Taking a Stand

Well God bless him for his strength of conviction—NC state employee L.F. Eason III resigned his job rather than obey NC Governor Mike Easley's directive to lower the flags to half mast in honor of the late Senator Jesse Helms.

As my post about Helms death on July 4th indicates, I am not a fan of the late senator, but I think I will have to add my name to Mr. Eason's list of admirers. I hope he finds new, more favorable employ quickly.

RIP

Maybe it is somehow fitting that in the year where America has come its closest to electing a black man as our leader, and will, I hope, actually do so this November, that Jesse Helms must pass from this world.

Helms spent his 86 years on this earth doing mostly things that I didn't agree with. My first two memories of the man centered around anger and embarrassment. Anger that I didn't turn eighteen in time to vote against him in his 1990 re-election bid and embarrassment that when I went to Europe in the summer of the same year people might associate me with the man if I told them what state I was from.

Helms was racist, bigoted, backward and best forgotten. I just hope that as his kind passes from this earth we can come together in a better place with more tolerance for all kinds of people.