The Courage to Be Free

...What is to be done...

...believes they may eventually be beaten etal discord...

...Just by signing on 2 this right, and Heston is fearful that when to a point of view or certain social agenda, the last shot is fired in the Second you become part of the preferred class," he ~ Amendment wars, the Rosies will be left writes...

...When the perpetrator of a "hate age like-minded citizens to jam the sta- Australia, where gun confiscation has crime" is found to have racist, anti- tion's switchboard...

...Become to a tyrannical government...

...sit-corns, movies, and even on Saturday those present own at least half a dozen "Gun ownership makes us equal when morning children's television: "Far too firearms," Heston writes...

...But he's also the world's inost vocal proponent of private gun o\\ uership, and this absolutist advocacy of Second Amendment rights (for ]aa-abiding citizens) has proved to be the unforgi\able sin...

...familiar catechism...

...Heston ging has been...

...But these are fairly minor eston clearly practices this creed...

...In this election cycle, he and his colleagues have almost completely defused the Democratic Party's hopes of hanging the gun issue around the Republicans' "neck on election day," Dave S h i f l e t t harlton Heston is an odd political duck--a Hollywood legend and Bill of Rights absolutist who is despised by most liberals and loved by most as Rep...

...Or, in the most elo- only alternative is imprisonment, bitterYet when the perpetrators of the quent words of Sam Adams: "If ye love ly surrendering family heirlooms-guns Columbine killings were found to have wealth greater than liberty, the tranquil- that won their freedom-to the sawblade been transfixed by the work of producer was mentioned several times in their We ask not your counsels or arms...

...And as long as you shrug your shoulders and abide by it, then by the Gun ownership makes us equal when divisions of standards of your grandfathers, you are cultural cowards...

...Patrick J. Kennedy promised after which has a pulpit in every household consen,atives...

...As those who produce violent movies and picket the school board...

...Dcnver X lavor \\-eEington stitufional]y protected rigbt to own guns, schooling, Kiwanis membership, rejec\Vcbb publicly-announcc(t, " D o n ' t come and xx hilc anti-gun activists may contin- tion of homosexual scoutmasters, here...

...feed you...and may posterity forget that already-convinced and sometimes goes over the top, as in lines such as this one: "There may not be a Gestapo officer on every street corner, but the influence on our culture is just as suffocating and pervasive...

...Yet as a rule, he says, very few do...

...Heston believes that so long dance: one nation, indivisible, with liberty dom has been curtailed...

...explains...

...If you are offend- far as guns themselves are concerned, he music, who benefit from a double stan- ed by television programming, encour- sees our possible future in England and dard...

...He is also willing to deliver speeches guaranteed to raise a furor...

...As he sees it, the too can every constitutional guarantee...

...While the anti- in the form of a television set (in most made the more interesting because of his gun forces would like to say this turn- cases, several pulpits) and a monolithic early and outspoken support of the Rev...

...It's truthful, not racist, to United States of America, arguably the Jesse Ventura is fond of pointing out observe that white people were the freest people on this earth, is shamed into that an armed citizenry is capable of resistfounders of the freest nation on the plan- silence because he or she embraces a ing profound government power, citing as et...

...He argues that if gun rights can be diminished and eventually confiscated via regulation, so The Courage to Be Free Gharlto~ Hesto~ Saudade Press / 286 pages / $24.95 The Courage to Be Free...

...out that casting the NRA as the villain list of suggestions that can be summed day be forced to hand over their freedoms lends cover to those who should be crit- up in two words: Raise hell...

...many children are being brainwashed admitting to exercising a constitutional "To those who desire a cultural hierarinto believing that white people are the right shows just how effective the nag- chy with an elite in power, a gun is a root of all evil in our society," Mr...

...are being attacked that comprises the BY REVIEWED To be sure, Charlton Heston knows bulk of the book...

...He is reasonably ofleI~ded by some of the dreck produced by his industry but does not propose wc name Joe I,ici)erinan as chief censor...

...Rosie, indeed, the most socially conformed and politi- is a fat target, tN The American Spectator 9 December 2000 / January ~oo~ cally silenced generation since Concord Bridge...

...Heston is also civil toward homosexualit y - so long as it's not wagged in his face-and defends the rights of religious flakes and other outcasts...

...A group of people can claim all the rights they want, Heston writes, but if they are unable to defend those rights from aggreswould never be considered...

...Unfortunately, there arc a lot of Rosies out there who are quite anxious to cede certainly not respected...

...One would assume a large response...

