Jesse Helms, the stubborn but conviction-motivated Republican conservative Senator from North Carolina, joined John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as being famous American politicians who passed away on July Fourth, succumbing yesterday.

Helms earned the moniker of Senator No for opposing and frequently outright stopping in their tracks any bill, appointment or initiative he didn’t agree with.  In fact, he was the only senator to vote against the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday.  He reckoned that King was nothing but a Marxist.

I didn’t always agree with Helms, and he didn’t represent me or my state, but I loved how he stood up and said "no" in the face of bureaucratic aggrandizement (except in his home state) and to measures of political expediency aimed at getting votes without ever taking the measures’ bad consequences into account.

Was he a racist?  Of course he was, but he was open about it while the rest of us just go about living our segregated ways and not connecting the dots of our life choices. 

Let’s face it:  How many white Americans would move into a solidly black or Latin neighborhood no matter how grand the house, low the price or sweet the deal?  How many whites would likewise move farther away to the suburbs or exurbs if their neighborhoods started turning to brown or black? 

I rest my case.

Meanwhile, bring on more Senator No’s, whether matter liberal, moderate or conservative.  Just say no, and we’ll all be better off.