nice piece, great that he is being honored, and good corrections, Doc.
I can't believe how fast and slow the time goes...
I miss him.
I miss his brilliant, distinctive voice. I don't have a bookmark to this site. My bookmark is to Steve's old site, and I use the link on it to access the Group New Blog. That way I go there first every day and see him before I come here.
i miss him, i would like to read his take on state of the nation, and condi in hiding. miss ya mate....
Steve inspired me to take that big plunge into writing. I'm now back in college, learning to communicate for a living, and happier now than I have ever been.
I never have deleted the site from my favorites either, and whenever I feel the need to get his perspective, I go to the archives and read. For Steve was a prophet. Read some of the stuff he wrote now, and he was dead on so, so much. The thought of deleting it is painful, even now. Skip that, it stays on my favorites as long as the site stays up.
I miss him, and hope to be good enough a writer to actually merit a seat at his table in Valhalla when I go.
Stay fierce, Steve.
I wrote the following to Jen on the 19th of this month in response to her concerns about how Steven would be presented in the NYT piece:
"No fucked up biography by some NYT, fratboy P.O.V. newser will ever have a negative impact on that -- on the truth and substance of what I know about the man."
I'm happy that Steven continues to receive the recognition and approbation he so rightly deserves, but I expect little from the media clownfish at the Times and elsewhere when it comes down to getting it right. Thanks for the corrections Jess' and thanks for your continued support, behind the scenes, of the one person hereabouts who really knew our friend and mentor.
I did think, all in all, that it was a good piece
Despite the "lonely black man" tone, it was an okay piece.
I hate crying in my coffee
again, RIP Steve
A small tribute to a great man. Thanks for your gentle corrections Jesse.
RIP Steve.
Jesse:
Thanks to you, Sara, HS, and LM for keeping the site going. I knew Steve only through this site and through some e-mail correspondence, but as I did while Steve was here, I read every line of every post every day, I still learn from all of it, it's still good writing (as Steve always demanded that it be), and I appreciate what you do very, very much.
Happy New Year, and fuck the fucking Yankees!
That photo took my breath away. I'll have to read the article after I stop crying.
I miss him and continue to wonder what he would write about the events of the day.
Only the good die young. Godspeed Steve, we miss you.
I'm still digesting the piece.
Funny, I don't recall Matt Bai at the funeral.
I miss him every day also. I only knew him through his blog, but I read it first thing every day. Even though I never had the privilege of meeting him personally, his death affected me profoundly, as if I had met him. As a lot of this crap from Washington was coming down, I would often wonder waht Gilly would have said about it. He was a strong, progressive voice and sadly missed. His grasp of military history was amazing, as was he. I often think of Jen and the others who I "met" through his blog and hope that all are finding their own path. It was an honor.
RIP Steve.
I read him since his first postings on Daily Kos. I liked his hard hitting, no bullshit writing style. Plus I found his stories on NYC (along with history and the food posts) to be especially enjoyable. I still have both http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com and http://thenewsblog.net sites bookmarked - and yesterday typed in the stevegilliard one for some reason and got the lovely picture of the queen telling us that the site had moved. It was the first site I visited daily, and was the one I made sure I visited if I could only visit one in a day.
The NYT would have gotten a bit of a correction smackdown like you wrote from Steve - chastising those who are supposedly the gold standard for not doing their homework first. Plus he'd be giving them literary shivs for their asshattery in hiring William "The Bloody" Kristol as an editorialist.
We serve the memory of Steve by fighting on and getting involved.
Apropos one of Canada's leading papers, The Toronto Star, also lives by principles of a dead founder - "Holy Joe" Atkinson. With the exception of the first Atkinson Principle (A strong, united and independent Canada), I believe that Steve was one of America's finest examples of living and promoting the ideals of the Atkinson Principles:
- Social justice
- Individual and civil liberties
- Community and civic engagement
- The rights of working people
- The necessary role of government
Fight on folks - and fitting that this post follows the one showing the fucking pussification of Dems accepting a pocket veto of Dubya when they absolutely must not since it's not vetoable. The bubble on the Potomac must be burst and the fetid stench washed clean out of DC.
Thanks Steve (and Jen). Here's a World Cup pic to remember him by. And Fuck the Fucking Yankees!
Jen, if you are reading this~
*waving Hi!*
I hope you are well and that you have a Very Happy '08
pussification of Dems
Oh, for fuck's sake.
ftfy.
I'd like to know more about his interest and writings in these vaguely described obscure military histories. I'll have to google that 37-part series too, sounds fascinating. I used to read Steve's commentaries all the time, and miss them. But this biographical info is all new to me, thanks.
I still miss Steve's voice, and the inevitable year's-end reflections amplify his loss. But I'm sure that's nothing compared to those who knew him.
Gah, Matt Bai. Perhaps he extrapolated 'lonely black man' from Steve's writing, but that's because he wasn't looking properly. The food posts were conversations about company. The soccer posts, also. The ongoing theme of providing other strong voices with support.
Oh, eff Matt Bai, he's probably a Yankees fan.
Gilliard was ferocious, but never, ever, vicious.
I miss him every day. I wish he had not been so prophetic, because the situation in Iraq looks ever more like what he predicted.
RIP Gilliard, a life well lived.
My favorite bar, debating society, history class, military glossary page and troll killbox all in one.
Miss you Gilly.
