Steve Gilliard, Our Virtual Brother

One of the great voices of the shared Internet is gone: blogger Steve Gilliard died today at age 41. I didn't know Steve very well personally, but he was a brother in the virtual sense. His voice was entirely his - a true iconoclast with a strong, unyielding point of view. We met a couple of times. Mainly we corresponded in email, in comments, on his blog, on my blog. Just before his illness, he agreed to join our little cultural blogging group over at newcritics. I treasure the fact that his name appears there as an author.

There is another important aspect to Steve - one that I think may be a true legacy beyond his pioneering political blogging. Gilliard brought real perspective to race relations in New York and beyond. An African-American who was unafraid to talk about race, Steve willingly jumped into the deep end on many issues that frankly scared a lot of the mainly-white, predominantly middle-class, well-educated lefty blogosphere. His work during the transit strike, for instance, brought insight that none of New York's newspapers even came close to.

And to me, he wasn't predictable. He did relationship advice. He did military history. He did classic rock. He did food. He did technology. He was a big man in every sense. Steve didn't suffer fools, but he was an open source kind of guy - bring it, he'd say, and back it up.

His partner in the Newsblog, Jen, told us that Steve came to know just how much his voice was missed during his long, terrible illness. I'm glad of that. But the feed's been empty for too damned long now. And it's going to stay that way.

UPDATE: Thanks to Jon Swift, a compendium of links and tributes - some great (and sad) reading: American Street, Firedoglake, Mad Kane's Political Madness (featuring a short interview with Steve), Sisyphus Shrugged, AlterNet.org, Daily Kos, skippy the bush kangaroo, State of the Day, The Carpetbagger Report, TalkLeft, August J. Pollak, Jesus' General, All Spin Zone, the talking dog, The Impolitic, Happy Furry Puppy Story,  The Democratic Daily, culturekitchen, Comments From Left Field, Brilliant at Breakfast, Digby, Orcinus, Avedon Carol's The Sideshow, Meteor Blades, Making Light, Off the Kuff. Note: that wonderful photo above is by Lindsay Beyerstein.

UPDATE II: Jim Wolcott says Steve's voice was "a fiery broadsword in its wrath and softly contemplative in its grief and understanding." Yes, it was. Also, a Facebook group for virtual mourning. 

Comments

[ADS]

Absolutely true about Steve's importance in discussing race relations honestly and intelligently. I learned a huge amount from reading his blog.

He will be hugely missed.

[Jude]

I will never forget that comment you made about him 'Dude has atheists lighting candles'. That's how much he's loved and respected. We'll miss him

[Chris]

Ah, shit.

I feel I came to him late, post DKOS and pre-newsblog, but I realize that I've read and commented on his site for a few years.

Early on, I made the mistake of recommending a WWII marine memoir, one of the best war books I've ever read, to him. I don't think there's a book on the marines he hadn't read, but he was nice about it.

Its not much on paper, the combination of interests in food, politics, baseball, history, and bullshit-cutting that started me off there, but his character and voice did come through clear, somehow very NYC without the obvious cliches. And the bullshit-cutting was spectacular.

The thought occurs to me that there is such a groundswell of affection for this unique voice, if there were any sense to the world the NYTimes would run an obiturary on this guy, who, from his apartment, touched thousands.

[DaveH]

Good idea, Chris, but I really doubt that the Times would do so. 'Gloss' is far more important to them than the real.
Good bye, Steve, and thank you.

[Campaspe]

I am so sad to hear this. His was the first political blog I ever read on a regular basis. He had one of a blogger's greatest assets -- unpredictability. Such a fiery, uninhibited writer. I will long remember his amazing post on how New Yorkers reacted to and remember 9/11, still the single best thing I have ever read on that subject. And during the hell of Katrina I found myself checking his blog several times a day; I felt as though Steve were doing all my hollering for me.

Our side can ill afford such a loss. I hope his archives stay up. May he rest in peace.

[DCMediagirl]

Heartbreaking. I only met Steve once when
he visited Washington, and I'll never
forget his bravery, his outspokenness,
and his warm support of any and all
in the leftie blogosphere, not to mention
his ability to remind all of us to stay on point and keep up the good fight.

God rest your soul, my friend.

[Slappy]

Amen Campaspe. I read the news today and feel very sad. One of my favorite blogs. I had posts on The News Blog that Steve responded to in a positive way and I've had him insult me in a way only a NYC native is capable of. In either case it was an honor. My first regularly read political blog. I will miss him.