...December 2000 / Ja.uary 2 o o i The American Spectator 66 southern Christians are somewhat dumb and misguided, or that guns are dangerously prevalent, or that Asian lesbians (insert whatever prevailing interest group name here) have more informed views, or that any us-versus-them class concept is superior, you sign on and you're one of the elite...

...That's how a bubbly but brainless 2 5year-old TV reporter banking on two years at a third-rate journalism school learns to cock her lovely head, cluck her tongue, look down her nose, squint in pained empathy, and parrot what's politically correct...

...His rejection by the left is the Columbine massacre...

...After fine around is duc to large cash outlays, I Ies- view that gun ownership is of a piece Columbine massacre, singer Lorna Luft ton and compa~ U have the better with other socially inept enthusiasms, sent him a note saying, "I hopc you're argument...

...who found himself denounced...

...She's set for life...

...I know that, statistically, at least half leges from coast to coast, also appear to be of my audience is composed of gun ownpower are assessed...

...R osie and her disciples may have the worst of the argument, but they have the best possible advocate: the media/entertainment industry, his business...

...Americans clearly have a con- snch as cvangelical Christianity, home ]nappy now...

...Martin Luther King, Jr...

...This fear of divisions of power are assessed," he argues...

...It attack on gun ownership is of a piece with is this belief in the indivisibility of rights a larger assault on American traditions that gives his argument broad appeal, and liberties, and unless the public awak- and his explanation of how these rights ens to this fact, those liberties will be lost...

...By quietly agreeing that corpostanding while pro-gun folks like Thomas rate America is inherently evil, or that This elite is feared by Heston, but is All of which may account for the somewhat fierce tone of his latest book, DAVE SHIFLETT is a writer in Midlothia~, Virgirzia...

...opponents a skunk...

...His insistence that Second Amendment freedoms are first among equals was fully derided as soon as he started making the point in public appearances...

...ers, and since those statistics are much transmitted through news programming, higher at pro-gun gatherings, most of sors, those rights are largely theoretical...

...As spiritual and rhetorical leader of the National Rifle Association, hc is an authentic hate object...

...traditions and liberties...

...As it goes with as there is widespread gun ownership-and justice for all...

...contest for freedom, go from us in peace...

...cr,ous that onh Rosic O'Donnell and her name some of the major points of the When he visits college campuses, he is ill,: can take it seriously...

...In a speech at Brandeis University earlier this year, he fired a full load of rhetorical canister: "I submit faults...

...at a time when Holly.wood shunned King and would not hire blacks for so much as stagehand work...

...Heston has been smacked that you, and your counterparts in col- around plenty and can be forgiven the tendency to smack back...

...As a white guy, I fully guns, he warns, so it will go with other some 8 5 million Americans--such a grab endorse this view...

...picketed and booed...

...diaries in relation to the upcoming Crouch down and lick the hands which slaughter), this linkage was dismissed...

...That is frightful enough, but Heston's warning goes much deeper...

...He takes special aim at If your child's textbooks mangle history, down by the power of the opinion elite...

...The values of this priestly class are Heston is also right when he points Oliver Stone (his Natural Born Killers In one of this book's most interesting passages, Heston tells of his habit of asking audiences to raise their hands if they own a gun...

...Mo\ie ue to argue thcrc arc a quarter-billion advanced and unrepentant carnivorous producer Spike Lee told an interviewer guns in private hands due to a misreading instincts, pride in achievements by white that Heston should be shot "witta a .44 of the Constitution, the position is so ludi- males, rejection of affirmative action, to caliber Bulldog" because of his views...

...Heston offers a lity of servitude better than the animating and blast furnace...

...military...

...HCStOI1 iS, in otlner worcls, an old-stvlc liberal...

...It was indeed a bunch of wise, old, view at odds with the cultural elitists, that an example Viet Cong resistance to the dead white guys who brought us to this citizen has been 'taken captive.' His free- U.S...

...We don't want you here...

...In any event, he doesn't fear that Americans will some Heston has a good case to make, and his argument surely has broad appeal, though this book is clearly aimed at the H 67...

...It was Heston, much more than Stone, you were our countrymen...

...Any time a citizen of the threatening symbol of equality of power...

...The idea seems less radical when fleshed out, as it is here...

...Fiercely defend your taken place, as it will in Canada: "I have Semitic, or anti-gay literature in his pos- values and don't be afraid to call your seen lines of submissive citizens, whose session, a link is immediately recognized...

...The Rifleman Cometh-and He's Not Tuming Back Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and indeed Charlton Heston depart via buzzard...

...Instead, he icized for their own contributions to soci- involved at every political level, he says...