Gilly was so fucking passionate and authentic. I loved that guy. Is there any other blogger who made as much of an emotional connection with people as he did? Maybe Digby, but that's about it.
To Gilly's friends and family: Jesus, he was good. When I grow up, I want to be Steve Gilliard.
Over at Great Orange Satan, diarist 'boor' did a great public service in a June 2007 post, where he posted links to all 37 of Steve Gilliard's postings on European colonial warfare. Here is the link to that post.
I don't know if Steve Gilliard was lonely, but I could understand Bai saying this, because in a profound way I think Gilliard stood alone -- he didn't worry whether anyone else agreed with him and he trusted his own instincts and intellect. He set an example of confident, thoughtful independence which I try to bring to my own blogging.
The News Blog was one of favorite spots to go for insights that resonated deeply (another military historian here, unlikely as that may seem in a monk) -- I posted few comments & deeply regret that I was never able to express to Gilly how very much I appreciated his site & how much I miss him & his distinctive voice!
I miss Steve, as well. I wasn't an everyday regular, but the more I got into his writing, the more I came back.
His illness and Jen's updates kept me connected. And it was so sad that he died, so young, so brilliant, so tenacious, so bold.
Listen up, Harry and Nancy, all you Dem candidates--you would do well to emulate this guy!
And, NYTimes, if you don't get the little, knowable things right, how can I trust you to get the less knowable things close to right? Damn.
I don't know if Steve was lonely. I never got that impression. Were there times he sounded lonely...? Yeah. Same for me.
I never met him (though I know some of those with whom he spent time). I miss him, in a quiet sort of way. There's a gap, a direction from which the light no longer comes, and I have to peer into that darkness all by myself. When I do, I try to share it.
Mind you, I can't say Steve is responsible for that sharing urge, I've been doing that since I started writing on my high-school paper.
No, I think rather that Steve and I, with different voice, were fellow travellers, and I miss having him beside me.
teary eyed we remember an amazing voice
I'm sorry that I only came to Steve's writing last year, when the online news was of his hospitalization, and later passing.
I'm glad that his writing is still out there. His voice stays strong.
I'm also glad that I was able to join 2,000 others last summer in "a moment of noise" to remember Steve at YearlyKos, since Markos said Steve wouldn't really like a moment of silence. It was a loud noise and a long moment, and it was literally the least that I could do to thank Steven for his passion and his work.
Thanks for your post. Unlike most here I did not often read Steve G.'s blog, and came to it rather late. It's awful when such talent dies young.
I was struck by Bai's not mentioning which of the NYC elite schools Steve attended (Stuyvesant? Bronx Science? Hunter? I remember it was one of the very best.) Indicates a less than thorough covering of the basics. So the corrections Jesse posts are not really surprising.
Has this post been sent to Matt Bai? It should be, not in anger, but just to get the facts right. A good reporter doesn't mind being put right, though it may embarrass them a little.
I miss Steve too. He could write about anything and make it interesting. I loved the way he teased Jen over her choice of soaps; I miss the mouth watering discussions about food. I still have all of his recipes and recommendations for cookware. It seemed to me that there was nothing that Steve was not passionate about.
He broadened and challenged my thinking about many issues. Above all, from his physically flawed but huge, good heart, he gave us much of himself. He was, to borrow from Tom Wolfe, a man in full.
I miss Steve too. He could write about anything and make it interesting. I loved the way he teased Jen over her choice of soaps; I miss the mouth watering discussions about food. I still have all of his recipes and recommendations for cookware. It seemed to me that there was nothing that Steve was not passionate about.
He broadened and challenged my thinking about many issues. Above all, from his physically flawed but huge, good heart, he gave us much of himself. He was, to borrow from Tom Wolfe, a man in full.
My wife and I would often side with Steve at NetSlaves. After NS fell I lost track of everyone but my wife would let me know, every now and then, how Steve was doing...
Terribly sad, how the good are taken too soon from us.
We miss him.
I can kinda understand it on one hand..some people have personalities..souls if you're into that so large that they blind you from things around them.
Steve's writings gave you the feeling he was one of those people, at least he always gave me that feeling.
I was so struck by that photo. I miss his 'voice', his writing.
Thanks Steve-MD/DC for the link to that kos diary. Missed it the first time around. Got it bookmarked now.
I never got the idea Steve was lonely? Maybe Mat Bai is lonely ? Miss him alot like the rest of you.
And a real thanks to Steve-MD/DC for the missing links to the series on colonialism.
just to add to the noise, say FTFY and say that Steve is looking down from on high with tears of joy in his eyes and smile a mile wide, looking down and seeing what you guys are making of his legacy, looking down and understanding that he is one of the truly loved ones and knowing that while he has passed on, his ideas, writings and inspirations live on in every one of you and us.
"Markos isn't white"
isn't this a racist comment?
Only if you think it's bad not to be white.
I'll give Matt Bai credit for writing an overall complimentary piece. Otherwise, bleh!! to him. Sadly, I didn't know about Steve till it was too late. The more people that know about him the better. If only Pelosi and Reid had half(or a quarter) of the balls he did.
You see these things once in a while. I figure if Rolling Stone Magazine can write a feature on what a lonely, isolated guy Hugh Hefner is, then someone can write that piece about pretty much anybody.
Man, I miss the News Blog.
R.I.P. to the blogger I admired the most, and condolences to Jen and the good folks here.
