Monday, September 26, 2005

The Statesman - New York Times

Bono's encounter with Jessie Helms...

The Statesman - New York Times: "In mid-2000, Bono received an audience with Senator Jesse Helms, viewed by Bono's fellow lefties, including members of the band, as the archfiend himself. Bono quickly realized that his usual spiel about debt service and so on wasn't making a dent. So, he recalls: 'I started talking about Scripture. I talked about AIDS as the leprosy of our age.' Married women and children were dying of AIDS, he told the senator, and governments burdened by debt couldn't do a thing about it. Helms listened, and his eyes began to well up. Finally the flinty old Southerner rose to his feet, grabbed for his cane and said, 'I want to give you a blessing.' He embraced the singer, saying, 'I want to do anything I can to help you.' Kasich, who was watching from a couch, says, 'I thought somebody had spiked my coffee.' Bono later invited Senator Helms to a U2 concert, and Helms sat through the evening with his hearing aid turned down. Afterward he said to Bono, 'I saw them all standing there with their arms in the air, blowin' like a field of corn.'"

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