SPEECH BY CHARLTON HESTON AT HARVARD
Editor's Note: Charlton Heston addressed the topic 'Winning the Cultural
War' at the Harvard Law School Forum, February 16, 1999. Here is the text
of that speech:
By Charlton Heston
(c) 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com
I remember my son when he was 5, explaining to his kindergarten class what
his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people."
There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New
Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various
nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a
French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo.
If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best. There always seem to
be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets
to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: if my Creator gave me the
gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want
to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty
... your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is right.
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America,
"We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great
civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think
and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing
lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise
from wilderness into the miracle that it is. Let me back up. About a year
ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects
the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I
serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me
everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile,
crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old ... but I sure thank the Lord ain't
senile.
As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second
Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue.
No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural
war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain
acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 -- long
before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that
white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's
pride, they called me a racist.
I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I
told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights
or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech,
when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out
innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my
country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was
compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying,
"Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not
authorized for public consumption!"
But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd
still be King George's boys-subjects bound to the British crown.
In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "blatantly
irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost
every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new
anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction.
Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something, without a
name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to
separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like
it."
Let me read a few examples. At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking
intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the
process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in
a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had
been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDS --- the state
commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not. .. need not
... tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team
"The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to
learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights
of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have
separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed
in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their
last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at
Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set
up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know ... that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy
Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ... particularly
"Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to
be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side,
my grandson is a 13th-generation Native American ... with a capital letter on
"American."
Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C.
Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to
colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, 'niggardly' means stingy or
scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and
resign.
As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people
in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of 'niggardly,'
(b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c)
actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."
What does all of this mean? It means that telling us what to think has
evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far
behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why
did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you
continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas,
surrender to their suppression?
Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really
believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the
superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.
You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of
American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River,
you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the
land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since
Concord Bridge.
And as long as you validate that ... and abide it ... you are-by your
grandfathers' standards-cowards. Here's another example. Right now at more
than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are
being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs.
Why?
Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending
lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm
manufacturers.
I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at
that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas,
if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed
soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead,
"Don't shoot me."
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see
distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you
think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion.
If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a
homophobe.
Editor's Note: Charlton Heston addressed the topic 'Winning the Cultural
War' at the Harvard Law School Forum, February 16, 1999. Here is the text
of that speech:
By Charlton Heston
(c) 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com
I remember my son when he was 5, explaining to his kindergarten class what
his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people."
There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New
Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various
nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a
French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo.
If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best. There always seem to
be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets
to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: if my Creator gave me the
gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want
to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty
... your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is right.
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America,
"We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great
civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think
and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing
lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise
from wilderness into the miracle that it is. Let me back up. About a year
ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects
the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I
serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me
everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile,
crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old ... but I sure thank the Lord ain't
senile.
As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second
Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue.
No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural
war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain
acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 -- long
before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that
white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's
pride, they called me a racist.
I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I
told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights
or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech,
when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out
innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my
country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was
compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying,
"Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not
authorized for public consumption!"
But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd
still be King George's boys-subjects bound to the British crown.
In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "blatantly
irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost
every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new
anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction.
Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something, without a
name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to
separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like
it."
Let me read a few examples. At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking
intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the
process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in
a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had
been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDS --- the state
commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not. .. need not
... tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team
"The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to
learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights
of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have
separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed
in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their
last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at
Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set
up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know ... that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy
Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ... particularly
"Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to
be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side,
my grandson is a 13th-generation Native American ... with a capital letter on
"American."
Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C.
Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to
colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, 'niggardly' means stingy or
scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and
resign.
As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people
in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of 'niggardly,'
(b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c)
actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."
What does all of this mean? It means that telling us what to think has
evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far
behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why
did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you
continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas,
surrender to their suppression?
Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really
believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the
superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.
You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of
American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River,
you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the
land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since
Concord Bridge.
And as long as you validate that ... and abide it ... you are-by your
grandfathers' standards-cowards. Here's another example. Right now at more
than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are
being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs.
Why?
Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending
lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm
manufacturers.
I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at
that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas,
if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed
soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead,
"Don't shoot me."
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see
distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you
think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion.
If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a
homophobe.