Leaders Remember Milk At Treasure Island Ceremony
Posted: 6:29 pm PST November 25, 2008Updated: 6:56 pm PST November 25, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO -- House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Bay Area leaders and representatives joined youth at the Treasure Island Job Corps Center Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the life of Harvey Milk and unveil a bust of the former San Francisco supervisor. The event came nearly 30 years after Milk and former Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed at City Hall by former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White. In addition to Pelosi, speakers included U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Milk's nephew Stuart Milk, all of whom spoke about Milk's commitment to social justice and the community. "He came to everything," Pelosi said, reflecting on when she was a volunteer for the Democratic Party more than 30 years ago. "All of it was important to him." Pelosi said the Treasure Island Job Corps Center was an appropriate setting for Tuesday's ceremony because of Milk's commitment to youth. The center offers job training and education to 600 youth between the age of 16 and 24. In addition to unveiling the bust at the event, officials announced a building on the center's campus has been renamed the Harvey Milk Memorial Administration Building. The bronze bust, a replica of one placed at City Hall earlier this year, will be put in the building's foyer. Stuart Milk said, "The youth are really the hope and Harvey saw that and realized that early on." Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was the first person to find Milk's body on an office floor in San Francisco City Hall in 1978, reflected on the assassination. "I remember it as if it was yesterday," Feinstein said. She said she struggled for years to speak about the tragedy, which she refers to as one of the hardest moments of her life. Speaking to members of the media at her San Francisco office, Feinstein said of Milk, "He was a character in many respects. He could be very funny. He could be very intense. He could be very loud." Feinstein, who was president of the Board of Supervisors at the time, recalled hearing the shots, leaving her office and finding Milk's body before learning that Moscone had also been killed. Feinstein said White did not kill Milk because of his sexual orientation, but rather because he felt betrayed when he was not able to reclaim his seat on the board after resigning. "What people don't know is that Dan White and Harvey Milk were friends," Feinstein said, adding they used to meet for coffee in the Castro nearly every week. "Dan White was a troubled man under a lot of pressure," Feinstein said. Because of her position as president of the board, Feinstein became mayor after Moscone's death. She was then elected to the post twice. At Tuesday's event, she called the two years after the assassinations the most difficult political years of her life. "What it did to the city was divide it right down the middle," Feinstein said.
Copyright 2009 by KTVU.com and Bay City News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.












Tahoe Days, Reno Nights
Access The Diamond Certified Directory
Bay Area Crime Reports
The 4 Keys To Women’s Health
Earthquake Reports
Celebrity Gossip
Check Out The Top 10 Home Updates


