Like so many of us in the liberal blogosphere, I was deeply saddened by the death of Steve Gilliard almost three weeks ago. I always looked forward to reading his blog because he covered so many topics so well and cut through the crap better than anyone. (The macaroni and cheese wars were the bomb!) I continue to look as his site at least twice a day. I'm not sure whether I go there out of habit or because I want to find out how Jen is doing. I definitely would like to know where some of his regular commenters (such as Lower Manhattanite) went. Well, I am happy to report that his family was overwhelmed by the condlences they received after his death and want to compile his writing and have it published.
More after the flip. . .
Gilly's family begins by acknowledging "the thousands of emails, the tens of thousands of commentary, [and] the thousands of donations," that they have received since his untimely passing. Based on Gilly's posts about his family, I imagine that they were completly surprised at the outpouring of love and support - as well as the generosity - of so many people that he touched yet never met face-to-face. Who wouldn't be? I know many of us donated money to help pay Gilly's medical and/or funeral expenses, but I was worried that they did not receive enough donations to cover everything. I am happy to know that his family received so many donations, though I hope they will let us know if they need more.
His family goes on to state the following:
As we move forward, it is our desire to gather all of Steve's writing and, if possible, publish it. This will be a lengthy process and we ask for your patience with our efforts. To assist us, if you have links or documents of Steve's writing, we ask that you forward them to Francine Smith at stevesbook@yahoo.com. She, along with Steve's sisters will be working on this project together.
I have no doubt that this will be quite an undertaking, but I am really glad that they are doing this. If anyone deserves to be published and widely read, it's Gilly. Of course, there are a number of people at dkos and elsewhere who would like to help them with this mammoth project, whether it's with logisitical, technical or financial support.
His family ends the post by asking us to "keep up the fight that Steve was so instrumental in starting. We know it is what he would want you to do." Anyone who is familiar with Gilly's writing knows that this is true. I miss his voice terribly, and I don't know if I will ever see a news story about Iraq, NY politics, food, soccer, or anything and not wonder what Gilly would have said. I told my husband that I would love to meet him after I die, but I would certainly settle for reading new blog posts from him in the afterlife. That would be heavenly!
Oh yeah, and fuck the fucking Yankees!!!!
I did a search and didn't see any diaries on this topic; I suppose most folks have stopped going to his site and his familiy's new post slipped through the cracks. I will be happy to delete this if there is another diary on this topic.