"San Francisco Values"

Today's Chronicle has an article about the Republican demonization of what they call "San Francisco values". It's full of all the hateful quotes you would expect--from Bill O'Reilly and the other usual suspects--but the heartening part of the story is a sidebar in which area residents are asked to give their definition of "San Francisco values". The responses are wonderful:

Cherie Querol Moreno, Daly City
Progressive thought and action distinguish San Francisco and the Bay Area from the rest of the nation.

Chiang Hsu, San Francisco
Cable cars, hills, windy weather and multiple cultures are the images of San Francisco. In my opinion, It is the most beautiful city in the United States. Modern and Tradition coexist here. How cool!

Reg Bronner, Oakdale
I have lived in San Francisco several times in my life. It is definitely "a live and let-live" town. You have to accept people for who they are. Wherever I have gone in the world, particularly back East, Europe and the Mideast, the tolerance I learned in the city has paved my way to social acceptance and economic success.

Calvin Gipson, San Francisco
"San Francisco values" means freedom -- to be yourself and express yourself as you like, to be imaginative, inspired and included. To be free from judgments, hatred and disempowerment. Sadly, the city is becoming mainstream, less tolerant and more conservative, which means less freedom, creativity, diversity and acceptance.

Kitty Threlkeld, Wilton
It's usually meant to evoke fear of a liberal agenda far to the left of "normal." However, having lived and worked there for a major portion of my life, I have come to understand that it actually means "an oasis of tolerance," where one may be as flamboyant or as staid as one pleases, without consideration of a societal "normal."

Norm Van Maastricht, Redwood City
The phrase is often a prelude to a derisive condemnation of unspecified lifestyle and beliefs of a few being attributed to many. It is sometimes used to create a political boogeyman implying perverse, unpatriotic attitudes. A classic buzzword with no exact definition. Ask Karl Rove.

Mark Freeman, San Francisco
How about "caring for the 'least of them,'" for there could go you and I? Or maybe something radical like doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? Or just plain taking an interest in everyone, seeing them as worthwhile, or in local vernacular, "a trip"?

Byron Gordon, San Francisco
It means that we are a city inclusive of a diverse array of people from all walks of life. We question authority and demand greater insight into complex problems. But one thing we will never tolerate is hatred or violence.

Alan Jewett, Oakland
San Francisco values are my values, your values, their values, our values. People who are uncomfortable with the thoughts, feelings, opinions, lifestyles, politics, religions and choices of others will probably be uncomfortable here.

Amen to all of the above. The rest of the country could profit from values like these.

There was one dissenter from the common sense consensus:

Ted Mavrakos, Concord
A city overrun by people who are out for themselves. The louder, more anarchistic and more obnoxious, the more powerful. Bicyclists, bums, thugs, politicians who think that they can dictate world policy when they can't even control their own city -- they represent to me what San Francisco has become. Not what it potentially could be, but what it is now.

But obnoxious as he is, I don't have the heart to wish him ill; after all, living in Concord is its own punishment.

Also see Blognonymous for another excellent definition of "San Francisco values".

[That's all, folks]