As we start a new year, we must all hope that 2020 will bring positive changes to our club, to our community, to Rotary in general, and to the world as a whole.  I read a quote recently that I thought quite profound:  “I know you can't live on hope alone; but without hope, life is not worth living.”  Those words were spoken by Harvey Milk.

If you missed the biographical film starring Sean Penn several years ago, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official in California when he was elected as a City-County Supervisor in 1978.  Before that, though, he had been forced to resign from the Navy when his superiors questioned him on his sexual orientation.  Now, many years later, he is regarded as a civil rights pioneer and is being honored with a Naval vessel in his name.  The naming is viewed as a show of respect towards the legacy that Harvey Milk left behind, certainly, but also to honor the service given by so many who served as closeted or openly gay men and women in our Armed Forces.

I honestly do not know much about Harvey Milk (I pretty much exhausted my knowledge in that last paragraph!).  I feel quite certain though that Harvey Milk would not have been welcomed into many of the Rotary Clubs of his era.  But in 2020, people like him are exactly who we need and want in Rotary.  People who are pioneers… who fight for the change they seek…who are not just thinkers but doers…who are willing to sacrifice to further the cause in which they believe.  People who hope for a brighter future.  To me, those are the characteristics that should define Rotary for 2020 and beyond.