No Forgiving Charlton Heston
My grandfather, a college football star, played for the NFL champion Providence Steam Roller back in 1928, so this weekend I was looking forward to seeing George Clooney's new 1920s football movie, Leatherheads. That's before I found out how Clooney, like many lefties in
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
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 subhuman, not even deserving of the most basic courtesies.
A person like 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:
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Married to his college sweetheart,
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. Some journalists can only see Heston waving a musket in the air at the 2000 NRA convention and growling, “Out of my cold, dead hands.” They regard Heston's pro-gun stance as beyond the pale, as if it were morally reprehensible to stand up for our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. (Click here for a study of media anti-gun bias.) Heston's death this past Saturday has allowed them to express hostility similar in kind, if not in tone or degree, to Clooney.
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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,” but “fierce.” Charlton Heston was “polarizing” and “controversial” because he refused to toe the line of political correctness.
I met Heston once, in an elevator on the way to a gathering of
After forcing Time Warner to cut its ties with Ice-T over the Cop Killer album, 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.
