frankly, what I think we're doing here, is documenting the last gasps of democracy. Updated

[Bluenorthwest]

310. Harvey Milk on why pessimism is a nasty elitist habit:

" I walked among the sad and the frustrated at City Hall in San Francisco and later that night as they lit candles on Castro Street and stood in silence, reaching out for some symbolic thing that would give them hope. These were strong people, whose faces I knew from the shop, the streets, meetings and people who I never saw before but I knew. They were strong, but even they needed hope.

And the young gay people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias and the Richmond, Minnesotas who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us'es, the us'es will give up. And if you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.

So if there is a message I have to give, it is that I've found one overriding thing about my personal election, it's the fact that if a gay person can be elected, it's a green light. And you and you and you, you have to give people hope."

The people need to aspire and strive. The very fortunate who do not yield their own wealth but rather retain it for their exclusive use really go to too far when they demand that the less fortunate abandon all hope, all aspiration for the future. It's fine to be a nihilistic trust fund kid, but a kid living in great need for economic and social justice, for basic security in food and housing and employment will need hope just to get off the streets, to feed herself, to feel self esteem and the right to a happy life.
Those who first take the best and take the most who turn to others and say 'don't even hope to get any for yourself' are in the end, mean people protecting that which they feel is theirs by birthright. 'I am set for life, but you must not even dream'.