Jesse Helms
I can add very little to what is being written and said about Jesse Helms, the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who died today. I met him exactly once when I was at the very beginning of my career in Washington and the interaction lasted no longer than the subway ride from one of the Senate office buildings to the Capitol. I can say that growing up in Maryland, Jesse Helms is about all I knew of North Carolina politics. By the time I moved to North Carolina, Helms was serving the last year of his last term as Senator.
My boss has this remembrance:
- I listened to Helms as a television editorialist as I grew up in Raleigh and wasn't impressed with his rabid conservatism or racial views. That did not change as we both grew older. But his savviness as a politician -- and manager of the press -- cannot be denied.
Through the years, I interviewed and spoke with Sen. Helms many times. He was always gracious and helpful. My first newspaper job was in Monroe, where Jesse's father had been police chief. He grew up there and went to Wingate College, which is also in Union County. While as a politician he castigated the liberal media, he was always kind to us at the Enquirer-Journal in Monroe.
I suspect that those who write about him for tomorrow's papers will find themselves writing a lot of "on the other hand" type phrasing. Politicians, like most people, are complicated critters and no one thing. From an outsider's perspective, Helms seems to have embodied extremes.
Through the years Helms worked for segregationists. He railed against the civil rights movement and as the AP notes called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress." N&O political writer Rob Christensen writes in his recent book that Helms's segregationist views in the 1960s reflected those of a majority of white North Carolinians, according to public opinion polls. But in the years following, Helms gave little indication that his views had evolved.
On the other hand (see, I'm already doing it) I've had many people tell me he was warm and engaging. His reputation for constituent service, even if you were a Democrat, is legendary. And the New York Times had this tidbit:
He welcomed teen-agers. Even when lobbyists could not get in to see him, high school students could. His office once calculated that he had met with 170,000 teen-agers in his 30 years in the Senate.
News writers of all stripes will likely have trouble tying Helms' life up in a neat little box for tomorrow's editions and in coming weeks. The fact that those working for the "liberal media" are going to go through fits trying to assess his legacy might have even brought a smile to Helms' face.
Part of this consternation will come from a peculiar habit of American journalism which causes us to canonize our dead rather than recognize them for who they were, flaws and all. Was Helms a stalwart representative of the state who represented helped to found a political movement where many found a voice? Or was he a giant of the time who chose to use his out-sized influence in favor of policies that denigrated an entire segment of society? Was his the man, quoted by the New York Times, that fought bitterly against Federal aid for AIDS research and treatment, saying the disease resulted from “unnatural” and “disgusting” homosexual behavior or the influential Senators who finally helped to secure foreign aid to help fight the spread of AIDS in Africa?
Helms was all of that and more, neither saint nor demon but a human who influence - for better and worse - will be felt for years to come.