Victory in defeat.
[Exactly! To paraphrase Ahnold: “we’ll be back!” -Thomas]
At 2:13 PM -0800 12/11/03, Charles Kalish wrote:
>Friends,
>
>Last evening, when it became clear that our campaign had lost the
>race for mayor, the pain in my chest was so deep that it was nearly
>unbearable.
>
>Susan found me and hugged me. She was crying. I was afraid to cry.
>Afraid that I might never stop.
>
>We both got our jackets and started to leave the party. As we
>passed through one of the big tents set up in the parking lot, I
>realized that something was happening on a stage that I could not
>see. It was being projected on to the roof of the tent.
>
>Supervisor Jake McGoldrick was speaking. He was speaking with great
>passion. We stopped to watch.
>
>Jake was saying that we had won. We had won a battle against
>corporatism. With only one tenth the money and with the media
>entrenched in our opponents’ camp, we had won 47.5% of the vote in
>San Francisco. An outsider, an unknown, a total underdog was able
>to articulate the passion of 110,000 San Francisco voters for
>justice and democracy.
>
>Following Jake, three other Supervisors, a Public Defender, and a
>past mayor - all Democrats - echoed Jake’s excitement for this
>victory.
>
>The pain in my chest subsided. We went back into the room that was
>reserved for the full-timers, people who had devoted most of their
>waking hours for the past 100 days to this campaign for social and
>economic justice for all people.
>
>The healing had already begun. People were beginning to realize
>that, indeed, we had won a major victory. We had brought the
>National Democratic Party to its knees. They were forced to send
>their last President and Vice President to San Francisco to shore up
>the failing campaign of one of their ilk - a Democrat in name only.
>They had come to our city to defeat a candidate who sounded like a
>real Democrat. They had revealed to anyone who cared to look that
>it was even more important in their minds to beat back our movement
>than to beat Republicans.
>
>It was an astounding victory for us.
>
>The revolution HAS indeed begun.
>
>For those of you who don’t live here, I’d like you to be aware that
>in order to win this race, the Democratic campaign used every dirty
>trick used by the Richard Nixons and George Bushes of this world.
>They lied; they attacked families. They behaved contemptibly.
>
>The New York Times referred to this mayoral campaign as “Left vs. Lefter”.
>
>Bull shit!!
>
>That headline reflects social definitions that no longer exist.
>They perpetuate a myth about the Left that prevents Americans from
>understanding the true nature of this movement.
>
>This was and continues to be a battle between corporate interests
>and social values, between profits and compassion, between privilege
>for the few and economic justice for the many.
>
>This revolt in San Francisco is part of a much larger global movement.
>
>It is growing quickly in America as more and more people begin to
>understand its true nature.
>
>It cannot fail because it represents in a very profound way our
>deepest human desires, the aspirations that give meaning to our
>humanity: justice and fairness for every person who lives among us.
>
>Tune in.
>
>And DON’T drop out.
>
>Your pal,
>
>Charles
