Mothers' Love, Fight Is MAJIC

And in the aftermath of Helms' decision to not seek a sixth term in office, friends and foes of North Carolina's senior senator have come out in full force. Some praise Helms' ability to maintain his conservative views, while others chastise him as a bigot and racist.

Yet in the midst of all the hoopla, it is a group of mothers whose unrequited love for their sons might be a lasting reminder of one of Helms' most controversial stances.

And all it took was a little MAJIC.

When Mothers Against Jesse In Congress first popped on the scene in the spring of 1996, few realized the future impact of the budding political action committee. Co-founded by Raleigh residents Patsy Clarke and Eloise Vaughn, MAJIC targeted Helms' controversial views on AIDS patients -- a subject that hit both women close to home.

Both Clarke and Vaughn lost sons to the disease. Mark Vaughn died in 1990 at the age of 34. Clarke's son, also named Mark, died in 1994. He was 31. A mutual friend introduced the mothers in 1994, and the pair quickly bonded.

It was during this time when the U.S. Senate was set to vote on the Ryan White Care Act to provide funding for AIDS research. Helms vehemently opposed the act and in a June 5, 1995 editorial in the Raleigh News & Observer, he was quoted as saying that "because HIV is spread through risky behavior, AIDS sufferers deserve their fate."

In disbelief, Clarke wrote to Helms, describing her son's final days and asking the senator to rethink his views. "In my naivete, I thought he just didn't understand," said Clarke, 72.

Two weeks later, Helms responded, maintaining his stance against AIDS funding. But it was the letter's end that caught Clarke completely off-guard.

"As for Mark, I wish he had not played Russian roulette with his sexual activity," Helms wrote.

Helms' arrogant response led Clarke and Vaughn to take action and bring others with them. But the pair did not want to create a "grief group." Instead they wanted to form a network of mothers who would work tirelessly to encourage tolerance for AIDS patients in society -- even if it meant driving one of our nation's long-standing icons out of office.

And thus MAJIC was born.

From its first publicity in The Daily Tar Heel to appearances in People Magazine and international newspapers, MAJIC's prominence quickly spread. In 1996, Clarke and Vaughn were even invited as speakers during the Democratic National Convention.

However, following Helms' re-election that same year, MAJIC began to lose steam. The group did not re-apply for its political action committee status and has since disbanded. But Vaughn said she doesn't view MAJIC's end as a failure.

"We don't feel like we lost because we did make a statement: We didn't agree with what he was saying about a marginalized part of society," said Vaughn, 69, who now lives in Blowing Rock.

Clarke and Vaughn soon set their sights on a new venture and in May released their first book, "Keep Singing: Two Mothers, Two Sons and Their Fight Against Jesse Helms." The book, published by Alyson Publications, is now in its second printing.

As for Helms' decision to opt out of the 2002 Senate race, the pair said they were neither completely surprised nor upset. "Some said it was the end of an era, and I guess it was," Clarke said.

Clarke added that she has not had any contact with Helms in the past few years and does not know what impact, if any, MAJIC had on his views towards AIDS patients. "We did what we could do and we wrote our book," she said. "There's nothing else to do except speak out where people want us to."

But the book's success and the continued interest surrounding MAJIC remains a pleasant and gratifying surprise for Vaughn.

"We just thought that (MAJIC) would just be around Raleigh," she said. "We never thought it would be a national story."

Columnist April Bethea can be reached at adbethea@email.unc.edu.