Michael
Does anyone remember Keith Moon?
No. Not that Keith Moon, but the Daily Kos blogger.
I betcha Doodad does!
I wrote "To Keith Moon, A Fond Farewell" right after he got banned.
It's been two whole years since we suffered the loss of our beloved Keith Moon.
;O)
So, here's a little trip down memory lane.
.
.
.
As the Daily Kos I-P community struggles to find solace in the unfortunate departure of the beloved Keith Moon, I think that it is important that we not only acknowledge our loss, but recognize that we can go forward and that we will go forward. The pain we are suffering, the emptiness in our hearts where Keith once resided, will heal in time. And although any attempt to catalog the debt that we owe to Keith is impossible, we all understand that his legacy, the example he set as a quintessential American Original, will not fade.
What we can do, as individuals, as community members, it seems to me, is find comfort in the fact that Keith is out there somewhere. Our sadness at his departure should not cause us despair or mean the end of our struggle for social justice, equality, fair play, and general goodness. Our sadness at his departure should not mean that we back away from the tough challenges ahead. Keith was an inspiration to us all. His heart, his humor, his essential human decency was unique. When Keith spoke he radiated something that comes from the finest place within all of us.
And now his is no longer with us.
I know that the temptation for many of you will be to fall into despair, depression, and ennui. But think what Keith might say? Allow your mind to travel back to his words of wisdom, the special touch that he had with one and all, his ability to inspire hope in the hopeless, compassion in the compassionless, joy in those without joy. Because, in truth, what made Keith so special is that he represented the very best within ourselves. That is the key. We can, and will, honor his name. We can, and will, acknowledge his contributions. But, most importantly, we will strive to open ourselves to what he taught.
And, so, we wish Keith the fondest of fond fare wells.
And we pray that wherever Keith may be, whatever his current struggles, that he will bring inspiration to others, as he did to this community.
Fare thee well, Keith Moon.
Fare thee well.
The tune is for my older brother who has passed.
Ah, memories.
ReplyDeleteProbably my favorite thing that he wrote was some little piece about Israeli NBA star Omri Casspi.
ReplyDeleteThe whole piece amounted to little more than "Look! There's Omri Casspi! He's an Israeli Jew playing for the NBA!"
And they yelled at him and threw garbage his way.
I thought that it was just a perfect way of demonstrating progressive-left animosity.
I tended to think of the guy as a kind of road-runner chased by stupid dkos coyotes.
Y'know, tho, Doodad. If you were to go back and look at that guys early stuff, you would see a very sincere liberal trying to connect with other liberals during the Bush years.
You can almost see his frustration levels rising as time goes by before he emerges as the guy we tended to think of before Blades gave him the ax.
I have no idea where that guy might be now.
I know that there were aspects of him, real or not, running around some of the more fucked up dkos spin-off blogs, like peeder's old place, Political Flesh Feast and then some of the others.
He occasionally dropped in MLW, as well.
Smart guy.
Interesting fellah.
And more than a little wacky.
{But, y'know, I like that!}
Yep. dKos is like lumpy gruel nowadays without a few wackies.
ReplyDeleteI dug Keith. He was an outrageous character. Hung out at that anarchy site too, can't remember the name of it. He's probably still hanging around the intertubes somewhere.
ReplyDeleteDaily Kos begot My Left Wing.
DeleteMy Left Wing begot Political Flesh Feast... not to mention Israel Thrives... strangely enough.
Political Flesh Feast begot The Free Speech Zone.
And The Free Speech Zone begot Pffugee Camp.
And with that I am off to the city!
Cheers!
As I recall, he was clearly ahead of the pack when it came to Iran.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, too many folks at DKos are just so much smarter in their minds, and show it with mean-spiritedness and obsession about the other side, no matter how trivial.
I find people who claim to be superior usually aren't. They think they know better there about everything, yet they are so easily diverted from real matters that one can question just how astute they are beyond their theories and their allusions of expertise.