Charlton Heston at Brandeis

Dark Avenger

New member
I froze my nuts off for two hours and then was told that the auditorium was full. It seemed like only the first throng of people at the front of the line were let into the auditorium.

After we didn't get in, most went to counter-demonstrate by the cameras. When the protest kids started to chant "What do we want ? ", all of us in the crowd roared "FREEDOM" and drowned out their intended response "Gun Control". It was pretty sweet and it definitely took them by surprise.

Did any TFLers get inside ? A report on the proceedings would be nice.

P.S. The protest kids were very ill informed. One girl was circulating a "Non-Violent Self-Defense" pamphlet which suggested a number of martial arts. If I start some Bruce Lee moves on your head, I don't think it would be non-violent.
 
I didn't get to go, but I would've enjoyed being in the crowd inside or out.

There should be a pretty good report on the event on WTKK 96.9 Fm(Boston). Jay Severin has a show from 3:00pm to 6:00. He interviewed Charlton Heston yesterday and then headed off to Brandeis. I haven't had a chance yet to look through the papers for anything that was said.
 
Good for Moses!

------------------
"I swear to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemeis domestic or foreign WHOMSOEVER."
 
Didn't get in, but i enjoyed listening to the trust fund babies chant:
"what do we want?"
"GUN CONTROL"
"when do we want it?"
"NOW"

And the NRAer's:
[kids chant, "what do we want?"]
"FREEDOM"
[kids chant, "when do we want it?"]
"NOW"

We'll after a little while my buddy said to
me, "Come'on, lets get out of here and go to the pub, not the one where all the 'peaceniks' hang out"

"The 'peaceniks' aren't old enough to go to the pub," i replied.

I wasn't very impressed, over the sign's "MOSES comes to Brandise", at a predominently Jewish University.

A friend once told me, "If your not a socialist by the time you're 20 and a Capitalist by the time you're 30, then you -are- a fool."

~USP
 
Two major flaws in the article;
1)``Guns are the number two cause of injury and death in the United States,'' she said.
That is an outright lie. Check the CDC, I don't even think that gun homicides make the top 10. Heart disease, cancer, and even automobile accidents are ahead of shootings.

Heston waved off blame for the increasing number of gun-related crimes.
There is not an increase. Gun realted crimes have been dropping since 1992 or 1993.
 
Giving It His Best Shot
NRA's Charlton Heston Declares Culture War

By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2000; Page C01

Moses came packing to Georgetown University last night, warning of a culture war and "an
overwhelming Orwellian tyranny sweeping this country."

"Our culture has traded in the bloody arena fights of ancient Rome for state fights on Sally,
Ricki, Jerry, Maury, Jenny and Rosie. . . . Our one nation under God, with liberty and justice
for all, now seems more like the fractured streets of Beirut, echoing with anger."

Thus spake Charlton Heston, retired actor, celluloid Moses (not to mention Ben-Hur and
Michelangelo; this actor didn't do bit parts) and, not incidentally, president of the National Rifle
Association. Heston clearly intended his speech, presented by the Georgetown student
association's Lecture Fund, as a round of buckshot in a cultural war with liberals and President
Clinton, who has picked fight after fight with the NRA.

More than a few lines in Heston's speech on "Guns, Politics and the Cultural War" seemed
crafted to play off the expected gibes of a left-leaning college audience.

"Only a few years ago I would have been welcomed here as Moses." Heston swept his hand at
the audience in Gaston Hall. Now "I'm here in a more controversial persona. That's what
happens when you exchange a set of stone tablets for a shotgun."

The nation is engaged in a "great war," he added. "And this campus is one of the
battlegrounds."

In fact, this was no ravening crowd. The audience of 800 or more students would have been
drummed out of the Roman Colosseum for excessive politesse. About half the students greeted
Heston with a standing ovation, leavened by a smattering of boos, and their questions were
polite and moderately probing.

Heston's white hair and grandfatherly aspect, too, tended to belie his words, as did a recently
healed broken hip that left the 75-year-old moving gingerly across the stage. If his was an Old
Testament message, Moses' tone was avuncular.

Nonetheless, he took repeated aim at the nation's college campuses, describing students as
"cultural cowards" and "the most politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge." He laid
out a Hestonian demonology, in which conservatives are everywhere embattled.

"Democrats hate Republicans. Gays hate straights. Women hate men. Liberals hate
conservatives. Vegetarians hate meat-eaters. Gun banners hate gun owners."

Gun control, and the NRA, have emerged as prime targets for Democrats in the presidential
campaign, reflecting a political calculation that suburban swing voters fear for their children's
safety and have tired of an organization that champions the right to bear arms.

Clinton, in a news conference yesterday, again attacked, saying that Republicans, "egged on by
the NRA," have refused to bring to a vote a juvenile justice bill that requires background checks
for sales at gun shows and child safety locks for handguns.

And Gore's quick-lipped press secretary, Chris Lehane, has missed no chance to pull George
W. Bush into the fray, charging yesterday that the Republican candidate is "in the hip holster of
the NRA."

Heston did not gainsay that last night. He said the Texas governor would make a fine president
and "if Bush is elected . . . his position [on guns and gun control] would be more or less our
position."

Heston said his recent speaking tour (he spoke a night earlier at Brandeis University) was born
of his fury that NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre has been pilloried for saying
that Clinton was willing to accept a certain amount of gun violence to further his gun control
agenda. LaPierre, Heston said, was speaking the truth:

"For two solid weeks he was demonized, scorned, vilified. In fact, the president has been
miserably lax in enforcing federal gun laws but it was easier to condemn a good man. . . . The
spectacle of Wayne LaPierre's media crucifixion appalled me."

Earlier, Clinton had a bit of fun at his news conference when Heston's name came up. Clinton,
the great rope-a-dope pol, claimed he did not mind the NRA's attacks. And he said he remains a
fan of Heston--"a great actor and I love his movies."

Heston did not return the compliment. Assaying his best chill-eyed cowboy squint, he peered
out at the audience last night and advised:

"When someone you've elected is seduced by the power of the office and betrays you, muster
the collective will to banish them from public office."
 
Back
Top