[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 116 (Thursday, September 15, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10115-S10116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO PAT BOONE

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to acting and 
music legend Pat Boone.
  While most of us remember him as one of the greatest singers of the 
1950's, he is also known for his abiding Christian faith and strong 
moral standards which have sustained him throughout his life even 
during the height of his career in the entertainment industry.
  Today, Mr. Boone is the spokesman for the 60 Plus Association, a 
nonpartisan senior citizens advocacy group.
  He recently was interviewed by John Gizzi with Human Events. I ask to 
have printed in the Record an article titled ``Pat Boone on Politics, 
Porn, and the Death Tax''.
  The article follows.

               [From Human Events Online, Aug. 19, 2005]

             Pat Boone on Politics, Porn and the Death Tax

                            (By John Gizzi)

       Pat Boone, 71, is one of America's most beloved 
     entertainers. In the 1950s, he was the nation's second most 
     popular singer after

[[Page S10116]]

     Elvis Presley. His hits, ``April Love'' and ``Love Letters in 
     the Sand,'' were No. 1 for six and seven weeks respectively. 
     He starred in 15 movies, including Journey to the Center of 
     the Earth and State Fair. Long an active conservative 
     Republican, Boone is currently spokesman for the 60 Plus 
     Association. Last week, Boone spoke with Human Events 
     Political Editor John Gizzi.
       You have always been known in Hollywood as a conservative 
     and a Christian. In 1961, in fact, you, Ronald Reagan, Roy 
     Rogers and John Wayne addressed Dr. Fred Schwartz's all-
     Southern California anti-Communist rally. Has it become more 
     difficult for someone [in Hollywood] to be a conservative and 
     a Christian today?
       Pat Boone: I was not involved politically at that time. 
     Then, I felt so strongly about anti-communism and I did read 
     Fred Schwartz's book and then came his crusade at the sports 
     arena. What Schwartz said in his book [You Can Trust the 
     Communists--To Be Communists] made perfect sense to me. The 
     phrase, ``Better Red Than Dead,'' was sweeping college 
     campuses at the time.
       When my time came to say a few words, I quoted that 
     sentiment. I said I've got four little girls and if it ever 
     came to that, although I pray it never will, I would rather 
     see my four daughters blown to heaven in an atomic blast than 
     caught in the hell of a Communist United States.
       It impressed Reagan and he quoted that a number of times, 
     beginning by saying, ``I once heard a young father say.'' 
     That's what occurred that night.
       My activism and my being very outspoken never abated after 
     that and it has cost me as an entertainer. There is a 
     visceral antipathy that producers, hirers and firers have. I 
     feel myself in the other direction. I have feelings I have to 
     control of anger and total disregard for certain actors and 
     outspoken people in our business that I think are ruining 
     American culture.
       Do you care to name any names?
       Boone: When Norman Lear started People For the American 
     Way, he asked to meet with me. He wanted me to be the voice 
     of People For the American Way--its spokesman. He knew I had 
     considerable influence and a high-profile among Christians 
     and Middle America.
       I said to him: ``Look, I understand why you have these 
     feelings. You want to promote your point of view. But your 
     main concern is with the Christian right, isn't it?'' He 
     said, ``That's right.'' I said, ``I know you've been openly 
     critical of [Rev.] Jerry Falwell. I know Jerry, although I'm 
     not a member of the Moral Majority. He feels that what you're 
     doing and saying and promoting is at least as harmful for 
     America as you feel his point of view is. So why don't we get 
     you two guys together? I have a feeling that so many of your 
     concerns are similar. Since I know him, I think he'd be 
     willing to meet with you.''
       Lear said, ``No, I wouldn't meet with him.'' When I asked 
     him why, he said, ``He'll just quote Scripture and I don't 
     know anything about that. I'm not going to meet with him.'' 
     When he left, he knew I wasn't going to be his spokesman.
       I'm on the unpopular side in the entertainment community. A 
     number of entertainers, Jonathan Winters for one, say to me, 
     ``Boone, I believe everything I ever hear you say. But I 
     don't dare say it.'' Now, here's a comedian who'll say 
     anything if it's funny, but when it comes to politics or 
     spiritual things, he knows that he's written off if he were 
     to express himself as emphatically as he would really like 
     to.
       Why have you signed on with the 60 Plus Association, and 
     why do you believe its premier cause, abolishing the estate 
     tax, is so critical?
       Boone: [60 Plus President] Jim Martin, a former Marine and 
     longtime friend of the President, contacted me and asked me 
     if I wanted to join him and his organization. I had been 
     asked to be a spokesman for a number of seniors' groups, but 
     I put it off because I wasn't ready or willing to be 
