I'm saddened with the passing of Charlton Heston, the actor and former head of the NRA. Heston was a great actor, and a great man. Those that are inclined to do so should do a little research on Heston and his involvement in the civil rights movement, and perhaps some more investigation into his real positions on gun control and the like. Though Heston was the leader of the NRA later in his life, he was long ago associated with those that we now consider some of our more liberal leaders.
Charlton Heston - Medal of Freedom winner
For more on Heston and his political activism, check out the Wikipedia article on Heston here.
Some choice words from same:
Heston campaigned for Presidential candidate
Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and
John F. Kennedy in 1960.
[10] When an Oklahoma movie theater premiering his movie was segregated, he joined a picket line outside in 1961.
[11] During the civil rights march held in
Washington, D.C. in 1963, he accompanied
Martin Luther King Jr. In later speeches, Heston said he helped the civil rights cause "long before Hollywood found it fashionable."
[12]
Following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Heston and actors Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart issued a statement calling for public support of President Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968.[13][14] He opposed the Vietnam War and said he voted for Richard Nixon in 1972.[15]
By the 1980s, Heston opposed affirmative action, supported gun rights and changed his political affiliation from Democratic to Republican.[16] He campaigned for Republicans and Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan,[17] George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.[18]
Heston resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist."[19] He said CNN's telecasts from Baghdad were "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.[19]
A very complex man indeed.
