The great Martin Bosworth has just died.
Devastating news for the movement and for all of us who counted him as a friend. Martin was one of a kind. He was an incredibly effective and passionate communicator and educator around issues that don't get enough notice in the blogosphere like consumer protections, corporate accountability, worker rights, predatory lending and of course comicbooks, D&D and other nerdery.
And he was a total sweetheart to boot.
He was a mensch. He was incredibly brave in discussing his medical issues and personal issues through a public policy lens. Martin never shied away from speaking his mind. He fought for civil, thoughtful and honest discourse. He didn't backdown because someone challenged him but he didn't get defensive either. He educated and explained his point of view and he genuinely listened to the other person's opinion.
As Martin and I were frequently of the same opinion I'm proud to say that we frequently wrote to each other supporting each others work. I will miss that just as much as I'll miss geeking out with him about the comics and sci-fi we both loved.
His sister has suggested folks make donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Martin's name.
Here are a few of my favorite pieces by Martin. I know he wasn't a dkos regular but if you have Martin favorites please share them below.
* Why We Need Healthcare Reform: My story
* Reverse Robin Hood: Stealing From the Poor to Give to the Rich
* People Aren't Products: Fighting Lazard's Gouging Of The Elderly (part of the series above)
* Privacy as you know it is dead–but you can bring it back
You can read Martin's writings on the following websites:
Boztopia
Consumer Affairs
http://twitter.com/... (he really understood twitter & aced the new medium)
Scholars and Rouges (here) and (here)
Huff Po
Tim Karr from Free Press has a moving tribute
and Scholars & Rouges wrote the following
Jason from The Seminal at FDL has a great tribute too.
