Milk and Twinkies....

Sure looking forward to the movie,"Milk" with Sean Penn playing the part of Harvey Milk. I cannot believe the people who don't even remember Mr. Milk. He was the first openly gay city supervisor and he got so much accomplished in the 11 months he served. Then a redneck homophobic former fireman, named Dan White went to City Hall and shot Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. White's attorney got him off on something called the "Twinkie defense." Yeah, ol' Danny-boy was all depressed because he couldn't get his position returned to him when he had a tantrum about how progressive San Francisco was becoming and had resigned. So, when Mayor Moscone said that he couldn't come back because Harvey Milk had been elected in his place, he went ape-shit and killed both men. I read his book and he had planned to do some easy time and retire to his beloved Ireland, where he planned to be a "gentleman farmer." The gays rioted and tore the town up. So, when White was paroled after a few years, the gay faction told him he might as well kill himself before they did. He took the easy way out and killed himself in his garage, carbon monoxide. This was all going on after the Jim Jones mess in 1978 in Guyana. I remember keeping up with all this and promised myself that somehow I would get up to San Francisco and participate any way I could to honor Harvey Milk. When pope J.P. II came to the City saying that gays and feminist were "inherently evil," I was able to be at Union Square when Mr. Milk was "canonised" by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Leave it to the "City that knows how." The pope was protested and Harvey Milk was honored. The Sisters held a mass, holding up a giant gold condom that was also a statement about safe-sex. Remember, this was the era where Ronnie Raygun had yet to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic. It also represented the grim fairy tale of the "host." You know, the old body and blood fantasy that's been such a money-maker for all things papist.

Saint Harvey was such a brilliant strategist. He had this idea that if all people of color, feminists and gays formed a coalition, then we wouldn't be a minority, we'd be the majority.Yeah, we're talking power to the people. There was funding for AIDS research and PWAs (People with AIDS) were able to die with some dignity and comfort, keeping their housing and pets. And remember, this was when HIV alone was a death sentence.

Meanwhile, Dan White sat around in his underwear drinking and eating Twinkies, grousing about those left-wing commie do-gooders, what's the world coming to? Well, if it could be mandated that all politicoes attend a seminar that defines sevice to the people, would we still have the Tom Delays, the Abrramoffs, the George Bushes, the Dick Cheneys? Hell, who knows, it hasn't been tried yet.

Anyone seeking public office ought to know who Saint Harvey is. Movies like "Milk" might make a difference, I reckon.