2008 – The Year Hope Battled Hate

Patrick Goggin

By Patrick Goggin

December 26, 2008

From the rise of Barack Obama to marking 30 years since we lost Harvey Milk, 2008 saw the message of hope reverberate from shore to shore and around the world. Concurrently, we witnessed the resurgence of hate via the galvanization of white supremacist groups as Obama’s popularity grew through the year and in California’s vote to ban gay marriage. As we look back at the year hope battled hate, there is much to be hopeful for.

The year began with Obama’s resounding primary win in Iowa. A truly American story of a man of Kenyan and Kansan descent hailing from the state of Lincoln, Obama bucked the odds of political corruption historically running roughshod through Illinois and brought us a President-Elect whose leadership 70% of the country remains hopeful about despite our dire circumstances and the Blagojevich scandal.

Under the law of unintended consequences, with Obama’s ascension the nation experienced a rise in hate crimes and white supremacist organizations previously at record low member levels saw a swelling of their ranks. During the Democratic Convention, we heard about the arrest of white supremacists on suspicion of conspiracy to assassinate Obama, bringing to the fore a national fear harkening back to the loss of President Kennedy 45 years ago.

After Sarah Palin joined the Republican ticket, she riled the crowds with her irresponsible “terrorist” rhetoric inciting folks in the crowd to yell “kill him” and the like. All the while, Obama carried on with his message of hope and focused on the issues refusing to take the bait of hate.

That’s not to say Obama did not at times go negative. Naturally, with a message of fear and hate a reaction of a similar energy occurs. In the case Proposition 8’s passage, a simple majority, and barely that, approved a law banning gay marriage—an action truly based in fear, hate and inequality. In reaction, many from the gay community and others blamed African Americans who supported the hate-based measure by a strong majority. In this, we experienced hate reciprocated.

After Obama/Biden’s electoral college landslide and their victory of hope over the hate spewing McCain/Palin ticket, the film Milk was released bringing a riveting and soul-wrenching performance by Sean Penn adeptly embodying Milk. Three decades ago, Milk’s message of hope inspired the unanticipated defeat of Proposition 6, another hate-based initiative to ban gay teachers from California’s public schools.

Tragically, soon thereafter Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone succumbed to Dan White’s imbalanced hate and rage. But in response in that fateful year of 1978, the gay community and its supporters mourned peacefully continuing Milk’s message of hope by resisting the urge to lash back in anger. We have much to learn from this response.

Right now many in the gay community and beyond are seething over Obama’s choice of Rick Warren for his Inauguration’s invocation. Obama has indicated this move is intended to reach out and heal divisions. Here, the unintended consequence is an angry backlash calling for the President-Elect to un-invite Warren. In the spirit of Milk and Obama’s candidacy, I urge Obama to include a gay minister in his Inauguration, a move that would truly begin healing the divide the Warren choice was intended to accomplish in the first place.

2009 presents serious challenges as well as great opportunity. As Obama completes his transition in a month’s time, the economic quagmire he inherits will certainly take time to reverse. Yet a Renewable Deal is in the works that will attempt to re-launch the economy in a new uncharted, green direction by putting millions of people back to work, rebuild the nation’s vast infrastructure, and invest substantially in renewable, green energy technologies.

Last Friday, California Attorney General Jerry Brown remarkably reversed coursed in his Proposition 8 court filing that called the law unconstitutional. When Brown was California’s Governor in 1978 he supported Milk’s efforts to defeat Proposition 6. By calling the hateful 8 a violation of a fundamental right and therefore a Constitutional revision requiring a 2/3 majority, Brown has invoked Milk.

When the California Supreme Court chose last month to hear arguments over the constitutionality of Proposition 8 without trial and lower appellate court review, the lone dissenting vote came from Justice Joyce Kennard who sided with the majority in In re Marriage Cases, the May 2008 Supreme Court ruling that invalidated laws banning gay marriage. While some feared that Justice Kennard’s vote against taking Proposition 8 straight from the ballot box was a bad sign, I was not so certain. To me, her dissent was more about procedure and unlikely a sign of her position on the merits. No, I have hope that, come June 2009, Proposition 8 like its predecessor 6 will bite the dust.

As we bid farewell to 2008, in the spirit of Obama’s and Milk’s messages of hope, let’s work together and resist the urge to respond to future actions of hate in kind. Instead, I call for transforming that hate and anger into action and compassion as was done three decades ago after we lost the venerable Harvey Milk. Onward we march in the name of hope and a reinvigorated defiance of hate.

FCJ Editor

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