The motion picture “Milk” deserves to be nominated for an Academy Award because it doesn’t take the easy way out. The film doesn’t portray Harvey Milk as an unblemished hero, but rather as a real human being and a real politician.
Harvey Milk ran for office four times before finally becoming the first openly gay elected official in America in the mid-1970’s. For his first run for San Francisco Supervisor, Milk kept his beard and jean jacket… and he finished tenth. For his second try he shaved and bought a suit. He lost again, but got closer. There was one more unsuccessful campaign before his friends figured out that they had to change the rules to have a chance. By getting the city to elect its supervisors by districts instead of citywide races, they knew they could win by getting overwhelming support from the Castro district instead of having those votes washed out in the citywide totals.
When Milk finally took office he was idealistic, sure, but he was also tempered and seasoned by three tough losses. He learned things about politics and how to be not just right, but effective. So, he sponsored a gay rights ordinance, but he also sponsored a bill to make dog owners clean up after their pets. Sometimes, the sublime needs the ridiculous. This is a lesson I learned the hard way in my own job. Before we change the world we need to make sure we get the potholes fixed.
In an especially interesting scene, Milk has his aide fan the flames of a near riot so that he can come 
in at the last minute, calm the crowd and show the establishment that he was the guy to deal with. Later he toys with trading a vote to get the gay rights ordinance passed, but once he knows it isn’t necessary he pulls back and disappoints a colleague (who, by the way, kills him). Finally, he threatens the mayor with political reprisals from gay voters if he doesn’t do what Milk wants. (I can’t imagine anyone doing any such thing. It’s just Hollywood, I guess.)
Politics, they say, ain’t bean bag and the best of us in this profession have both sharp elbows and a good heart. If you have only the latter you’re Mother Theresa. If you have only the former you’re Rod Blagojevich. Milk had both in large measure.
So, the purists among us could say that Harvey Milk’s corruption started with a suit; started when he changed his appearance just to get votes. Of course, it really wasn’t corruption at all, but a realistic approach to politics that combined with his passion and idealism turned ideals into policy. Not unlike FDR or Bobby Kennedy or Barack Obama or at the local level my friend Dick Wagner. All both idealists and excellent politicians.
I’ve said before that good movies allow each member of the audience to take away something unique based on what they bring into the theater. For me, as a politician, I thought “Milk” was an especially good film because it did something that most films about iconic leaders seldom do: it respected its audience enough to tell the truth about him and, in this case, to also tell the truth about how politics really works and can work for the greater good.
istening to a news report on my way home from work yesterday and they were saying that Girl Scout cookies are feeling the effects of the economy, and some cookie boxes will hold fewer cookies than before and others will have smaller cookies.
