JESSE HELMS
You will probably not find 1 gay person in 100 who knows
all the facts about former Senator Jesse Helms that will
appear in this essay. If you don't believe it, try taking your
own random poll on the street, and convince yourself.
The ignorance of our community is in large part a result
of mainstream media censor****p and whitewa****ng.
The real politicization of our community depends on waking
each other up to the mass brainwa****ng, and the need for alternate
sources of information. Even the gay press is inadequate.
It is not surprising that a right-wing religious bigot like
Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe would want to whitewash
the legacy another right-wing religious bigot like Jesse Helms.
Where right-wing hate radio serves the purpose of pumping
adrenalin, the purpose of the mainstream media is to pump
sedatives to keep the mental patients... er, I mean the American people..
tranquilized and content. Sedated persons are much more easily
controlled, and do not get ideas about rocking the boat.
They also become zombies for whom it would probably
be more merciful to smother with a pillow.
To that end, the media will act like Jesse Helms was just a
grumpy old grandpa, slightly bigoted and set in his ways,
but in an endearing way, like Archie Bunker.
Conservative mouthpieces are not "hateful", in mainstream
media-speak. They are "controversial" and "colorful" and
"outspoken". They are "both revered and reviled".
But still treated as respectable and legitimate, even if their
hate is deep enough to wink at wiping the objects of their
hatred off the planet.
The media will fuss more about Helms' subtle and coded racism than
about his open hatred toward gays.
NOT "BIGOTRY"- IT IS CALLED "HATE"
Helms referred to gays as "abominations", "disgusting",
"repulsive". He claimed that gays as a group were "dishonest".
It was as gross as listening to a Congressman talk openly
about "greedy Jews" or "black men lusting for white women".
A cheap, gutter-level, crackpot kind of bigotry, which really
has been about par for the course.
However, it was much more malignant than mere bigotry.
Helms not only agreed with sodomy laws being on the
books, but stated openly that he wanted them enforced. He was not
the kind of hypocrite who merely wanted laws to languish
on the books, as a symbolic "statement". He was explicit that
he would have jailed gays, wholesale, if he could.
That is on a par with a Congressman who in another time might have
said that the Jews were not only filthy, but should be mass-arrested.
Such things would not be ignored in a decent country. They would
raise eyebrows; they would get talked about like they mattered. The real
indecency of our country is evidenced most clearly by the wall of silence.
Even more revealing than the hateful words of Helms was the indifferent
non-reaction across the country.
You would be lucky if you found a single newspaper column, across this
country, that re****ted this simple fact about Helms, which should
by rights have been a highlight.
The insane lack of perspective in our country is almost charming.
However, the true malignancy is even much deeper than this.
DEATH SQUADS
While conservative pundits lecture about the need to take a
"dispassionate"
and "two-dimensional" look at Jesse Helms, and fuss about liberals
who "demonize" him, there are a few choice aspects of the picture that
they fail to mention.
If the word "monster" could ever be applied fairly to a human being,
besides merely the agreed-upon example of Adolph Hitler, it would
be someone like Augusto Pinochet of Chile. He was one of the most
notorious, depraved murderers and torturers on the continent.
We are talking about some 3,000+ murdered, 20,000 to 30,000 tortured-
a scale worse than Sept 11. We are talking about electroshock, rape,
genital mutilation, bayonets up vaginas of women. We are talking about
people getting thrown out of airplanes, without parachutes.
Pinochet was an American-backed, CIA-installed dictator, who had
the blessings of the Catholic Church and American media. The media
explained to the public in such terms as that Pinochet was a
"strong leader with a sense of humor."
The torture and murder campaign was waged against the political
Left, not against "terrorists". The torture and murder was not
an accident or oversight of an American policy, gone awry with
unintended consequences. Our country relied on murder and torture,
with the ignorance of the public, but the knowing compliance of its
leaders, to assert its will against economic philosophies that would
have threatened the self-interests of America's wealthy elite.
The CIA furnished Pinochet with names and whereabouts of
persons whom they wanted killed for political reasons.
Few gay people are aware that the worst fault of Senator Jesse Helms
was not simply his bigotry. He was the a close personal friend of
Augusto Pinochet, and his staunchest defender on Capitol Hill.
When Helms was informed that students and nurses were being
murdered in South America, he responded that "They were probably
communists and deserved it."
Similarly, when Helms was confronted with evidence that
Roberto D'Aubuisson directed Salvadoran death squads , Helms replied
that he thought D'Aubuisson to be a "free enterprise man and deeply
religious".
D'Aubuisson was also known as "Blowtorch Bob," for his preference
in using a blowtorch to torture political prisoners.
That, my fellow gay citizens, is the real picture, and why we would
be better advised to take a blowtorch to the fetid cesspool
that is our existing political establishment.
WHAT DID THEY KNOW, WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?
Maybe a few naive, idealistic people might imagine that
Helms "didn't know", or the media "didn't know". If so,
that would be quite child-like. If there is anyone out
there, in this category, please trust in this- Helms knew.
