Bush Praises Father of The AIDS Crisis

“Jesse Helms was a kind, decent and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called ‘the Miracle of America.’ So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July”- President Bush

While we all know that this president doesn’t have the best grasp on history, does he not even remember the 80’s?

Jesse Helms was not a “kind, decent or humble” man. I’ll give Bush “the passionate defender” crap. This I believe to be true.

But Jesse Helms was the king of the distraction. HE often busied himself with issues that hit the heart of his back woods constituency. He filibustered the Martin Luther King day holiday for 16 days. He used racial attacks against competitors. He furthered the Grand Southern Tradition of fear of the black man. Did Bush run this by Condi before dribbling this out?

Here is Jesse Helms’ legacy. He let millions die because he was a bigot. Back when AIDS was primarily being noticed in the gay community, his ignorance led him to believe that “there is not a single trace of AIDS that cannot be traced back to Sodomy.” He further championed other misinformation about the disease.

As a result, the disease was allowed to spread. Eight years after the first reported case, Jesse’s homophobia continued to fire his arguments. By blocking AIDS research and education, Jesse Helms continued to let men, women and children die painful deaths. This has led to world epidemic disaster which now costs 100’s of billions of dollars every year.

In his later years, he did attempt to redeem himself by working with Bono with the AIDS crises. Had he only been “a kind, decent and humble man” in the 80’s, what a difference he could have made.