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RIP Sen. Robert Byrd

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Point of Order, Jun 28, 2010.

  1. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Arm, there are those who will contend that this shaky senator changed. Perhaps he did but I'm with you, there's no denying this guy was a founder of a KKK chapter. I'm pretty sure his ideas about people of color or non wasps had changed THAT much.
     
  2. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Also not a "youthful indiscretion" when in 2001 as a US Senator use the term "White Nigger" in a national tv interview.

    West Virginia is one of the few states that would have kept a guy with his background in the Senate.
     
  3. sportsguydave

    sportsguydave Active Member

    So no matter what good we do later in life, the mistakes we make in our youth trump all. That pretty much cover it?
     
  4. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Smoking pot? Yeah, that can be overcome.

    FOUNDING a fucking KKK chapter? Uh, no.
     
  5. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Is there a difference between a white nigger and a black nigger? I guess in Byrd's world, the answer was yes.
     
  6. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Do you know who James Meredith is?

    He was the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. He had to fight a Democrat Governor & the Kennedy Justice Department to be able to attend.

    He's a civil rights pioneer who was shot & nearly killed for his civil rights work.

    When he, "wrote every member of the Senate and House offering his services to them in order to gain access to the Library of Congress" guess which Senator was the only one to reply?

    That's right, Jesse Helms employed James Meredith on his Senate staff.

    The racist Senator hired the civil rights activist. This same racist Senator teamed with Bono & Senator Frist to commit $200 million to fight AIDS in Africa.

    Those are actions. Not words.

    Now I'll be happy to read about Sen. Byrds actions that show he rejected his racist past.

    I'll wait for your post.
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the spelling correction. I don't know what I was thinking.

    Since you're not impressed with some of the thoughts on this thread, why don't you enlighten us with your "deep thoughts"?
     
  8. sportsguydave

    sportsguydave Active Member

    Was the Meredith hiring before or after his disgusting 1990 campaign?
     
  9. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Helms hired Meredith in 1989.

    Also, to continue to refer to Helms 1990 campaign and/or a particular ad as disgusting or racist is to refer to facts not in evidence.

    You need to first prove that point. It's not accepted fact and it's dishonest to present it as such.

    All your friends might agree with you, but it's lazy to just assume that everyone does and that you can build a case on a base that you have not proven in the first place.
     
  10. Pancamo

    Pancamo Active Member

    His nephew wasn't Scotty?
     
  11. sportsguydave

    sportsguydave Active Member

    Your typical snark aside, YF, you're the one assuming facts not in evidence and being disingenuous. I never said "everyone does." It's an opinion.

    Try engaging in an argument without being condescending. I know you can do it.

    That particular view of Helms' 1990 campaign isn't exactly a minority one. And besides hiring a black guy, what else did Helms to do repudiate his bigoted past? Since we're applying that standard to Byrd, it's only fair.
     
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    James Meridith endorsed David Duke, when he ran for governor of Louisiana. The guy may have been the first black student at Ole Miss, but is he really the proof that Jesse Helms was a beacon of enlightenment? And why on earth would anyone try to paint Jesse Helms as anything but a redneck (self described), while Robert Byrd was an unavowed racist in comparison? Using that silly James Meridith/ergo line of reasoning, David Duke must have been a better friend of the black man than Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Those unreconstructed Southern / obstructionist politicians, like Helms and Byrd, were who they were. One wasn't morally superior to the other, in my opinion, because neither was particularly moral. Their racist pasts were a function of a time and place. When those attitudes couldn't get them where they wanted anymore, they became what they needed to be to get to where they wanted to be. It's that simple.
     
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