The media knew, fully well. YOU are the one who didn't
know something. The high-level politicians and media moguls
by and large know quite well what goes on.
I suppose that it might take a few naive decades of trying
to "alert" them to things, before that reality got pounded
into your brain. Like the innocent folks who tried to
"alert" Jesse Helms to what he already knew, and couldn't
have cared less about.
The world is suddenly turned upside-down, when you
simply realize that the figures in the government and media
did what they did, and said what they said, in full
knowledge of the horrid facts.
BLOND MOMENTS IN GAY HISTORY
I knew a blond, gay airline steward, once, who didn't seem to recognize
a picture of Jesse Helms. I was surprised that any gay person, not
living
in cave, would have any difficulty. I asked him, "Do you mean that you
don't recognize a picture of Jesse Helms?"
His response was to ask, "Who is Jesse Helms?"
Fortunately, most gays are much better than that, but it illustrates part
of the
problem. A great many gays who imagine themselves to be sophisticated
and well-informed are shockingly ignorant of basic facts, if you grill
them.
They don't realize it. Raising the political awareness of our own
community is crucial. I believe that attitudes, including *****sment
of what should be our methods and means, would change significantly,
if more people had a deeper awareness of political reality.
They buy into the sweet lullaby of the media, that
Everything is Just Fine in America.
It isn't fine, people. It is a horror-show. You will be at risk
of your life simply for daring to speak the truth of it.
Thank God for those small numbers of you who will dare, anyway.
ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
On June 28, 1988, I was one of 3 protestors who sat in the street
outside the office of Helms, on West Martin St, at Fayetteville Mall.
There were 12 protestors, total, but most chickened out of the
civil disobedience. There was a photo in a Raleigh newspaper
called the Triangle News & Observer.
I recall the leader of that civil disobedience action, saying how he
disagreed with Helms, but "loved him", in spite of it.
I thought that was a noble sentiment, was wondered if it was
the kind of thing that is outwardly nice-sounding, but naive.
I said nothing.
Did he expect a pat on the back, for being so generous in
spirit? Did he have a superstitious notion that God above would
reward him for saying the "right" things and doing things
the "right" way?
Would he still think the same thing, now, 20 years later?
I understand the nuance that Martin Luther King tried to
explain about "loving" hateful people. You don't exactly
"love" them in a literal sense, so much as to try not to hate
them, to realize that you share some of their traits, that they
might have a few good points, as well. All true, enough.
Maybe if MLK himself had not been so brutally and predictably
assassinated, in a climate of mysterious shadows; maybe
if it weren't for the "rape with dogs" and "bayonets up vaginas"
and "torture with blowtorches", then maybe the truth of that
noble intention would have be more convincing.
If civil disobedience were going to make much impact, we
certainly needed numbers greater than 12 people, with 3 sitting
in the street, and one being from out-of-state. People who still
believe in such gentle persuasion need to put much, much more
effort into it, if there is any hope of making it seem persuasive.
The smaller the numbers of people who have energy, the
greater is their desperation, and their need to reevaluate what
methods could possibly be powerful enough to make an effect,
in the face of their own tiny numbers.
When you are dealing with a fascist who embraces
torturers, while wanting to put an entire class of innocent
people in prison, I think that it would have been noble enough
to assassinate him while trying not to hate him, than to
"love" him ineffectually and allow such an obscene situation
to continue.
The message must be sent to the Right that these things
are completely unacceptable, and that this is not up for debate.
It is extremely difficult to imagine getting that message
across to the Right, in its smugness and wide sadistic streak,
in any manner that does not involve serious violent eruptions
from coast to coast. Sorry to say that, but it is just the way
that things really are.
If gay activists were able to scale the roof of Helm's home,
and put a giant condom on it, they probably would have been
able also to torch or bomb it.
When you read a newspaper article that mentions nothing
of Helms' real record, and quotes instead a Religious Right
sup****ter, saying that Helms "stood up for God, family, country",
it is probably time to consider that approach.
For people who say that armed resistance to the hate-mongers
like Helms would "accomplish nothing", it certainly seems fair
to respond that 20 years of passivity and nonviolent civil disobedience
have changed little. Nor could they have been expected to do so,
when dealing with someone as blatantly hate-spewing as Helms,
or a country that reacts with such apathy.
The Congress was practically weepy in its sentimentality when
Helms retired. The hatred is not just a problem of Helms.
It is a broad-based problem, deeply engrained in our culture.
There are still politicians who are apparently indifferent to the
idea of gays being jailed, en masse. I will politely refrain
from naming them, but every gay person can and should become
aware of who they are and what kind of threat they represent
to our well-being.
Whether this could ever come to be, or not, is not really the point.
We should not tolerate even the insult and dehumanization of
such attitudes, from prominent politicians, judges. religious leaders,
or journalists.
If the only way to get rid of the casual hate in our country
is for the haters to take it to their graves with them, then
we should not be patient any longer. We perhaps should accelerate
that process with a cynicism equal to the cynicism of politicians
who use us as a scapegoat and stepladder in their climbs to wealth
and power.
Tom Keske
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