Despite the onanistic fantasies of some of the more dim in the Montana right, unfavorable elections do not depress or sadden me. They irritate me; make me cranky. As I'm certain many others who follow politics at all can attest, especially if they reject the personalizing emotions of it all, it's the nature of the beast to make one irritable, cranky.
But today comes news that has depressed me. Last night, Jay Stevens announced his retirement from Left in the West. And early this afternoon, as I had been dreading, Matt Singer followed suit. As Jay explained this with his usual detail and honesty, Matt summed it up very succinctly:
I'll miss it, too, but it is time.
I'm certain it is. Matt, one of the hardest working activists I've ever encountered, is taking his organization show on the road to Oregon. Their gain, for certain. I first encountered Matt (virtually) from a comment he left at Craig Sprout's website. I followed the link on his name to Not Geniuses, now well defunct. Like the stalking little info-sponge that I am, I followed the writings of Mr. Singer and his compatriote Ezra Klein from then on. Ezra left for Pandagon, The Atlantic and now, The Wapo. Full on freakish wonk, that boy. Matt came home, virtually speaking, and founded Left in the West. It was fun to watch him grow increasingly uncomfortable with expousing in favor of doing. He's wanted to get things done, and everythinghe wrote exposed that more and more. He and some buds, in an act of beautiful piracy, poached the domain for Forward Montana, an organization that originally was formed as astroturf for the Montana extraction industries. I still giggle that these folks (Hello Representative Bryce Bennett) turned that twisted effort back on itself, and Forward Montana is now a youth voter advocacy machine. I kinda choke up when I think how marvelous that journey must have been. As FM took off, Matt brought Jay Stevens on board for LitW, and the site hasn't missed a beat, though it has missed Matt.
I think it was 5 years ago, maybe 6, but Jay Stevens found an online voice. He started 4 & 20 Blackbirds, a great name for a blog, by the way. Unlike myself who writes because I enjoy to write, Jay is a writer. His eloquence and incisive points were an almost instant hit in the Montana Blogotubes. The guy can lay it down. He was a perfect fit for supporting LitW when Matt's time became more limited. The citizen wonk, the everyman who could express. A couple of years on back, Jay left the state for work opportunities offered to himself and his own. It's ironic, possibly only to me, that many who have commented lauding him were the ones who in heated disagreement accused him of not being local. And that's the also humorous part. Jay kept up with Montana politics, and still wrote some of the most insightful postings. That had to be hard, and he's done now. This, I think we can all understand.
So, here we are. Both Jay and Matt are moving on. Change is innevitable; to struggle is an option. And I'm finding that an option very difficult to deal with. I have defended, to the best of my ability, their online offerings. You would be hard pressed to find a bigger advocate of LitW, even in intense disagreement. Left In The West was truly a great community, a power in this state's online offerings. Today, I just feel more isolated, old, sad and alone. Do not mistake me; I am happy as hell for both of them. If I had half the intelligence of either one I would have given up blogging, probably many years ago. But it is what it is. I am being selfish, 'cause I'm going to miss them a lot.
Thanks so much for the extremely kind words, Wulfgar!
Posted by: Montuckyliberal | November 04, 2010 at 04:43 PM
A real loss.
Posted by: CharleyCarp | November 05, 2010 at 09:27 AM