The American Spectator

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br> What becomes an icon most? Ten days after the end of World War II, Chinese communists murdered a great, brave American named John Birch. Later, people who Birch never knew named their anti-communist society after him as the first victim of the new Cold War. Today, should we therefore create the Jack Webb Society as an organization to fight the PC wars? No, I believe that would be obscene.

Jack would be the first to tell you that playing a lot of heroes didn’t necessarily make him one. But, in the American heroic tradition, he was in essence a man who, through both circumstance and choice, had led a life that was anything but innocent — but who wanted to preserve innocence for the rest of us. There was less bite to his bark than he let on. Indeed, he was proud of the fact that in the first 60 episodes of Dragnet there were only 15 gunshots, three fights and a half-dozen punches.

Today, as we gird ourselves to both conquer a lethal international threat and at the same time wage a domestic war to restore our sick culture, it’s good to remember the man who took that first bullet. Remember how all his characters chose sacrifice over self-actualization. Remember how he always emphasized that crime, at its root, was the residue of the society’s moral level. Remember that, sometimes, the difference between good and evil is very clear.

The Cock and Bull is gone. Even Lew Wasserman is gone. But the good guys are running things — and pretty women are drinking martinis again.

Jack — you won.