Sen. Jesse Helms

Williams is wrong to characterize Helms as an “anti-legislator.” While Helms is firmly opposed to government involvement in private economic affairs, he favors the maximum possible government activism when it comes to the personal lives of citizens. Williams points out that Helms favors government intervention in the abortion decision: Women must not be permitted to decide for themselves. However, he fails to mention that Helms also favors maximum governmental control of our sex lives generally, including prohibition of consensual “sodomy,” which in North Carolina includes about everything except the missionary position. In short, while Helms’ agenda of favoring property rights and opposition to racial quotas may play well with American voters in the coming years, his positions on sexual privacy and abortion will not.

PHILIP D. HARVEY, Chapel Hill, N.C.