     considered a senior. Several years ago, in a 10K race here in 
     Los Angeles, I chose a very public moment in front of the 
     network affiliate cameras to come out of the closet and admit 
     I am a senior. Since then, I haven't been reluctant to let 
     people know that, yes, I am a senior and I do feel very 
     concerned about Social Security and the economy and medical 
     costs.
       I have considered for many years that this estate tax is 
     absolute robbery. You already pay taxes, you save money, 
     you've been a good citizen and a responsible person, you save 
     up something, maybe it compounds, but you've already paid tax 
     on it. Now, when you have the poor judgment to die, the 
     government steps in and says, ``Thank you for doing that all 
     these years. We'll take half of that.'' And maybe your folks 
     have to sell the business and the house.
       When Bing Crosby's [first] wife Dixie died [in 1952], going 
     back that far, he had to sell assets to pay the estate tax. 
     On top of losing his wife, he was losing assets on which he 
     already paid taxes. I read this was the case and asked him, 
     and he said, ``Oh yes. You can't get away from the long arm 
     of the IRS.''
       Some say that hip-hop, acid rock and similar modern music 
     is destructive. Do you agree that a lot of it is harmful?
       Boone: Oh, yes, I've been very vocal about that, too. The 
     culture is being dragged into the gutter, and the ones doing 
     it are not just the performers, but the record company 
     executives. It's calculated on their part because they 
     realize there's some fascination, as we used to be fascinated 
     with Jimmy Cagney in the gangster movies. But in the movies, 
     the criminals always got caught and punished.
       The executives found some years ago that this ``gangsta 
     rap'' music was being bought and played by kids out in the 
     suburbs. These are the well-to-do kids, not the black kids in 
     the ghetto areas. They were not the ones subscribing to it 
     and making this music so successful. It was the kids driving 
     BMWs that their dads gave them that were playing it very loud 
     and rattling windows of the houses they were going by. 
     They've made a multi, multi-million dollar business out of 
     it.
       What's the answer to this? Are you talking about 
     censorship?
       Boone: I had a real head-to-head with Robert Blake one 
     night on the Merv Griffin Show about censorship. I said that 
     no society can survive without some form of censorship. He 
     said, ``You're crazy. We don't have censorship. That's bad.'' 
     I replied, ``Wait a minute. The traffic light at the corner 
     is a form of censorship. It says you stop so that someone 
     else can go. And then you have your turn to go.'' We have 
     laws on the books that prevent you from standing up in a 
     theater and yelling, ``Fire,'' or from walking down the 
     street and opening your trench coat and exposing yourself. 
     There are laws that tell you that you can't do certain things 
     and that's what a society does to protect itself.
       I believe we need censorship. I don't think the arts we 
     call the arts--literature, movies and certainly not the 
     airwaves--should be exempt from the rules society makes to 
     protect itself. It's the sensibilities of kids and the 
     females we used to call ladies we're talking about. Thanks to 
     ``Sex and the City'' and this other stuff, they can be just 
     as profane and filthy as men.
       I've watched segments of ``The Sopranos,'' and I just get 
     so sick of the glamour. Talk about Cagney and Bogart. We're 
     making national heroes out of gang bosses.
       I do advocate censorship for a healthy society with three 
     provisos: that it be majority-approved, self-imposed and 
     voluntary. The ``voluntary'' and ``self-imposed'' may sound 
     like the same thing. The society agrees that we need to 
     protect ourselves, and there are certain bounds beyond which 
     we don't want the public to be exposed to filth. But we will 
     make the rules in a voluntary, majority-approved way. And 
     they can be changed by majority opinion.
       I have felt that a healthy society should draw some lines 
     in the dirt and say, ``You cannot cross over this line. You 
     cannot say certain words on public television and cable or 
     anything that's going to reach sensibilities. We are going to 
     do something to defend our kids and our ladies and our 
     families.'' But it's something you just can't even talk about 
     in the entertainment industry. But I say, how are we going to 
     protect ourselves if we don't demand responsibility?
       One final point--friends in California say that you were 
     urged to run for Congress as a Republican in 1968. Why didn't 
     you do it?
       Boone: That was back when I had all of my kids at home. I 
     just knew that it would be totally time-consuming and if I 
     were elected, I'd have to do the job. I thought I could get 
     elected. But I also knew if I was elected, I would do my best 
     to be a good congressman. However, it would be very 
     disruptive of my family life because I would spend a lot of 
     time away from family. And also, I could never go back to 
     being an entertainer.

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