Thursday is the 15th annual Harvey Milk Day, a day of special significance observed in California on the birthday of the late gay civil rights leader. Were he still alive, Milk would be celebrating his 95th birthday.
Sadly, he and then-mayor George Moscone were assassinated inside San Francisco City Hall on the morning of November 27, 1978 by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White. Just the year prior, Milk’s election to a seat on the Board of Supervisors made him the first openly LGBTQ person to hold public office in the city and the state of California.
Before he began representing the burgeoning LGBTQ Castro district and surrounding neighborhoods, Milk was a political columnist for the Bay Area Reporter. He filed 102 columns dubbed “Milk Forum” under his byline between October 2, 1974 and November 22, 1978, using it to harangue politicos, business leaders, and others on a host of issues.
With this week’s B.A.R. issue coinciding with May 22 this year, it seems appropriate to reflect back on Milk’s missives for the paper. While he may best be known today for his mantras about providing people hope and having LGBTQ people come out of the closet, Milk opined on a whole host of matters that remain germane to today’s political conversation.
Case in point, his column that ran in the September 16, 1976 issue, in which Milk spared little in attacking the Republican occupant of the White House at the time, President Gerald Ford. His critiques of the late GOP politician are eerily applicable to the country’s current Republican leader, President Donald Trump.
In honor of this year’s special day of recognition for Milk, the Political Notebook is re-running his column from 49 years ago. The original can be seen via the California Digital Newspaper Collection housed at UC Riverside (just one example for why the resource is of value and needs to be maintained, as the B.A.R. recently editorialized amid a state funding cut imperiling its future accessibility).
A bit of context regarding Milk’s column; it was published almost two months prior to Ford’s defeat in that November’s presidential election to Democratic former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. It refers to the late GOP Georgia congressmember Howard Hollis "Bo" Callaway, who resigned in March 1976 as Ford’s campaign manager amid accusations that he used his position as secretary of the army in the Nixon administration to win government approvals for the expansion of a Colorado ski resort he owned, charges for which he was later cleared of, as the Washington Post reported.
Milk also mentions the late Texas governor John Bowden Connally Jr., whom disgraced GOP President Richard Nixon reportedly wanted to name as his vice president following the bribery-related resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973. But Connally had his own political baggage, as noted by The Texas Politics Project in its bio of the politician, leading Nixon to instead appoint Ford to the vacancy.
There is also mention of the scandal that surrounded Clarence M. Kelley, then-director of the FBI who admitted to accepting window drapery valances and a small cabinet from senior bureau officials for use in his home and reimbursed the government about $335 for labor and materials, as the New York Times noted in his obit. Ford kept him in the powerful post, but Carter pledged to oust Kelley should he be elected president and was able to name his replacement when Kelley retired early in 1978.
Milk Forum
by Harvey Milk
Ford’s ‘Certain’ Friends
One of the things that is most disturbing to me is the way the major media tend to overlook what is taking place until it becomes impossible to ignore. They were that way on Black rights, on Viet Nam, on Nixon. Right now they are still playing President Ford up as Mr. Good Guy. He isn't! And unless the people are told just what is what, we could get stuck with another Nixon. Even Glub Dole sounds like Agnew.
The President of the United States is supposed to be our leader. He is supposed to set the example. And so we find people of all ages and from all backgrounds using the president as an example. Let's look at just a few bits of what Ford is like.
First, before he had settled into office, he issued the well-known pardon of Nixon – a crook of the worst level. We will probably never find out what kind of deals were made on that one. After Ford decided that he wanted to run for a full term himself, he appointed as his campaign manager Bo Callaway. Callaway lost his position over a small conflict of interest situation. Callaway is now involved in yet another apparent conflict. He originally protested his "innocence" in the first case. Now, after he was forced out of his position on that case, we once again hear how "innocent" he is. The same tune is being played by the same people.
And we have Ford relying on the former governor of Texas, John Connley [sic]. Once again, it is quite interesting, to say the least, that a person was convicted of giving Connley illegal money but Connley was acquitted of taking the funds! Now Connley is playing a major role in Ford's campaign.
These are the types of people and the types of actions that Ford has already displayed as president. If he is elected – he would not be able to run for another term – he can let caution ride in the wind – we probably will see more of the same and maybe an acceleration of these types of people hanging around the White House trying to get their hands full.
We have always been told that there is a lot of corruption in politics. With Nixon, much came to light. So why get upset about a little more? Well, we now have the head of the FBI on the take! Oh, it was a small amount; but it was on the take!
If the president allows the head of the FBI to steal from the public, that is giving a green light to all government leaders that a little dishonesty is okay.
In short, the next time you are mugged or your home or car is broken into, you can thank the president for his leadership. How can you tell a teenager or a person that cannot get work that it is wrong to steal when the leader of our nation tells the head of the FBI that it is okay to steal?
If anything, people at that level should be completely honest when it comes to stealing. To allow rip-offs to take place and then to talk about law and order is a bad joke. To rely on crooks for guardians is a president's right. To allow crooks to get away with it just because they are part of your team is a president's right. But the nation suffers – you and I. It is giving the okay to everyone to go ahead and rip off whatever you can as long as you are on their team. It is telling everyone that stealing is okay.
I think we can be certain that Ford will not improve. If in a time just before an election he maintains that Nixon and FBI Chief Key [sic] can steal, then what will he be like if he is elected?
Ford is, by his nature of allowing these crooks to go free, a second-rate crook himself. No matter what may be said about Carter, he can't be any worse. And after setting himself up as a friend of thieves, Ford has the gall to talk about law and order. He means his law and his order.
If for no other reason than his allowing dishonesty (and there are other reasons), Ford should be tossed out of the White House. His leadership of those who steal from others has been established. We can no longer afford that kind of corruption - especially from a person who waves the American flag so much. His actions - and it is an established record – are sickening. We got rid of the last crook in the White House. The time has come to get rid of the current leader of crooks.
Harvey Milk
Political Notes, the notebook's online companion column, will return Monday, June 2.
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