I agree, its not a bad article but it could have been so much better if it had been true to Steve's writing. I didn't know steve, except through his blog, but he occasionally left off posting and entered the fray in his own comments and there you really could encounter him as a person and not just a written text. He was such an incredibly thoughtful, brilliant guy and he had so much time for his posters/readers and was so generous with his thinking. Even if you argued with him, as I sometimes did over parenting issues, he always came forward to his readers in a way that I think is really unique. Certainly you dont' find it among regular journalists, who almost invariably let hack "ombudsmen" speak for them. And you very seldom see it among bloggers who mostly post and run rather than entering the starting the discussion and then continuing it with all who come.
Steve was an incredible thinker--not a bitter or harsh person, at all, but someone who "didn't suffer fools gladly" and was willing to back up what he said when he said it.
I miss him every day.
aimai
What can I say, Mr. Gilliard kept me sane.
When I could stand the TV "news" no more, and wanted some real, no BS analysis and news, his blog was the first one I found.
Someone who brought me the stories of the day, and then gave me the no nonsense analysis they needed.
I miss your wonderful blog Mr. Gilliard.
It's nice to read about Steve in the NYT again even if Bai gets some of it wrong. All those cooking posts that Steve shared were about friends and family as much as food. I miss you Steve. Best wishes to all of Steve's friends and family. He was kind and generous enough to take the time to answer some of unsolicited emails and correspond a bit. If you're that kind and generous with strangers then you are going to be rich with friends and Steve was no exception.
He was the first stop on my daily blog rounds, and the last, and many times in between. I miss his insight, I miss his righteous anger, his humour, and I miss those delightful posts where he would just go off on a tear about food, or football, or computers, or the lovely stories about his niece and nephew and his adventures with Jen. I miss him so much.
We shall never see his likes again, and we shall be poorer for it.
Thanks for fighting the good fight, Gilly. RIP and FTFY. And thanks to the gang here for picking up the standard and continuing the charge.
WF
I learned so much from Steve, clicked on The News Blog every day. I'm glad I told him, at least twice, that this old white grandma from the Rocky Mountain West was grateful for his voice, his teaching, and his passion.
Thanks to HS, Jesse, LM and Sara for keeping on, sharing their distinctive voices (tho occasionally, eerily channeling Steve Gilliard).
R.I.P. Steve, I miss the daily read and....
oh, yeah, fuck the fucking Yankees.
It was good that the Times included Gilly, even better that Jesse painted us the true portrait. God, I miss the man. FTFY.
I always hit the Newsblog first thing in the morning. Steve always had the first posts of the day. I shared his love of obscure military history, and his sourcing was impeccable.
Everytime I read some current event, I always wish I had Steve's take on it.
Steve overcame the limitations of his earthly life and became something more.
A mentor, inspiration, and a voice of reason in an increasingly insane world.
Even in passing he remains a part of us that came to know him through his writings and fiery wit. The man truly made a difference. I can't even write this without tears streaming down my face. I cry in joy for having had the pleasure of reading what he had to say. I cry for the profound loss of what should have been, and what still needed to be said.
That my friends is the closest we will ever come to immortality. Steve will live on, and the world is a better place for his having lived in it.
I miss his tone, intelligence, warmth and humanity. I've never gotten out of the airport in New York. But I'm glad for his vision and I;m glad you guys carry on in his memory.
For him to leave with so much left to write is so unfair that it makes me sick.
It's a fine thing to see the Great Gilliard get some of the recognition he deserves. Most of us who blog have to work at it to be halfway decent. Steve was a natural--but those of us who read him also know how much work he put into it. Thanks to those who continue to carry his torch.
I miss the wicked fun of his eviscerating wingnuts, the military history, and that strong, clear voice.
R.I.P., Steve.
Like eveyone else I miss Gilly and his powerfully pissed-off musings, wondering what he'd make of some headline or blog post. My bank account may be richer from one less blogger to fund, but my life is much poorer by the loss of his voice. Wonderful that that Times included him in the year end round up, though. Can't think of anyone who deserves it more than Gilly.
I fucking hate this piece.
I fucking hate the Times.
I miss his work less than I would if you guys weren't doing such a great job of carrying on his legacy. Sometimes I think he's still there, writing through you guys. Except that such a notion detracts from the very real talent you all have.
Steve's was one of the first blogs I ever read. It was rich in language, rich in historical detail and perspective. I read it daily for years. I felt richer.
Now, we're all somewhat poorer.
God, I miss him.
serge
Sullivan's Island, SC
I knew it ! I just knew it !
"My main hobby,outside of reading history and fiction is watching the Yankees.In this area at least ,I am entirely partisan." Matt Bai.
FTFY
RIP Steve.
And Matt Bai is a fucking douche.
The article made me fightin' mad all over again, but the picture always makes me cry.
If the article's wrong, at least Gilly can still be read in his own words, and their wisdom endures. Thank you, Jesse.
Jen! I miss you too. The love you and Steve shared touched us all.
HUGS!
I miss Steve Gilliard's voice every day. And I often wonder as I parse the news what he would have had to say about the latest outrage.
That said, while I was an obsessive reader of, and commenter at, The News Blog, I have only occasionally been over here to GNB, and have been silent in its comments.
Why?
Because I'm still intensely angry about the circumstances of his death.
