as the Westboro Baptist Church exercise with their inane protests of homosexuals. I find it to be quite the ironic comparison.

Jesse Helms's actions in life were aberrant. That, IMO, does not make it okay to celebrate a person's death.

[Gemini Cricket]

Isn't irony a kick in the pants? I would like to be spared the 'you should know better than that' speech and the 'in with hate out with love' crap. I'm ticked. I'll be ticked with tap shoes, thank you.

I dislike this whole notion that someone is untouchable after they are dead. The man left a hateful legacy behind him. I don't think people should forget that legacy.

And for the record, I find Phelps laughable. He strengthens the gay community's point, by displaying it in a big way in the media, that some churches are despicable.

Sorry, KB, I'm glad he's dead. If that makes me a small man, then sign me up for a Baby Gap credit card.

[Gemini Cricket]

I met a transgendered activist at Harvard. When I asked her if she gets mad at these idiot lawmakers, she said something like this to me:
"Their children's children will know how hateful they were. Their children's children will know they lied to forward a horrible agenda."
That statement is so freakin' profound to me. Why?
ie.
Jesse Helms has a gay granddaugher, Jennifer Knox.
Rabid racist Strom Thurmond fathered a child with a black teenage maid.
Yeah irony is fascinating, isn't it?

[Boss Radio]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

I'm glad he's dead. If that makes me a small man, then sign me up for a Baby Gap credit card.

Funniest line EVER.

[Boss Radio]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

The is a huge difference between not defending someone and his actions vs. celebrating a death.

Those who are celebrating JH's death are exercising the same rights as the Westboro Baptist Church exercise with their inane protests of homosexuals. I find it to be quite the ironic comparison.

Jesse Helms's actions in life were aberrant. That, IMO, does not make it okay to celebrate a person's death.

To the contrary.

When the Westboro Baptist Church exercise with their inane protests of homosexuals, they are protesting gays rights as citizens, and their right to marriage.

No one here is suggesting that Helms should not be allowed to die. No one here is suggesting that he shouldn't be afforded the same funeral service as other citizens, and not be recognized as legally dead (as opposed to legally wed) in the eyes of the government.

I can't speak for everyone...but I'm glad to see 2008 as his end date.
As far as my good friend Karma is concerned, it should have happened a lot sooner.

Happy birthday, America.