Today, Sunday, February 10, 2013, is the memorial for Daily Kos Diarist, activist, and dear friend, Richard Myers. It's taking place in Denver, Colorado. https://www.facebook.com/...
As I type, I'm once again feeling that emotional tug and ache. We lost Richard less than two months ago, very suddenly.
Last March, after Limbaugh's public attack on, then unknown, Sandra Fluke, many of us found it hard to sit back and ignore Rush's malign commentary any longer. I created a Limbaugh sponsor petition and while posting it throughout Facebook, I was invited into the Join The Fight To Flush Rush group, already in motion. There, along with Richard, a core group of about 15 of us, learned to feel our way around until we found ways to organize, monitor, report and document Limbaugh sponsors. Sponsors began pulling ads. Soon, the StopRush Project Database was born, and now over 2,500 sponsors have left Limbaugh's show.
When posting the petition, Richard and I would pass like ships in the night on the fb walls of Occupy, Planned Parenthood, Now, Naral... I would see Richard's
IWW badge profile photo. His emblem became a comforting symbol to see late, late at night. Often, he would 'like' my posts and I would 'like' his, in support of each other.
As we posted, we both got to witness the evolution of several amazing new organizations including, UniteWomen.org. None of us in the core group had ever met each other in person, yet we were tight. We stuck together and supported each other with every high and low of Limbaugh's bullshit. In the early days (March/April/May) of 2012, before recent technology, if we wanted to monitor sponsor ads, we had to listen to Limbaugh’s show live, for three hours a day, five days a week, to see who was advertising and how often. As anyone here can imagine, listening was incredibly painful - a true labor of love for the group and the cause.
To hear Limbaugh spew his hate, racism and misogyny everyday was enough to make anyone stay angry all the time. Not Richard. His demeanor never wavered. He was strong, yet always kind and compassionate.
Richard wrote more and more Daily Kos diaries, and they were good - really good. His words inspired and gave hope. He also kept us updated on Limbaugh daily news. (Media Matters has been a great help in highlighting some of Limbaughs most astounding quotes via audio clips) Richard kept in touch with them as well. He was everywhere, and along with his writing, Richard continued reporting, contacting and documenting Limbaugh sponsors.
The sponsors began dropping out first, in the hundreds, then in the thousands. With each diary Richard wrote for Daily Kos, he brought into FlushRush, several hundred new members. And he'd be there welcoming them in!He was relentless in his drive to turn radio and the world around, for the good. I was inspired by his writing and I got around to writing my first diary two weeks before he died… (Slow breath) I realized how difficult it could be to write just one diary, the hours it could take to research/edit some diaries, yet Richard would turn them out almost daily, filled with loads of new information/facts.
The weekend before he died we worked online late into the night on some graphics for our FlushRush group. We didn't quite finish. I remember thinking, I really admire this guy, I really like him, and My God, does he ever sleep? Now, I just miss him like crazy.
So many beautiful comments from Daily Kos readers have been sent to Tina, Candy, and his son, Randy. Richard's fb page is filled with homage to his kind and beautiful soul. Today is a special day. If you can make it, that would be lovely. If you can't, I know like me, you will hold him in your heart that day, and always.
Thank You, Richard Myers, for a lifetime of activism. We will finish this. Rest in peace. Memorial information: https://www.facebook.com/...
To become more involved with some of Richard's groups and causes (I am including these links because I believe Richard would have wanted me to):
Join:
The Flush Rush Facebook community
Visit:
The StopRush sponsor database
Join: Industrial Workers Of The World: https://www.facebook.com/...
Sign:
Change.org petition against supporters of Rush Limbaugh