I had a family member go through a critical life-or-death medical crisis not long after Steve had his.
Let me tell you how that worked. I obsessively grilled every medical person connected with the diagnosis and treatment. I went directly into their own professional literature and read the textbooks and journals on which they themselves draw. I sought second and third opinions. I ran down other patients who had suffered the same condition to learn what works and what does not. I cross-checked every last freaking minor detail down to the comma. (And, I would note, I observed and corrected errors both large and small as I did so. This in one of the largest and most professionally prestigious academic medical centers in the United States.)
Prognosis? Potentially lethal.
Outcome? Good.
Why? Because my family member had highly competent and highly determined backup. I can say with a considerable degree of confidence that if we had simply sat back on our haunches and allowed the medical system to do what it wanted to do, at the pace it wished to do it, I would have been organizing a funeral by Christmastime. The patient concurs.
The American medical system delivers suitable medical care in precisely the same sense that the American justice system delivers justice: only sporadically and often only when it is externally compelled to do so.
Steve needed backup. He needed someone on his team, at the hospital, someone who spoke medicalese well enough to read a chart or an operative report, someone who was assertive enough to speak directly to anyone from a nurse to the head of surgery, and who would not accept pat answers.
He didn't have that. He might have lived if he had in fact had it. He was let down. Shamefully. No one who was able to do so had his back when it mattered so much.
Everyone -- my relative, Steve Gilliard, you, me, a Hollywood star or a street person -- needs to have someone in the capacity of patient counsel, if they are going to get proper care from our horribly distorted and inept medical machine. I wish it were not that way. It does not have to be that way. But brute empiricism indicates that it is in fact that way.
What then exponentially compounded my distress and rage about the matter was having Jesse Wendel, around the time it became clear that Steve had entered a terminal condition and would not be coming back, saying that nothing could possibly have been done any differently, and that it was an illusion to think that it could have been.
Bullshit. Utter fatuous New Age nihilistic bullshit. Why strive for better outcomes in the first place if outcomes are preordained?
That left me furious from the first second I read it. I am still. Which is why I don't feel like being an active participant at GNB. It feels wrong.
Steve was a fighter at heart. So am I, which is why I found his work so resonant. But every fighter needs someone to work his corner and watch out for him. I regret to this day that there was a vacuum where there should have been a pillar of strength. It is not as though he lacked for friends.
I occasionally still look in over here at GNB to see what Lower Manhattanite and Hubric Sonic have to say. They are skilled bloggers, and I respect their work. It is not the same. It can't be.
Steve would have recognized the speech which Patton gave to his troops before Operation Overlord, a highly sanitized version of which appears in the eponymous film. In which the General told his men that one day they would be able to say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"
In like manner, I will remember in my later years that, during one of the worst times of my life and one of the darkest periods of modern American history, I was cheered every day to read the words of Steve Gilliard, who never let up on fiercely hammering the greedy little thieves who first stole our country and who then led it to ruinous misadventure.
And if I can still stand up at the barbecue, I'll make a beer can chicken in Gilly's honored memory.
Fare thee well.
--
I propose a new acronym for the Group News Blog: FTFNYT!
...guess it's time to sing "The Vacant Chair" ...again.
I appreciate Steve Gilliard and Jen. Thank you, all, for carrying his light forward.
--Ventura County, CA
On the internet, someone you never heard of just died.
I've met senators and kings, stood with admirals and captains at sea, got high with the Doobie Brothers, met the famous and infamous, but still I was the most impressed, giddy if you will, when Steve responded to one of my comments on his site.
He was truth wrapped in anger and reason. He pissed off the right because they were powerless against him. They whined and sniveled at what he said like weak little bullies that get called on their bullshit. At the end of the article when it mentions his family's concern for the treatment of his resting place, my mind stood still. How could anyone do such a thing? But his enemies have no soul, no past. To them, this is part of what they are and what they are capable of.
Personally, I'd exchange the lives of the entire wingnut chorus for one more day of Steve's wisdom.
Marquer,
I am not at liberty to say much more than what I am about to say, but do know that we did try with what channels we had.
Jesse, you have always explained the sitch better than I ever could; if you could please show Marquer the links and suchnot...
I think Matt Bai might have been stunned had all of Steve's friends, acquaintances, allies and devoted readers had the money, time and opportunity to come to NY for his funeral. Cyberspace is a new frontier that can't be measured by corporeal bodies in one place at one time.
No one will ever know how many tens of thousands of people were deeply moved by Steve's life and writings.
Best of all, his enemies were so in thrall to his criticisms that they cheered when he died, a real New York send off to a real New Yorker.
In Steve's honor, fuck the fucking Yankees.
From a lifelong Yankees fan and, more recently, an enormous Steve Gilliard fan,
Funny, but I always kinda felt like family. Mr. G. had a way about him. I think of him all the time.
Jen, I hope you are well. I miss you.
Mark Giselson is absolutely correct.
What Bai misses is that Steve was all about community, and that there is more than one way to achieve it.
As zuzu asks, did any of you see Matt Bai at the funeral?
Marquer,
Your anger is misplaced.
When people die, when we lose people we care about, it is normal to look for someone to blame.
There is no one to blame here.
With perfect 20-20 hindsight, are there actions we would have taken differently?
Yes, there are.
But the reasonable person doesn't judge based on hindsight. She or he judges based on the best possible information available to the people in a position and with the authority to make the decision at the time.
