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  • Think

    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:

    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.

    Don't let America's universities continue
    to serve as incubators for this rampant
    epidemic of new McCarthyism. But what can
    you do? How can anyone prevail against such
    pervasive social subjugation?

    The answer's been here all along. I learned
    it 36 years ago, on the steps of the
    Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.,
    standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and
    two hundred thousand people.

    You simply ... disobey. Peaceably, yes.
    Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently,
    absolutely. But when told how to think or
    what to say or how to behave, we don't. We
    disobey social protocol that stifles and
    stigmatizes personal freedom.

    I learned the awesome power of disobedience
    from Dr. King ... who learned it from
    Gandhi, and Thoreau and Jesus and every
    other great man who led those in the right
    against those with the might.

    Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate
    kinship with that Disobedient spirit that
    tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent
    Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the
    back of the bus, that protested a war in
    Vietnam.

    In that same spirit, I am asking you to
    disavow cultural correctness with massive
    disobedience of rogue authority, social
    directives and onerous law that weaken
    personal freedom.

    But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience
    demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr.
    King stood on lots of balconies. You must
    be willing to be humiliated ... to endure
    the modern-day equivalent of the police
    dogs at Montgomery and the water Cannons at
    Selma. You must be willing to experience
    discomfort. I'm not Complaining, but my own
    decades of social activism have taken their
    toll on me. Let me tell you a story.

    A few years back I heard about a rapper
    named Ice-T who was selling a CD called
    "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and
    murdering police officers. It was being
    marketed by none other than Time/Warner,
    the biggest entertainment conglomerate in
    the world. Police across the country were
    outraged. Rightfully so-at least one had
    been murdered. But Time/Warner was
    stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow
    for them, and the media were tiptoeing
    around it because the rapper was black. I
    heard Time/Warner had a stockholders
    meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned
    some shares at the time, so I decided to
    attend.

    What I did there was against the advice of
    my family and colleagues. I asked for the
    floor. To a hushed room of a thousand
    average American stockholders, I simply
    read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer" --
    every vicious, vulgar, instructional word.

    "I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF
    I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF
    I'm ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF
    I'm ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."

    It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the
    rest of it to you. But trust me, the room
    was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched
    faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed
    in their chairs and stared at their shoes.
    They hated me for that. Then I delivered
    another volley of sick lyric brimming with
    racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about
    sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and
    Tipper Gore. "SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST
    MY ...."

    Well, I won't do to you here what I did to
    them. Let's just say I left the room in
    echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to
    the waiting press corps, one of them said
    "We can't print that." "I know," I replied,
    "but Time/Warners selling it."

    Two months later, Time/Warner terminated
    Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered
    another film by Warners, or get a good
    review from Time magazine. But disobedience
    means you must be willing to act, not just
    talk.

    When a mugger sues his elderly victim for
    defending herself ... jam the switchboard
    of the district attorney's office. When
    your university is pressured to lower
    standards until 80 percent of the students
    graduate with honors ... choke the halls of
    the board of regents. When an 8-year-old
    boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground
    and gets hauled into court for sexual
    harassment ... march on that school and
    block its doorways. When someone you
    elected is seduced by political power and
    betrays you ... petition them, oust them,
    banish them. When Time magazine's cover
    portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy
    Christians holding a cross as it did last
    month ... boycott their magazine and the
    products it advertises.

    So that this nation may long endure, I urge
    you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of
    the great disobediences of history that
    freed exiles, founded religions, defeated
    tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an
    aroused rabble in arms and a few great men,
    by God's grace, built this country.

    If Dr. King were here, I think he would
    agree.

    Thank you.
    Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world: for everyone thinks himself so well endowed with it that even those who are the hardest to please in everything else do not usually desire more of it than they possess.

  • #2
    Re: Think

    i was all for the nra until they decided to leave out ron paul on their website..they included all others and not him..the nra gets no support from me...

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Think

      Great read! We need a good recharge of thought for heart now and then.
      That is a great point how political correctness was birthed on our campuses. Why do students tolerate anything?

      Thanks for the post Strat.
      1 up

      Go Gators


      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Think

        great post stratagoes...thanks. great read! kiazer...i dont think anything that was saidin that speech was about the nra...support them or not heston is right...we fuk ourselves!
        HE WHO MAKES A BEAST OF HIMSELF, GET'S RID OF THE PAIN OF BEING A MAN!!


        http://www.infinitymuscle.com/forum.php







        "Actually for once your actually starting sound quite logical!"-djdiggler 07/10/2007

        I LOVE BOOBOOKITTY...

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        • #5
          Re: Think

          I dislike the man

          but agree 200%
          three doodoo is back! Hide your women!

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Think

            Hmmmm...interesting article. After watching that Michael Moore film "Bowling for Colombine" I would have never thought Heston marched with Dr. Martin Luther King. The film made the NRA look like a front for the KKK.
            NO PAIN, NO GAIN
            KNOW PAIN, KNOW GAIN





            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Think

              Originally posted by supasaiyan99 View Post
              Hmmmm...interesting article. After watching that Michael Moore film "Bowling for Colombine" I would have never thought Heston marched with Dr. Martin Luther King. The film made the NRA look like a front for the KKK.
              That's on point for how Moore works and the tricks of creating a film. You can edit just about anything including sound overs/dub overs to make something seem however you want. The film industry also now has digital imagery that's better than the camera's used to film the events in his bullshyt. That's how he attacks people. He's basically just a fat lier that fabricates everything for the almighty dollar and his whacko agenda taking no consideration for truth and people.
              1 up

              Go Gators


              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Think

                Heston is a dickweed....no use for the guy....
                SUPERMOD@ LORDSOFIRON.COM (invite only)








                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Think

                  Originally posted by horsepwr View Post
                  That's on point for how Moore works and the tricks of creating a film. You can edit just about anything including sound overs/dub overs to make something seem however you want. The film industry also now has digital imagery that's better than the camera's used to film the events in his bullshyt. That's how he attacks people. He's basically just a fat lier that fabricates everything for the almighty dollar and his whacko agenda taking no consideration for truth and people.
                  Yep...I see that now.
                  NO PAIN, NO GAIN
                  KNOW PAIN, KNOW GAIN





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