“It is forgotten that we are first, Americans. I am asking all of us on both sides to take one step back from the edge. Then another step. And another. However many it takes to get back to that place where we are all Americans. Different, imperfect, diverse, but one nation, indivisible. This cycle of tragedy-driven hatred must stop. Because so much more connects us than that which divides us. And because tragedy has been and will always be with us.
Somewhere right now evil people are planning evil things. All of us will do everything meaningful, everything we can do to prevent it. But each horrible act can’t become an axe for opportunists to cleave the very bill of rights that binds us. America must stop this predictable pattern of reaction, when an isolated terrible event occurs, our phones ring demanding that the NRA explain the inexplicable. Why us? Because their story needs a villain.”
Shortly after the Columbine tragedy, politicians from the left pressured the National Rifle Association (NRA) to cancel its convention in Denver. You see, the location for the convention was in the same area as Columbine and the organizers were asked to cancel out of respect for the victims and their families. Charlton Heston said no.
Why bring this up today? Well, as you may have heard, a new mosque is being proposed in New York close to Ground Zero. The Muslim organization behind the building of the mosque (which will also have a community center of some kind) are being asked not to move forward, out of respect to the victims of 9/11 and their families. Do you see the parallel? The writers at the Daily Show did and they chose this clip for a show last week.
I’m not normally one to involve myself too heavily in politics, but I do try to stay on top of world events. Ironically enough, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart happens to be one of my preferred sources of information. You may feel that Stewart is just as unfair and one-sided as the Fox News personalities that he mocks, but the point being made here crosses political beliefs and allegiances. We are all human beings, first and foremost.
If you want to watch the video clip from the Daily Show, Gawker has it posted on their site; the Charlton Heston speech starts at about the four-minute mark. If you want to read the entirety of the Heston speech, you can read that too. You may not agree with everything he has to say, but I think the quote above is both poignant and powerful.
Given the NRA’s vocal opposition to the “Ground Zero” mosque, Charlton Heston’s words are even more ironic than The Daily Show led people to believe.
More information: http://forums.thedailyshow.com/?page=ThreadView&thread_id=29828
I lost total respect for Charlton Heston for this speech and the others he gave as the head of the NRA. Their opposition to the mosque shows their lack of a point of view and morals. They chastise someone for wanting to build something near a place where we had a major event in our history that is not sensitive to the people and families of 9/11; but say no we aren’t going to move our convention, when they could have been sensitive to the feelings of the Columbine families.
That’s called double faced. They take the line that best benefits themselves. The NRA and Charlton Heston deserve no respect. They are so right wing and unbending that they are meaningless as a political point of view.
I never heard Charlton Heston say anything as NRA president that struck me as incongruous with his background as a civil rights activist and open-minded libertarian.
I agree that the NRA has taken some indefensible right-wing stances lately, but a decade has passed since Charlton Heston’s tenure as NRA president.
Before judging Charlton Heston, I suggest you visit the NRA speech archive and listen to the speeches he gave as NRA president (go to NRAnews.com, select “Speeches” from the menu on the left, and click on the second tab/button, “Past NRA Leaders”). You’ll find that he didn’t talk about left/right politics or republican/democratic politics; he talked about personal liberty, personal responsibility, and the need to think critically.
Honestly, I don’t know how anyone could disagree with any of the speeches Heston gave as NRA President. I wish the NRA would stick to that type of agenda and steer clear of the ultra-right-wing ideals that seem to form the basis for its current agenda.