[RevDeb]

I remember when he went after Steele in the MD sen. race calling it like he saw it. The wing nuts went crazy after him and he stood his ground. Good for him I thought then and now.

Every once in a while he did a masterpiece that just made me stop everything, read it and then read it again. Few bloggers are in that category for me.

Rest Well Steve. And know that we know that the work continues.

[desertwind]

I saw the news posted on TPM this morning and I cried out loud. And then I wimpered like a baby for someone I’ve never met.

Steve was so reliable. A real fighter. A real blood-boiler. One of the good guys. He could be funny as hell, too, couldn’t he?

He never ever moaned about his health. Hell, he never even mentioned it in passing. I had no idea and, from comments left on his blog when he went into hospital in February, I realized I wasn’t the only regular who had no idea.

What a smart guy. What an interesting read: Iraq, American history, the military, local and US politics, food, drink, music.

I’ll miss him dearly.

And...

FUCK THE FUCKIN' YANKEES!

And, DC Media Girl -- we've missed you. I hope you know that. No pressure!

[James Pratt]

One of our best has fallen, sisters and brothers, let us honor him best by carrying on his passion for peace, love and justice. Goodbye, Steve.

[Demosthenes]

Goddammit. Just, Goddammit. That's all I could write, and that's all I can think. Erudition has completely failed me.

Goddammit.

[ElyseNYC]

After I read what Steve had written about the transit workers, I was in a car with three friends trying to get through the insane traffic to get downtown. My friends were making comments like, "they should just fire them all" and "those token sellers just sit around all day". I skipped the opportunity to tell my legal secretary friend that what she could do (and she's very good) could be replaced by someone else almost immediately but driving a train required more training than she could know. I asked the driver, "Are they important?" and she said, "Well, look at this mess", waving at the traffic. So I responded, "THEN PAY THEM LIKE THEY'RE IMPORTANT!" I thank Steve for helping me find my voice at that moment. My friends all shut up.

[GWPDA]

Until Jen can put one up at NewsBlog, there's a PayPal link at www.gwpda.org to help the family with expenses.

[Kirklander]

Thanks to Steve for his passion and honesty.

Here's a story of his generosity: Steve barely knew me, and yet in 2005, he offered to throw a fundraiser to help me with a Web legal fight.

[Brautigan]

Steve Gilliard completely transformed this white boy's perception and understanding of race relations. The post that did it completely pissed me off - I thought it was so wrongheaded. Alot of commenters took umbrage at the post, but he engaged them, and through his arguments, I came to see what I had not before.

Thank-you, Steve. Rest peacefully.

[Crab Nebula]

He'll never get his real due, he was important in the birth of this medium. And a true historian. I'm very sad.

[oldanielL]

I first discovered Steve because of Kos links in summer of 2005...No one was able to describe the outrage of the inepetitude of the various Govt. agencies-local and especially National-during the Katrina disaster better-than Steve- He screamed and hollered, with such emotion and verbal outrage-I felt that I had finally found a voice and a fearless champion of the voiceless, I'll never forget it...what a huge loss..good-bye and Godspeed--Steve...

[pseudonymous in nc]

Let's not forget his long stint at Netslaves, where his writing wasn't as overtly partisan, or as rich in its scope, but was damn effective. He saw workers sleeping under their desks, fuelled on 'new economy' bullshit and the lure of dot-com riches, and he used his researcher's nose to chase down 10-Qs and S-1s in order to lay out just where the VC money was going. It was political, though: the politics of labour, of workers being set long hours and impossible targets on empty promises: "If you write a story about About and do a CEO porn story and not one about how they just cut compensation to 1997 levels and plan to layoff people, then what are you writing about? Why are you doing that story? A waste of news print." (Archive.org has some of them.)

I kidded him about his run of bad election predictions, but on the things that mattered, he was right.

[Chris]

Hey, not so fast, DaveH.... I think he is going to get a NYT obit, well-deserved. Here's the NYTimes blog on him.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/blogtalk-a-loss-on-the-left/

Jim mentions the obit here....

http://www.thenewsblog.net/

[Tom W.]

Steve is getting the blogger equivalent of a Viking funeral - and frankly, it's a good thing. Makes me feel better. Keeps his voice out there for a little while longer.

[Chris]

maybe there is sense in the world....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/us/06gilliard.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin#