A Classic Hero: Harvey Milk, A Classic Hero

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What is a hero? A person admired for achievements or noble qualities. Harvey Milk was one of those people, specifically a classic hero, defined as otherwise normal people, except they have a great talent. Milk was a classic hero. Like most classic heroes, he had a strong ability to make people follow him. He had an Emotional quest. His death affected many people. Milk had a normal childhood, playing sports and singing in choir, he also worked in his family department store with his brother. He realized he was gay in his early teens, at the time many believed that being gay was a mental ailment, so until he was older, he did not tell his family. After teaching for a short time, then working in finances, he moved to California and opened a camera …show more content…

After a while there, he realized his skills in public speaking, he began to speak out for the LGBT community, and decided to run for a place in San Francisco's board of supervisors, after losing the elections three times, he tried for a fourth time, finally, he succeeded. He helped pass bills to help free the LGBT community, and other bills to help the communities minorities. A former work colleague, Dan White, assassinated both Milk and the then mayor Moscone. Milk was in office eleven months.

A classic hero must have some kind of strength or talent, in the case of Harvey Milk, that talent was his way of speaking to those around him, to rally behind him in any situation with strong words. Milk once said "I know you can't live on hope alone; but without hope, life is not worth living. So you, and you and you: you got to give them hope; you got to give them hope." (GoodReads) Milk spoke to his audience …show more content…

White believed that people like Milk were ruining the city, and that they were breaking down the traditional values of america by helping Gays become equal. During his trial, his attorney used what is now called the "twinkie defense", that he had depression and had consumed junk food, which impaired his judgment, he was sentenced 8 years in prison. This outraged the LGBT community, rightfully so. White died for what he believed in, he never gave up on the people he wanted to succeed, and wanted people to achieve what they want. Milk once said "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door." (GoodReads) He could never have realized this would become a reality. After his death, there were not ←only→ riots, but the night after his death a giant group of people silently walked to city hall with candles in a silent candlelight vigil, yet on the other side of the coin, after the unfair ruling with White, rioters burned police cars and destroyed property, as retaliation, police unfairly beat and destroyed gay businesses in what is now called the "white night riots." Once all of this was over, years later there are now schools named after Milk, statues and monuments, one reads "His life is an inspiration to all people committed to equal opportunity and an end to bigotry."

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