Jesse Helms died recently, and the press and politicians have been clamoring to pat him on the back. I’ve heard things like he, “He stood for something” and that he was a hard charging politician that stood for something.
What they don’t say is that he stood for racism. He stood for me not being equal to other folks. He blocked every civil rights bill that came before him, and had nothing but disgust for the people fighting for the right to be equal.
The flags are flying at half mass in his home state. I can’t help but wonder what the reaction would be if say, Louis Farrakhan had died and black politicians made similar comments about him?
Sometimes America makes me sad. I’m sad that politicians praise an outwardly racist man, and can’t deal with the truth. I’m sad for all the black people in his state that was supposedly represented by this man in the Senate. I’m sad for Jesse Helms, sad that his entire life, he had an evil cancer of hate in his heart. I’m sad that another human being, no matter how much he may have disliked me has passed.
I will not dance on his grave, but I will also not pretend he was something other then what he was; a small man of huge limitations, that allowed his hate to run his life. May God have mercy on his soul and may he have mercy on mine as well.
