Charlton Heston - A Distant Cousin and A Conservative

Both my dad's mother's and Charlton Heston's mother's maiden names were Charlton. Back in Ohio in my younger days, a topic of discussion was the fact that Charlton Heston would show up occasionally at the annual Charlton reunion.

He was best known for his role as Moses in The Ten Commandments and won an Oscar for best actor in Ben Hur.

Although starting out as a Democrat, he gravitated toward the Republican party when he realized that the Democrats were no longer the champions of democracy and Constitutional freedoms. He became the head of the NRA and an outspoken supporter of Ronald Reagan, and the two Bush Presidencies.

Following are a couple of quotes I found in Wikipedia:

In a 1997 Fighting the Culture War in America speech, Heston rhetorically deplored a culture war he said was being conducted by a generation of media, educators, entertainers and politicians against: "...the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class Protestant - or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern - or even worse, rural, apparently straight - or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning - or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff - or even worse, male working stiff - because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?"

He went on: "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’ll tell you why: Cultural warfare!"

In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled Winning the Cultural War, Heston said, "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown."

He said to the students: "You are the best and the brightest. You, here in this 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."

Heston later stated, "Political correctness is tyranny with manners."

In a speech to the National Press Club in 1997, Heston said, "Now, I doubt any of you would prefer a rolled up newspaper as a weapon against a dictator or a criminal intruder."

Wikipedia entry on Charlton Heston