Let us now praise hateful men:
- "The fact is we keep talking about flip-flops - how politicians change their positions - Jesse Helms never changed positions. He was not a compromiser....He was true to his ideals."
- "Well that was always part of his, those who loved him and those who hated him, race was always a big issue. One famous moment...up against Carol Mosley Braun...in private he sang Dixie to her....obviously race was a big part of him."
- "Appealing to racial pride, appealing against quotas, and things like that helped his career."
I'd suggest folks at NPR take a look at that radical publication The Economist, for a few ideas on how to write a fitting obituary on someone like Jesse Helms. They would also do well to take a look at Mother Jones interesting survey of Helms "accomplishments" as of 1995. Though overdue, Washington Post's Broder had a fine piece on Helms when he retired from office - it serves just as nicely now that Helms has mercifully retired from the planet.
Oh an finally a little hint to Mr. Rudin at NPR. When you hum or whistle "Dixie" to an African-American Senator in an elevator that's an "infamous" moment, not a "famous" moment - that is unless you admire such an incident.
3 comments:
Apparently, the 'kids' at NPR are too young to remember what an obnoxious, reprehensible and just plain disgusting personage Helms was. Well, I remember, and I am still relieved daily that he is no longer in any way involved with the government of this country. One can argue about the morality of such men as Jeff Davis, John C. Calhoun or Robert E. Lee, but Jesse Helms was nothing but cheap opportunistic trash. What he needed was for Sidney Poitier to show up in his home town, read him the riot act about the heap of trouble he'd made, and straighten his ass out. And that's just a polite suggestion.
Sweet Jesus, are the folks at NPR ever the biggest assholes! Do write to them and give them a piece of yourmind, too. . If they won't respond to you or send you a form letter, write a letter to your local newspaper, copy your local news station, etc. Copy your friends on it. Spread it virally.
When NPR writes a hagiographic piece on the decease of one of the meanest white men ever, you know they cannot sink any lower in their depravity!
Someone needs to ask them, "Have you no sense of decency?"
I've been listening to this clown, the self-styled "political junkie", on Talk of the Nation. He incapable of moral judgement and understands nothing beyond horse-racing. No worse than Gibson or Stephanopolis, I suppose.
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