A shining symbol

[smiley_kiley]

Last night, I decided to walk home to try to clear my head from the events of the past week.

As I walked past U.N. Plaza, I stopped in my tracks. It wasn’t the pervasive stench of Homeless Person that stopped me; it was the sight of City Hall.

I detoured down the plaza and took a seat at the James Lick monument. I sat and stared at City Hall, awash

Comments

[musicbearmn]

Well said. If I was there, I would have joined you, and cried with you, for another reason.

Tonight on MPR there was a story about Harvey Milk, and how the younger generation doesn't have clue one. Part of the clip included when-then senior supervisor Nancy Pelosi had to announce the deaths of Milk and Moscone. You could hear the pandemonium break out instantly.

They interviewed a young (24) lesbian who said "I have plenty of other politicians to look up to." Do you not realize its because of Harvey that there are these other politicians!!!!

It's time to roll up our sleeves and UNITE together and fight. No more pointing fingers at________________(fill in the blank). You're right. A straight man did stand up for ALL of us.

[smiley_kiley]

That does make me crazy. The good thing is that the protests here in SF have been mostly youngsters! tons of 20-somethings. I love seeing that.

(by the way, it was Dianne Feinstein who was Prez of the Board of Supes, not Nancy :-) )

[musicbearmn]

Sorry....I was driving and thought they said Nancy. :)

[smiley_kiley]

You should see the archival footage of the scene. It's like anarchy at City Hall with DiFi standing in a huddle with the media and announcing the death of Moscone and Milk... wow.

[musicbearmn]

I should look around and see if I can find it or not.

Another piece of history that goes with that infamous time is that it was the birth of the gay men's chorus movement. SFGMC had been formed not very long before that press conference, and the candlelight vigil was their first public performance. There had been women's/feminist choruses around for many years at that point, but the men's chorus movement also owns its start to that sad event. I wonder how many of the glbt youth know that, or know that gay bars used to have to black out their windows and have passwords.

I'm on a roll, I know, but that's part of the problem. We've not done a real swift job of making sure the younger generations know what happened and how we got to where we are. No wonder there is a sense of apathy. They don't remember that the regular raids on bars led to Stonewall, which led to a host of things, which led to Harvey Milk being elected, and so forth.

(off soapbox now)