Column by Richard Becker

Could progressives have been any happier with Sunday night’s splendid Academy Awards ceremony? It is no secret by now that Hollywood is a proud bastion of liberalism, and nowhere has this been more beautifully on display that it was Sunday night. To begin with, there was Dustin Lance Black, who won the Oscar for “Best Original Screenplay” for “Milk” and movingly told of how Harvey Milk had inspired him as a young gay man to believe that “maybe I could fall in love and one day get married.”

To add to the theme of the message and legacy of Harvey Milk, the often irascible but always fascinating Sean Penn (in what was a surprise to me) won the Oscar for “Best Actor.” In his acceptance speech, Penn ribbed his fellow Hollywood liberals (who all vote on the awards by secret ballot), calling them “commie, homo-loving sons of guns,” a playful but ultimately true comment. Penn then gallantly called for “equal rights for everyone,” even in spite of the intolerance often on display in America. These speeches were particularly timely given the ominous shadow of the recent depressing Proposition 8 vote in California. The speakers the other night spoke from the heart about issues important to them and to all Americans.

And why not? Should not cinema, like literature, theater, poetry and other arts, be at the forefront of social movements both in America and abroad? Ultimately, our culture, our arts should speak to who we are and who we hope to be as a people. Unfortunately, the country as a whole often lags behind this prescience.

Adding to the galloping egalitarian spirit of the night, Penelope Cruz, who won “Best Supporting Actress” spoke of her hopes as a young girl to one day be where she is today “was not a very realistic dream,” growing up as she did in a not-so-large town in Spain. Further driving home the leveling of the playing field was Jochen Alexander Freydank, who won the award for “Best Live Action Short Film” for his “Spielzeugland (Toyland).” Freydank also invoked the unlikelihood of his appearance on the Oscar stage, speaking of having grown up behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. Yet in America, people like Cruz and Freydank have seen the realization of their unlikely dreams, as well they should.

I am not often as enamored with awards ceremonies as I have been with this year’s Oscars, but that’s usually because most awards shows have next to no social conscience, either in their words or in their actions. Yet this year’s Oscars were a stripped-down ceremony, painstakingly cognizant of the state of the American economy, featuring films and stories that are in line with a progressive social consciousness.

Obviously, the Oscars and the stars who frequent them are not beyond reproach; anyone who has seen Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s “Team America: World Police” knows that much. But there is something to be said for celebrities who are not only self-effacing but who demonstrate that they recognize the pains and hardships of those in whose shoes that may have never walked.

One can only hope that the dreams expressed in Sunday’s show may one day be realized. That one day gays and lesbians will be able to marry all across the United States, and not just in the few states ahead of the curve. That children who are born into poverty in some forgotten ghetto might one day rise to the top of the social ladder simply through hard work and determination.

In trying times such as those of today, it is important to remember the figures in our history who have risen to the occasion and given us hope when it seemed all hope was lost. One such figure was the man who was so frequently honored Sunday night: Harvey Milk. Speaking on the subject of hope, Harvey had this to say several decades ago:

“Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us’es, the us’es will give up. And if you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.”

It is our duty, if we are to honor Milk’s legacy, to do everything in our power to make that dream, of a country where “the doors are open to everyone” a reality. In the spirit of Harvey Milk, let that be our cause.