Who were those people? They were the doctors and nurses at the hospital, and Gilly's family. Everyone involved did the very best they could, given their training, experience, history, and background. No major mistakes were made. No ill intent was present.
You can be angry. We don't begrudge you your anger. But had Jen given in to her anger even once, she would have been promptly removed from being allowed to see Gilly at all. She was there by and purely at the permission of Steve's family. Why? Because Steve failed to sign the form giving Jen his medical power of attorney, prior to surgery.
In July, Mrs. Gilliard lost her brother. We spoke then about some of the difficulties around Gilly's death and burial, which may give you some sense of the communication issues.
In my view, Jen has been amazing in taking care of the Gilliard family.
It's one thing for you to say, 'if it had been me, I would have done this, that and the other thing...' Well, thanks for sharing. But it wasn't you, and you weren't involved in what was a massively delicate balancing act between medical staff who spoke medical jargon, an elderly parent with medical power of attorney who didn't understand the jargon, upset family members, and Gilly's co-publisher who was there as a courtesy only and had no genuine power, who could only make suggestions and recommendations. If Jen had been thrown out, she would never have seen him again! Nor would any of us known what was going on. It was imperative that Jen stay in tight with Mrs. Gilliard and the Gilliard family, while doing her best to suggest appropriate recommendations for improved care.
That she did. Flawlessly.
After months, regardless, Steve died.
People die, dude. It's the way it happens. It isn't Jen's fault. It isn't his mom's fault. It isn't anyone's damn fault.
You want to be angry? I have no problem with you being angry. I find it pretty empty. And pointless. But if you think it will help you feel better about losing Steve to be mad at me, please, feel free.
I remember you from The News Blog as a regular commenter. Your voice has been missed.
I encourage you to let your anger go, and come home.
If you need to talk this over a bit more, please feel free to drop me a note.
I miss you Steve.
Jen, I hope you are doing well. I think of both you and Steve frequently.
It's really still too painful to read and post here. Sorry Hubris, LM and Jesse. It just is.
Maybe someday.
Fuck the New York Times. Fuck the fucking Yankees.
Even that doesn't feel good. It's so empty.
Bai sux
Miss you, Steve.
Fine post, Jesse. I left a slightly longer comment over at C&L about Bai, but your words and perspective are much appreciated.
About once a week since Steve's death, something comes up in the news, such as Imus's racism, Guiliani's utter corruption, the latest chestthumping by some chickenhawks, or the Evil Empire's throwing Joe Torre overboard, to which my instinctive reaction is "I gotta see what Gilly has to say about this," only to realize that Steve is gone and there's no one around who remotely makes up for his absence. Just think what he would do with the today's news that the NY Times has hired the Yankees. His references to appropriate military history were usually excellent, and when they weren't -- comparing Bush without Rove to Lee without Jackson -- he'd respond to your criticism fairly, calmly, and with respect. It's not often you find someone so passionate and yet so gentlemanly. Steve Gilliard, who was so good at recognizing who was a hero -- like Murtha, a favorite of Steve's because he had been a mustang(go back to Steve's columns for a definition), and who was nothing but a big-talking chickenhawk (the shrub and his gang of cowards, any neocon, DLC Democrats like Peter Beinart) was a hero of mine.
As a Red Sox fan for about 55 years, I don't think I need to second Steve's favorite sentiment: FTFY !
Screw the turkey this year.
Instead, bring on the Beer Can Chicken!
Heckfire - we could even let Mr. Bai have a slice or two just, well, because that's what Steve would have done (after he finished roasting him, of course).
.
yeah, i'd like to agree w/jesse about bai's apparent need for a hook over reality. i, for one, knew steve was black.
Thank you for sharing with all of us ( your silent readers ) your thoughts and sorrow , please if you can post again Mr . Gilliard's work or give us a link to be able to find it.
My best wishes for the New Year to all of you at Group News Blog.
María
First stop, every day. Nothing to add other than Mr. Gilliard was much more complex than that portrait. He seemed to lack ego, which I suppose was his ego, and if he was wrong he'd say so. I always got the feeling that he, and I saw this somewhere else about somewhere else, could "reminisce about the future." Thanks everyone for continuing the fight.
Maria -
Search for:
"The News Blog"
Don't forget the quotes.
I finally read the whole piece in the NYT... good but, as noted, with some flaws.
News Blog was my first reading in the morning and frequently checked during the day. Once after Steve said he was taking the night off to relax and go out, upon finding a bunch of new postings in the morning I wrote him an email to gently tease him about the number of posts he had up when he was supposed to be relaxing. Well, he answered me that same morning and told me that he'd indeed been out but he usually did posting around 3 AM for those readers like me. The email was sweet and so friendly. I didn't know him personally but I tear up when I think about him and how I miss his writing -- all his writing, the political commentary to the history to the food stuff and his stories about his niece and nephew.
I read Steve every day. I printed his stuff up, I linked to it on my own pathetically provincial obscure blog and I miss his voice every day.
God....if only Steve was here to lend his insight now. What a loss.
I think the Times as a whole tends to condescend to the blogosphere so it's no big surprise they painted Steve as some lonely malcontent. Maybe they did so in a nice way but regardless it definitely tarnished their article.
No, Steve didn't talk about his illnesses, that wasn't what his blog was about. It wasn't about him it was always about all of us...the people. It makes me admire him even more if that's possible.
