No Forgiving Charlton Heston

[Guest guest]

Thought this was interesting, in light of the news of his

death. What I particularly found interesting was that it wasn't the man's

ideals that changed - only the political labels and ideology that

encompassed them........Lynn

No Forgiving

Charlton Heston

by Brian Fitzpatrick, Senior Editor,

Culture and Media Institute

 

My grandfather was a college football star who

even played for the NFL champs back in 1928, so I was looking forward to

seeing George Clooney’s new 1920s football movie, Leatherheads,

this weekend. That’s before I found out how Clooney, like many lefties in

Hollywood and the news media, had treated the late Charlton

Heston.

 

Clooney’s offense took place a few years back. According to Life Site

News, “For his conservative stands, however, Heston was attacked and

reviled by his Hollywood colleagues. In 2003 actor and leftist political

activist George Clooney joked about Heston’s illness [Alzheimer’s

disease], and, after Heston criticized him for the remark, he retorted,

'I don’t care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle

Association. He deserves whatever anyone says about him.'”

 

Making fun of somebody with Alzheimer’s disease and feeling no remorse is

about as low as it gets, but it isn’t all that surprising in this

case. To Clooney, Heston’s embrace of conservative orthodoxy on the

Second Amendment made him worse than persona non grata. He

became subhuman, not even deserving of the most basic

courtesies.

 

George Clooney can only dream of rivaling Charlton Heston’s life

accomplishments. Let’s leave aside the leading roles in some of the

greatest movies ever made, the acting laurels and the celebrity, and look

at the man:

 

 

Married to his college sweetheart, Lydia, for 64 years. Beloved father of two successful children, one a Hollywood director. Unabashed Christian and church attender. First among his peers; President of the Screen Actors Guild a record

six times. Served his country in World War II as a B-25 crewman.. Campaigner for civil rights; protested as early as 1961, long before

it became popular, and marched on Washington alongside Dr. Martin Luther

King. Protector of the unborn; provided the introduction for Dr. Bernard

Nathanson’s great pro-life film, Silent Scream. Champion of public decency; shamed Time Warner into dropping rapper

Ice-T’s contract because of his song celebrating the murder of police

officers. Defender of individual liberty; President of the National Rifle

Association.

 

Ask Heston which of his accomplishments he treasured most, and he’d

probably point to this tribute from his family: “Charlton Heston

was seen by the world as larger than life…. We knew him as an adoring

husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather with an

infectious sense of humor. He served these far greater roles with

tremendous faith, courage and dignity.”

 

Sadly, many in the liberal news media wear ideological blinders that

render them incapable of appreciating the entirety of Charlton

Heston. In spite of Heston’s admirable private life, sterling

character and spectacular career, some journalists could only see Heston

waving a musket in the air at the 2000 NRA convention and growling, “Out

of my cold, dead hands.” They saw Heston’s pro-gun stance as beyond the

pale, as if it were morally reprehensible to stand up for the

Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. (For a study of media

bias against the Second Amendment, see “The Media Assault on the Second

Amendment” in Related Stories.) Heston’s death this past Saturday has

allowed them to express hostility similar in kind, if not in tone or

degree, to Clooney.

 

 

ABC’s Barbara Walters: “He is very controversial or was because

of his support of NRA.” ABC’s Dan Harris: “As President of the National Rifle Association, he

became one of the most polarizing figures in American politics.” CBS’s Russ Mitchell: “Once the quintessential big screen hero, in his

later years he drew as much attention for his controversial politics.” AP’s David Germain: a “fierce gun-rights advocate.”

 

Not “principled” or “passionate.” Just “fierce.” Charlton Heston was

“polarizing” and “controversial” because he refused to toe the line of

political correctness.

 

Heston began his public activism as a liberal, backing Adlai Stevenson in

1956 and Kennedy in 1960. In 1963 he marched with Martin Luther

King Jr., but he supported Barry Goldwater in 1964, Nixon in 1972, and

Reagan in 1980. The apparent transformation was mostly superficial,

though, a question of party labels. USA Today didn’t quite

get it right: “Heston, like Reagan, claimed the Democratic Party left him

while his values remained the same – a personal sea change that by the

Reagan ’80s had turned Heston into one of the most prominently public

Republicans.”

 

What “personal sea change?” Though he grew on some issues (notably, the

Second Amendment), Heston’s core values, his support for individual

liberties from civil rights to life to self-defense, were consistent

throughout. “Liberalism” changed, not Charlton Heston.

 

I met Heston once, in an elevator on the way to a gathering of Hollywood

conservatives. No, the meeting wasn’t held in the elevator.

Instead of asking him how he parted the Red Sea, I brought up a Second

Amendment essay he’d recently written. Engaging his mind, rather

than his celebrity, delighted him. He was affable, unpretentious

and witty, and he clearly had the courage of his convictions.

 

 

After forcing Time Warner to cut its ties with Ice-T over the Cop Killer

album by reading aloud the lyrics at a corporate stockholders’ meeting,

Heston quipped, “Still, I’m proud of what I did, though now I’ll surely

never be offered another film by Warner, or get a good review from

Time. On the other hand, I doubt I’ll get a traffic ticket very

soon.” Now there’s a man Kipling would be proud of.

 

This weekend you won’t catch me dead at that Clooney movie. I think

I’ll head for the rifle range instead, then crank up the home theater and

enjoy my brand new DVD of Ben Hur.