By Rod Dreher -
Writes a reader from Southern California: “Apparently John Wayne is the new Confederate statue.” She sent a link to this op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times.Excerpts:
Most people familiar with the life story of John Wayne are aware that the late movie star was a dyed-in-the-wool right-winger — after all, he was still making a movie glorifying America’s conduct of the Vietnam War (“The Green Berets,” 1968) well after the country had begun to get sick of the conflict.
But the resurrection of a 1971 interview Wayne gave to Playboy magazine has underscored the sheer crudeness of the actor’s feelings about gay people, black people, Native Americans, young people and liberals.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s impossible or immoral to enjoy Westerns and war movies starring John Wayne; that’s a personal choice. But it certainly undermines any justification for his name and image to adorn a civic facility.
We’re talking about Orange County’s John Wayne Airport. It’s long past the time that Wayne’s name should come down.
Why? Because Orange County is now Democratic and so ethnically diverse that
it’s hard to justify asking any member of that community to board planes at an airport named after an outspoken racist and homophobe, with his strutting statue occupying a central niche in front of the concourse.
Racist? Homophobe? The Duke? Read the whole thing to see some genuinely offensive quotes that someone recently unearthed from a 1971 Playboy interview with the iconic movie star, who had been born in 1907.
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