24 Years Ago Today....

On May 21, 1979, in the famous "Twinkie insanity" case, a sympathetic jury found disgruntled former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White guilty only of manslaughter despite the fact that he had coldbloodedly assassinated two people: San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, and the nation's first gay city Supervisor, Harvey Milk (a man who endorsed me when I ran for ASUC Senate at UC Berkeley).

It was obvious to many that the killing of Milk, an open homosexual, was a mitigating factor in the jury's thinking, i.e., had White stopped short of killing Milk and only left the Mayor dead, he would have been considered a cold blooded assassin, and received a life sentence for murder. That this handsome young man had (as an afterthought) killed an open homosexual changed things in the minds of the elderly female jury -- much to White's favor. Accustomed as homosexuals generally are to being treated like shit, this went too far. We might come cheap, but not THAT cheap.

Anyway, a huge gay riot ensued, many people were injured, a dozen police cars were burned, City Hall was trashed, and the police later staged an invasion of a popular gay bar in reprisal, beating the crap out of innocent old queens who'd had nothing to do with the riot. (A lesson in being very careful about deliberately unleashing the forces of Chaos.)

I was there. Never mind what I may or may not have done. Suffice it to say that when he endorsed me for my teensy little ASUC Senate office, Harvey Milk told me that the reason he had run for office at his age (and he was older then than I am now, and I am plenty old!) was "for you young guys!" That's called imparting wisdom, and it is another Classical Value. Anyway, to my way of thinking, nobody kills somebody who helps me out by imparting wisdom to me! Not if I can do something about it, and even though I couldn't stop the assassination, on May 21, 1979 the least I could do was help avenge it.

Mars, Apollo, and Nemesis were all present that night.

The assassinations catapulted Dianne Feinstein into office as Mayor of San Francisco, thus launching her gun-grabbing career and ultimately landing her in the United States Senate where to this day she reigns as a sort of Grand Ayatollah of Gun Control, and mother of the nation's infamous "assault weapons" ban. (You can read about my experience trying to get a "Gay Guns" float into her city's tamer, more politically correct, "we are an angry gentle people" style Lesbian/Gay/Etc. parades.) What a riot! (Sometimes I still laugh.) Dianne Feinstein didn't think "we" had it in us, and the police were caught unprepared.

As riots go, this one was neat and tidy. The Opera House was spared despite the angry exhortations by Trotskyists and other wild, mostly straight lefties that we burn it, and similarly, their demands that we attack the Federal Building were given short shrift. Crazy as I was back then, I will never forget seeing tender young office queens all dressed up like they'd just left work, busily and systematically throwing rocks and torching police cars, pausing to gasp and giggle in horror at their own handiwork. Next thing, they were holding hands, and even french-kissing in front of the flaming police cars. It is sometimes forgotten what motivates people on such historic occasions. I remember like yesterday the demonic ferocity activated within these otherwise most unlikely rioters by on-the-spot slogans: "Yes, you may well get hurt. YOU MAY DIE! WE MAY ALL DIE!! Go back to being a silly queen tomorrow! Tonight is for every time you have been called a 'faggot' in your life!"

Sometimes, there is dignity in fighting, or even in dying, (to quote American revolutionary James Otis) "so that a man can stand up."

At the time of the Dan White Riots, I was working with a typical retired San Francisco cop and a typical retired San Francisco fireman. They thought Dan White had done the city a good deed -- and the cop stated that he should be freed! Then as now, I felt privileged to be on at least speaking terms with both sides of this blasted, ongoing "Culture War."

I did not want the damned war then, and I do not want it now. Vengeance is wrong, even though it seemed right at the time. Identity politics is wrong, even though it seemed right at the time.

Deliberately fallible, the old gods taught that there is a time for everything, sometimes even wrong things. We can learn from our mistakes, and in ancient times, the gods were there so we could also learn from their mistakes, and not have to repeat them.

It's all reason enough for me to blog.

posted by Eric on 05.21.03 at 10:24 PM





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