TODAY IS "HARVEY MILK DAY" IN CALIFORNIA

UPDATE: Don Charles (Also see here.) sent a comment on this post that deserves as wide distribution as possible, so I'm posting it as an update to my original post:

Here is what people should do to honor Harvey Milk:

1) Reject sex and gender slurs and crude stereotypes of LGBT folk.

2) Denounce and protest verbal genocide emanating from the Pope and other religious institutions.

3) Police the media for disrespectful and demeaning portrayals of LGBT folk.

4) Realize that equality means equality! No haggling over whether or not we should want to be married, adopt children, serve in the military, etcetera.

5) Realize that the closet and closetedness must be eliminated. Maintaining or helping to maintain a heterosexual/binary gender facade is inexcusable (mind you, I'm not saying your LGBT status must needs be volunteered! I'm simply saying it's wrong to lie.)

6) Commit yourself sincerely to the equality struggle. Nothing is more despicable than someone who uses the struggle as a vehicle for publicity or careerism.

7) Familarize yourself with the US Consititution. Know your citizenship rights and be prepared to demand their enforcement anywhere and anytime!



Today is Harvey Milk Day in California.

It is to be hoped that one day in the not too distant future, Harvey Milk Day will be a National holiday.

Please click on this link, and on the above link, to see the Harvey Milk Day actions in a variety of states, as well as in the state of California.

My wife was a student of Harvey's when she was in High School in Hewlett, New York. She was in his Algebra class, and loved him as a teacher and as a person. Her recollections of him still bring tears to her eyes even after more than 50 years have elapsed since she last saw him.

He was a very kind, caring, compassionate human being who gave much of himself to others, as I'm sure can be attested to by so many people who had the pleasure and honor to know and work with Harvey during his years of activism. He was intact as a human being, and that persona radiated out to others who had the emotional maturity and the wit to grasp his message, given by him both verbally and non-verbally.

I have no doubt that one day Harvey Milk will go down in history as one of the group of martyrs for human rights that contain such luminaries as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Oscar Romero.

Like all martyrs for the cause of human rights, God gave us Harvey to shine forth his light on us, and then God took him back all too soon! But for those of us who caught the vision of the martyrs for human rights, the engagement in meaningful activism will eventually yield equality, and will eventually bring forth the understanding that all of God's children are members of one human family.

May Harvey rest in peace, and may we never rest until his vision is accomplished!

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8)

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