My love, respect and feelings of sadness about Steve temper my desire to rip Matt Bai and his disdainful and somewhat assumptive tone. Yet it so typical, to couch a story in such a way as if to give an instructive lesson, a bogus cautionary tale.
I miss Steve so much. He was and will always be an intellectual giant who was just on the cusp of great things to come. As if he wasn't there already.
Marquer,
Your anger is misplaced.
When people die, when we lose people we care about, it is normal to look for someone to blame.
There is no one to blame here
-Jesse Wendel
Goddamn right Jess'! I was at Steven's bedside - I read his chart - I spoke to the nursing staff about him and his condition. The truth of the matter is that Steven was a medical disaster, a time bomb waiting to go off. The folks at Lenox Hill did the best job they could do. it breaks my heart to say this - but Steven was what we used to call "bad protoplasm" when I was in medical school. Could some more aggressive and heroic measures have been taken early on during his protracted illness? No doubt. Would they have forestalled his eventual and untimely demise? Based on what I now know, highly unlikely. After his death, and shortly following the launch of the GNB, I was drowning in grief and bitterness - Steven being the third person of some import in my life who had passed away within the past year and a half. I know that that bitterness spilled out into, and bled through, some of my comments on this blog early on, because I couldn't for the life of me see any fairness in the GNB existing, and our continuing on the way we and the founders of this blog have, when my friend no longer could. I'm over that bitterness now, even though I still grieve his absence, as do so many others of you.
As to the thinly veiled effort above to impugn the integrity of Jesse and Jen and whomever else the individual in question felt, or continues to feel, shortchanged Steven in regard to not having his back - that person doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about and should shut the fuck up. Plain and simple.
I certainly knew Steve was black; he just was not obsessed with being black. I can see where some folks might not have noticed, depending on what they read.
I looked forward to reading him (though his spelling sometimes infuriated me); he was a treat in my day.
I
’m still angry at him. How dare he do something so dumb as dying, smart as he was, precious as he was?
Read the News Blog every day. Steve was the best. All respect to his contribution and his memory.
drbopperthp -
It's okay.
Thank you. Thank you deeply and from the bottom of my heart.
But it's okay.
Marquer -
We took down the posts from The News Blog at the request of the Gilliard family during the final weeks of Steve's life, otherwise I could pull up precisely the posts which got you so upset.
I no doubt said something similar to this:
What happens, happens. No matter how it is we got here, here is where we are. We can't change any of this, and it couldn't have turned out any other way.
That's all true. You can't change the past. It isn't possible for how one gets to the present to have happened some other way; it can only have happened this way. That's why the past you have is the past you have.
None of that takes away from I'm a vastly experienced paramedic (retired) with a fierce commitment to both constant correction during the course of the run, and after-the-run hot-wash, um, a meticulous examination of every single step of the run, looking with my partners to see if there is anything -- any goddamn thing no matter how small -- which could be done better, faster, simpler -- which could lead to a better outcome next time. I am a perfectionist of the highest order; ask my colleagues at GNB.
ALL of that was happening behind the scenes. NONE of the details of those conversations or of Gilly's specific medical conversations was or is any of your business. Not then. Not now. Yes, we had Gilly's permission to post what was going on with him. But then his family asked us to take those posts down, so down they came, end of discussion. Could they have stayed up claiming journalistic integrity? Sure. But this was Gilly, and we wanted to do the right thing for our friend.
None of those conversations had anything to do with the ones you apparently were upset about, the ones you thought were all airy-fairy. *cracks up* That's the last thing they were. They were conversations I very intentionally designed to one end: to calm a large, upset community, on the verge of splintering.
That was what I was there to do. We had Jen at the hospital. Her job was to be with Gilly and to communicate with Mrs. Gilliard. We had drbopperthp working with the surgeons and physicians at the hospital, and talking to the nursing staff, as well as double-checking my medical interpretation to make sure I was on the nose. We had Jim handling the technical end of the blog. We had Hubris Sonic, and Lower Manhattanite posting, and many other people contributing content. And we had me, communicating to everyone, working to make sure the community stayed together and stayed calm, so Jen could give her full attention to Gilly.
Lots of people were working very hard to keep Steve's community alive for him.
It's okay Marquer for you not to know what was actually going on. We weren't trying to explain things to people. We were trying to keep the community alive.
It's also okay for you to be angry.
Anger is one of the stages of grief which people move through, when someone they care about dies or leaves.
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. It's quite possible to get stuck in one stage for a long time. I know this from personal experience.
You're welcome to contact me personally if you need to talk more.
Everyone else -
Marquer is a valued member of the community, and will work through this in his own time and his own way. Let's leave him alone to do so. Thank you.
drbopperthp -- I do, deeply, appreciate what you said. This doesn't take away from what you said. But you know as well as I do, how people were hurt. This is just another person -- a respected regular -- who was hurt.
GNB is a safe space for him to come home to.
Like others here, I was glad to see Steve Gilliard memorialized in the New York Times, but took issue with Matt Bai's portrait--particularly the characterization of Steve as a reader of "obscure military histories."
On an ordinary day, the News Blog offered up a potpouri of local stories, recipes and trenchant political commentary. The thing that made the News Blog indispensable was the kind of analysis Steve offered on the not-ordinary days.
