In the time to come, the media and biographers will doubtless give us an overly complete picture of the professional, personal, and political life of Charlton Heston.  I like his movies, but I couldn’t tell you even half his filmography from memory.  I don’t know much about his personal life, and I’m sure I remain ignorant of most of his political activities. I do know that early in life, he was a Democrat, and supported the civil rights movement when it was dangerous and unfashionable for a white person to do so. He later had the courage to rethink his positions–and, even more bravely do so publicly–and became a Republican, largely libertarian, and president of the National Rifle Association.

I’ll miss Charlton Heston not because of the magnificence of his films–he ceased making those well before now. And, despite my profound appreciation for the way in which Mr. Heston, through the NRA, almost single-handedly preserved true civil liberties from the rapacious appetite of the Clinton administration, others have assumed that mantle ably, and I’ll not miss his leadership there.

I will, however, miss Mr. Heston’s public courage. When Ice-T began to market a rap titled “Cop Killer,” Heston confronted Time Warner’s board of directors with the lyrics during a shareholder meeting (Heston was a shareholder). Time Warner, in the end, repudiated the song and fired Ice-T. Ice-T publicly threatened to kill Heston. Heston’s response:
“Let him try.”

In an age of obsessive image control and life-or-death adherence to political correctness, Charlton Heston percieved deeply. He saw through the layers of nonsense that tangled up his peers, and had the raw chutzpah to tell us what he saw.

Here are a few of his observations:

–”Political correctness is tyranny with manners.”

–”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.”

– “The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of wise old dead white guys who invented our country! Now some flinch when I say that. Why! It’s true-they were white guys! So were most of the guys that died in Lincoln’s name opposing slavery in the 1860s. So why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is “Hispanic Pride” or “Black Pride” a good thing, while “White Pride” conjures shaven heads and white hoods? Why was the Million Man March on Washington celebrated by many as progress, while the Promise Keepers March on Washington was greeted with suspicion and ridicule?”

– “I simply cannot stand by and watch a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States come under attack from those who either can’t understand it, don’t like the sound of it, or find themselves too philosophically squeamish to see why it remains the first among equals: Because it is the right we turn to when all else fails. That’s why the Second Amendment is America’s first freedom.”

and, of course

– “They can have my guns when they take them from my cold, dead hands.”

With Charlton Heston’s death, a rare combination of perception, sense, courage, charisma, and conscience has passed from this world. Rest in peace.