It Is With Deepest Regret...

... and profound sadness that I have to inform Pygalgians of the death of Steve Gilliard, yesterday June 2, 2007 after a long battle with illness.

I first read Steve after he'd been front-paged at DailyKos, and I immediately learned to how to read (and look forward to) his posts. He was unapologetic, loud and ascerbic, but damn he knew how to write. When he began his own blog, the writing only got better and better as the Gilly community grew and grew. How could it not, when a blogger picks a slogan ("We Fight Back!") so provocative? If a Dem could ever have him as a speechwriter, the neocons and the Republican party in general would collapse into dust overnight.

And the topics! From an incredibly astute study of history, to food, to social forces, politics, war, technology, futbol, and most importantly Iraq, Steve was so spot-on that it scared you, as well it should for he was correct far more often than not. If I was ever to try my hand at blogging (not likely, mind you), Steve's blog, The News Blog, is the ideal I would strive towards.

All of us were hoping our most fervent wishes that Steve would make it out of the hospital soon, but it was not to be. There are far better tributes other places on the internets - check firedoglake or DailyKos or wikipedia - but I feel that when one who fights the good fight falls down, we honor them and throw our weight to their fights, because that's the way we, as a community work. We value the contributions of each of us, and when one of us cannot continue, we continue on for them, because we believe in the justness of their cause.

I had a high-school history teacher, who, lamenting the state of America in the late 70s, would sigh and say foolish things like, "There were giants in those days," as if we'd all fallen down since then. Well, let me tell you there were giants in these days too - and Steve Gilliard was one of them.

R.I.P., Steve, Godspeed and FTFY.