Mr. President, tear down that Stonewall...

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Arguably, the worst non-war year in United States history was 1968.

Martin Luther King. Bobby Kennedy. The riots at the Democratic National Convention, and the reactions of Dick Daley's jackbooted thugs.

The following year, John Lindsay's thugs, similarly-shod, finally pushed the gay community of NYC too far, and launched the Gay Civil Rights movement.

Stonewall is the movement's Bethlehem, its Manchester, its Mecca, and its Lumbini all rolled into one.

Sure, SF has become known for many as the Mecca, and SF City officials have milked that for all its worth, but anybody with even the most basic knowledge of religion, knows Mecca has to be in the east.

Forty years later, there are cracks in the Stonewall, and even a few holes one can wriggle through, but it can still be easily and accurately described as a solid wall.

Over the years there have been attempts- some successful, most not- to climb over the wall or tunnel under it. No more.

It is time to obliterate the wall, to turn it into gravel, and to use it as the bed for the road to equality.

There were 51 obstacles when we started, not counting D.C- 50 states, and the Federal government.

Some of the States have acted. Great!

Thankfully, one of those states was Maine. It's a good omen. Remember? "As Maine goes, so goes the country..."

The Country. The Mother. The Hen to the 50 chicks.

It's time to set the example, RIGHT NOW!

Mr.President, you more than any other POTUS in history have seen and felt what society does to those that are different. You, more than any other, have lived it, and seen the impact on members of your own extended family.

Mr. President, our message to you, forty years after Stonewall, is "Tear Down That Stone Wall". Lay the foundation for your legacy, now, today, this week, this month!

One caution. The world has come to expect great speeches from you, and if you are going to continue that streak, there is one land mine that you have to avoid.

When John Kennedy stood in West Berlin, giving perhaps his greatest speech, his pledge of support to the folks who then lived surrounded by East Germany, he uttered the famous phrase heard 'round the world loud and clear: "Ich bin ein Berliner".

However, whether you are standing on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, on Castro Street in SF, or just on the White House lawn- please, pleeeease, in this case, do not try to emulate JFK:

"Ich bin ein Stoner" is not going to work.

SRT