Tuesday, February 5, 2013

On the Banning of Our Beloved Keith Moon

Mike L.

For no good reason whatsoever I occasionally like to republish earlier writings.

I think that it's fitting that 3 years gone by now we revisit the very sad departure of our friend Keith Moon.


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 he 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.

5 comments:

  1. Ha, awesome. He was before my A-I (see what I did there?) time, and I really don't much about him. But I do know his memory (heh) lived on for a long while, well into my own time splashing around in that swamp...

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    1. Keith was a very interesting character.

      He was, in fact, the only dada-esque pro-Israel person that I've ever come across.

      He would often write diaries calling out Hamas or Hez and then endure the fools calling him a "racist," but he was/is a very smart guy.

      I remember one diary that he did in which he merely praised some Israeli Jewish basketball player (I'm sure that you'd recognize the name) and then stood back and watched the hate roll in.

      It was brilliant, actually.

      In any case, the guy was one of a kind, but if you read his earliest stuff over there you get a real sense of his evolution as a diarist. It was only when he started getting push back for calling out political Islam that he started getting a little crazy after awhile.

      His original material is actually quite straight forward.

      Anyways, the mob wanted his head and they got it.

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    2. And they seem to have collected the very last head which was still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt tonight.

      Mission accomplished, I suppose.

      When Harold Ford, I think it was, and a few others, called that site out as antisemitic years ago, they just had bad timing. If they did that now, nobody with any credibility would come to the defense of that place.

      Of course, nobody needs to tear that site down these days. It's already become irrelevant, based upon the complete lack of any serious politicians posting anything beyond the occasional email-blast type thing there anymore.

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  2. It's amazing to read the praise for the oh-so-poor, unfairly set-upon Useful Idiot in VB's GBCW diary. Things like "The Troubador is a Jewish pro-Israel Kossack respected by all," and other such ludicrously laughable bullshit like that.

    What will be truly interesting is, now that Useful Idiot knows the last prominent person there who'd push back against his crap is gone for good, will the mask completely drop? I suppose we'll find out sooner or later, but I expect the dogwhistles to come out in full force now that the jerkoff has free and total reign of that place.

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  3. Exactly! And what have been saying for the longest time? That all Pro-I's should abandon the stinky swamp so that the scumbags can have their total way and show the world just how bad the place is.

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