(First of three blogs related to this subject)
Many
people are asking me if I have seen the movie Milk. The answer is no.
The reason is that I never see movies or read books about people or
events I know personally. Media, books and film, overwhelm my memories
of real people and events. I knew Harvey Milk and I knew others in the
murder of Harvey and Mayor George Moscone.
I met Harvey in early 1975 when he joined the Briarpatch Network as owner of Castro Camera. As was customary at that time I brought several of my apprentices and the Briarpatch coordinator to meet with Harvey on a Wednesday morning to see if we could help him with his business. I had gone by his shop a week earlier to suggest we would be most helpful to him if he had his books ready to show us. Harvey and I ran into each other socially over the years.
Harvey had no books to show us at our Wednesday meeting and he had little interest in getting business advice for his camera-film shop. He wanted to find out about the Briarpatch, his role in it and to chat with all the people who were with me.
Harvey
was kind, a good listener, a true New York expat in both accent and
impatient candor. Harvey was also clearly a Jew and several of us
related to that. (I doubt Harvey would have liked having, Sean Penn, a friend of
Jew-hating tyrants, play Harvey Milk in a movie 35 years later.) He had his hair pulled back in 'clean hippy' style. Harvey had a
large nose with a mustache like several others of us in that
group....which I still remember. Harvey's demeanor was to stand up
straight, then lean on the counter, then be somewhat meek and always to
let you know he was a warm, hugging friendly guy.
The group sat and talked for close to two hours. We were a bunch of hippies being relaxed, very upbeat and confident that the world was going to be the way we were making it. Harvey knew the three other Briarpatch businesses on Castro St. and all the Briarpatch businesses were supportive of each other. Harvey was explicit about his interest in the Briarpatch as a place to meet potential political supporters and we encouraged him to come to parties and meet people. Parties were the only structural form of the Briarpatch at that time.