When violence erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Steve's analysis of events surpassed anything one could get in the mass media, precisely because of his grasp of military strategy and deep knowledge of military history.
All through the summer and autumn, reading news reports on "the success of General Petraeus' strategy", I've found myself mourning for this erudite, passionate voice that belonged to no one else. It's not enough to say, "he will be missed". I wonder if I'll ever again have the experience of experiencing real time events through a historical prism, the way one could on Gilli's blog in the worst of times. That combination of journalism and historical consciousness is rare, and badly needed.
Marquer,
Steves body was killing him. He knew he, but he didnt give a fuck. He want to live life. He could have cut out all the great food and changed his lifestyle and maybe ekked out a couple more years. but the reality was, his body was killing him. He was taken sooner than i think even he expected but thats the way it goes.
I hope I go with as much style and grace as Steve had.
Jen did a magnificent job in the most trying circumstances imaginable. Anyone who counts themselves a friend or admirer of Steve owes her more than they can ever repay.
And that's the plain truth of it.
Steve had one of the most impressive minds I ever encountered, I mean, scary-smart, though I never saw him let his ego get the upper hand. But -- although he never made much of it -- if you paid attention, over time you realized he had some severe health problems. I think all of us knew (whether we admitted it to ourselves or not) by sometime in the middle of the second month of his final illness that he wasn't going to get better, that he was never coming back, that this unique voice had been lost to us forever.
I agree with Doc, though: Hindsight is worse than useless. You might as well blame God/The Gods/The FSM for sticking such a brilliant brain in such a faulty body.
To put it another way, the fact that Steve is no longer with us, while that demented vulture William Kristol is currently celebrating his cushy new roost on the Times' op-ed page constitutes prima facie evidence of the Weird Sisters' grim sense of humor.
Steve Gilliard, you are greatly missed.
I should point out, though, that if Bill Kristol lived to a hundred years, he wouldn't have had one tenth of the fun Steve had, and even if you gave that simpering, war-mongering fool a thousand years of life to squander, he'd never have so many true friends.
This is a lovely post by Jesse Wendel. I read Steve's blog daily and continue to miss his unique perspective.
I appreciated the Matt Bai article very much, as it reminded me why we need good journalists like Steve Gilliard instead of people like Bai who don't do their basic homework. I did not know Steve at the personal level, and don't presume to say anything suggesting otherwise (clearly, my loss.) But Steve Gilliard's broad interests and obvious sociability were manifest. Quite frankly, I myself fit the pattern of loner with private interests more than Steve Gilliard appeared to do based on the evidence.
A reasonably cautious journalist would have contacted methodically other bloggers about the funeral, find out who actually attended, who his friends actually were, etc. If you don't want to write about the death and mourning of a de facto role model for online journalism and historical analysis, you can always go write a puff piece for the NYT about Lindsay Lohan's martini preferences instead. But Bai is what Bai is: a Social Security number with a wealthy employer who blew an article's facts badly about a deceased blogger to the offense and righteous indignation of those who actually knew the deceased.
Bai's punishment will be that there will be a large number of bloggers who will lust to point out his every incompetent, self-aggrandizing screw-up for the next five years, asking ourselves "What Would Gilly Do?" If Bai commits another felony-level screw-up, it may get front-paged over at Big Orange. Bai will place himself under the epithet of ill-est repute, and we may rejoice, reminded of why blogging and what Steve did so well matters, really matters a lot. So I am grateful for Bai's stupefying incompetence as it fuels my own desire to improve, i.e. first not to be in that undesirable category myself, and second ideally to perform excellent work to my maximum ability, whatever it may be.
It's hard to do a greater favor for someone, or someone's memory, than to provide a timely reminder that her or his work matters, and why it matters.
I do miss his writing too. It just hasn't been the same.
Letting Bai produce an obituary of Steve Gilliard, his infinite superior as both a writer and a human being, beautifully encapsulates the Old Gray Madame's current status as a failed news organ and an apologist for the WATB 'conventional wisdom'.
Like so many others here, Gilliard was the writer who hooked me on political blogs. His was the first blog I checked every morning, and I miss his fierce wisdom and clarity every damn day.
The pain never really goes away when you lose someone as special as Steve.
It's like I'm hearing about it for the first time, all over again.
Steve's was the only place I ever felt that I could express any sentiment--joy, rage, indifference, whatever--with no judgement, no repercussion, nothing but a thoughtful reply as to why he thought I was right, wrong, or just being stupid.
To have cageliner like the Times, who just hired Bloody Bill Kristol to spatter its once-proud editorial page with his warmongering lunacy, trivialize his life and its impact on so many is sickening beyond description.
Fuck death.
Fuck the Times.
And fuck the fucking Yankees.
Fuck the fucking Yankees.
Amen. Now and forever.
*smiles sweetly*
Jesse Wendel--
Thanks for letting me back aboard, Doc.
I think I'll continue this ride if you'll have me back.
Cheers!
Perhaps instead of FTFNYT, it should be FTFCHM: Fuck The Fucking Corporate Holodeck Media.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker--
How 'bout this:
FTAALSSTO
Fuck Them All And Let Steve Sort Them Out.
Oh, and FTNYY.
IBW--
Or, in the more clerically correct form:
FTAFSWKHO
Fuck Them All For Steve Will Know His Own.
And that should be FTFNYY.
comsympinko -
It's good to see old friends.
