Chez Gay Cafe – June 26 @ Trans March

Hi
I am so sorry to write of your former supporters death. I am not sure if all the members still remember him.

I write this for my friend and former love Sarge Holtzmen who lived and died of a heart attach on October 8th at age 65.

He was a community member of the Haight Ashbury and the Bay area. A man that had a kind honesty and a warm presence. A man that in his youth marched with Martin Luther King and had a photo on his wall of that proud moment. He stood out from the rest, he did not do things for approval or because he cared what others thought, but because he felt it was right thing to do. He had compassion for others suffuring . I know that his compassion may have come from his own suffuring from living with periods of severe depression for most of his life. On most days it took a great deal of courage to get up and live with his deep felt pain. But he lived. He had good times, Love and joyous momements. He lived with integrity and that is how he practiced law.
He respected the homeless in the Haight Asbury and the mentally ill. Of course these issues often hold hands with each other and with addiction. He felt a person had a right to choose drugs or alchohol even though it would destroy them. I always respected this in him because even if you wish a person could take a better path without judgement we all deserve love and respect.
Sarge was a founder of one of the Haight Asbury Community Groups. Not the one that is made up of Yuppies trying to rid the neighborhood of the homeless. Along with former supervisor Sue Beirman he worked in this neighborhood group to protect the rights of the homeless poor and disinfrancised from discriminating community members. He believed stongly that even if you didn’t own property you were a member of the community, that included a person who was living on the sidewalk, their car, or squatting in a Neighborhood building. He also believed it was unfair to take animals away from the homeless because these pets, the ones not being abused,although they had a difficult life on the street are sometimes the only joy in a homeless persons life, and what may keep them alive.
He wanted people to have the right to live in the community without police harrassement even if they did not fit into the mainstream of society. He would take on cases that were not popular because of his believe in a free society, to have the right to choose, have beliefs that are different and to be protected by the law and at times from the law. Sarge took cases against police officer s that were impossible to win and then tried to make changes in the law so police officers were more accountable.
He represented local businesses such as the Red Victorian Movie House. An employee said he was saddened by Sarges death and that he was the last of the community lawyers. He was truly a grass roots force in the Haight and had a store frount office on Haight Street between Masonic and Lyon Street, for many years. He took pride in the years that he provided free legal services to Food not Bombs. He represented a young girl who did not want to say the pledge of alligence her classroom because she did not believe in god, and was told she most. He helped with the struggle of the victims of Nanking China who where abused and massacured by the Japanese during world war II. He worked along side those who demanded reperations and that this event be placed back into the history textbooks of Japan. Sarge went to Thailand for almost two years and work with Professor and activist Sulok because he was interested in a project he created. It was a food bank that allowed struggling farmers to deposit crops during good times and recieve credit for food when times became hard. He went to Cambodian in hope to help with the writing of the new constitution being all laws and systems were destroyed during the Pol Pot regeime. He was unfortunately unable to be involved in this project due to comfort and safety concerns. I can not off the top of my head list all the cases and tasks that I respect Sarge for taking on.
Sarge did not want a funeral when he died. There was no memorial but he is survived by by his wife Lilly who stood by him loveingly for many years, her son, his first beloved first wife Harriet Brown, myself his second wife Shelley Siegel and his former step son Ollie Dudek, along with his family friends,neighbors the community and the other women who loved him.
Shelley Siegel, Oakland, CA