Help! Which Founding Father said something to the effect, "this day is to be celebrated with the discharge of fireworks and guns"? I decided the first fire with my M1A would be auspicious today. And it was, in more ways than one. Details later.
Ruh, roh, that sounds ominous!
John Adams.
“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826. Sort of fitting that Jesse Helms died on the same day almost 200 years later.
As for Helms' early social views, the way I see it is that he was a product of his time and his state and that many, many people (north and south) had to realize how wrong their attitudes were. More power to people like Helms who realized the errors of their earlier thinking.
Of course, since he was a Republican, he couldn't be forgiven for that, unlike a former Grand Kleagle who is known as the "Conscience of the Senate."
< /soapbox>