Please note this isn't The News Blog. It's the Group News Blog.
We place a little more emphasis on playing nice and being a safe place for everyone, than at the old place.
We still have fun though, and the writing is fine.
I'm going to bed. Talk with everyone tomorrow.
I miss Steve Gilliard. I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, so when the news of the day made no sense, I would turn to Gilliard. He could explain anything.
I'm glad this blog carries on his name and his work. However, no one will ever replace him. He was that good.
I used to read Steve's site a couple of time a day. Its nice to come to this site and see comments from the old gang from Steve's place.
Steve was, early on, one of the very few early dairy writers at dKos that stood out by a mile. He knew his history, he knew a lot more about military doctrine than anyone not in the armed services (and kept the salient points in mind a lot better than a few who have been or are there), and he could argue.
And I don't mean being cruel or aloof or rude. He could put forward his points, defend them well, and leave just enough of an opening that, if you wanted to switch from arguing to questioning, fine. But if you wanted to press your point, you had to be prepared and convincing.
And unlike too many folks that change from not suffering fools gladly to not suffering anyone in any way "unpleasant", Steve was, as he rose in stature in this community, still accessible, still feisty, but still willing to explain, to teach, to argue - not just to kick a butt or two because he could, but to make sure we knew the score as he saw it and why, in detail.
And I can't think of anyone I respected more in this electronic wonderland, for that simple reason.
Rest in Peace, Steve. Pray for us left behind who have a hell of a mess left to clean up.
I came to Steve's blog as one of the first blogs I ever read... and went there every day to the end. From his place, I learned of Daily Kos (not the other way around!). His voice, angry but precise and knowledgeable and expert was/is an inspiration when I blog (on single payer, middle east peace, etc.).
Bai's dishonest hook... the lonely black intellectual... to smart for them black folk and too harlem for the white folk, is grist for everything that is wrong with MSM... premeditated narative that just happens to have just enough truthiness to be spread (like manure)... but mostly wrong when it come to the actual details and fact.
sigh.
Steve is one of the few writers I really think about a lot and miss a lot. (The other one is Billmon, who I guess is still alive, just not into writing these days.)
I'm not putting the dead on a pedastal or anything. Steve just had an amazing way with words: short, sweet -- and deadly.
Sometimes other people would take pages and pages to hyperventilate about some bullshit the wingers had just pulled -- but Steve could deliver a lethal blow in just a sentence or two.
He was a really important voice -- unique and effective. And he gave me a new respect for what writing can do.
He was still wrong about macaroni and cheese, though.
That cheese is gonna break on you if you don't make a sauce.
Ended up posting on the later thread, but just for the record:
There isn't a day I don't think about Steve. So many things he wrote about have become a part of life, ranging from collecting a variety of tea to making Jen's pea soup.
Bai was way off, and the best refutation is Steve's own words in the piece he quoted:
http://www.disobey.com/
ghostsite...14,76206,.shtml
The simultaneously wonderful and tragic quote from it is:
"The odds are, unless you get real unlucky, you'll see 70, and do you really want to have most of that 70 years devoted to shit and not people. You may have the greatest record collection in the world, but that record collection is shit other people did. It never once traded it's jacket for another kid's or decided to not go to school."
It's heartrending that Steve was "real unlucky" but wonderful that with the time he had was devoted to people and not shit. My boss (a great if fatalistic Russian guy) have occasional discussions if both of us are spending too much time with shit, and not enough time with what matters.
Steve spent the time he had remarkably well, and it was about people. otherwise we wouldn't be here in this blog and this thread remembering him.
I am so grateful that there are kind and gentle souls left to honor this wonderful man's life.
I, too, miss Steve terribly. I miss the community created around his writing.
I'll have to check back here more often. I've basically gone to Carpetbagger and Washington Monthly after Steve's death.
We're here phoebes.
It's not the same. But it's still home.
Can anyone tell me if Steve Gilliard worked at the New Lincoln School in the 1980s?
Elana,
Doing what? Where is that?
Given as he was in school then it was highly unlikely.
There was a man a few years older than me everyone called Gilly because his last name I think was Gilliard, and he worked at my high school. It might have been work during college because I remember him being in school. New Lincoln was started in Harlem as the Lincoln School by black intellectuals in Harlem, and the head mistress in my time there was an activist. I remember Gilly was working there through some connection to her from his family. May not be the same person, but I can't tell from the photo. We lost touch many years ago, but he was a great person.
I haven't been around, mostly because the idea of this group without Steve makes me so sad. I often think of him when I'm walking around the city, wondering what he would make of the news of the day. I learned more about local, non-white politics and politicians from him than I could have imagined; I had no idea how little I knew about that subject. Sometimes, when there was some egregious story on the news on a subject I was sure would interest Steve, I would race to see what he'd say about it. The satisfaction of reading his indignation and scathing comments was a great way to start the day.
I miss his food posts, the hilarious thread when Jen was buying a computer for her mom (hi, Jen; you're missed! I still think of you whenever I see a ham), the local commentary and wide-ranging military history; we have few enough people who know what's going on. Why did we have to lose Steve? Matt Bai spends too much time writing about people who are much better than he is. He just doesn't understand.
Can't you imagine Steve goin' to town on the Iowa Primary?
Oh, man. How will we survive this long -- loooonnnng -- campaign season without him?
I miss him.
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