The Day I Stood Up Dianne Feinstein by Umberto Tosi
Then SF Mayor Dianne Feinstein, c 1980 My stomach clutched when I heard that Dianne Feinstein had died at 90 last week. It wasn't from personal grief, although I admired the California senator greatly. Neither was it due to recalling the few times we had crossed paths over the years. Nor was it an unavoidable reminder that, at age 86, I could well be next -- lucky to have lived this long myself. No. It was from what I'll call post-embarrassment guilt syndrome -- a half-forgotten missed lunch. It seems like a triviality from the perspective of the late senator's lifetime of monumental accomplishments. Nevertheless, it makes me wince. Her distinguished political career spanned more than half a century, including ten years as mayor of San Francisco and thirty one years as a U.S. senator. The longest for any woman in the US Congress with a long lists of firsts, it took in tragedies, wars, losses and triumphs. Few have had greatness thrust upon them as brutall...