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Daily Kos' 20th Anniversary: Honoring the memory of those who have passed [1]
['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2022-07-26
We want our lives to have meaning and impact. The tributes we offer to those who have died show in part what we hope that people will be able to say about us upon our own passing. We honor what we respect and hope to emulate in our own lives, writing, and work. Through their posts, Daily Kos Community members—maybe even especially those of us who are confronting the reality of death—have borne witness to fear, anguish, and despair, along with integrity, perseverance, and courage. How did our beloved friends and colleagues manage to live fully until the very last possible moment, we might ask. Or how did they manage to carry on after suffering a devastating loss? And then, we pause to consider what we might learn from their examples.
Currently, 144 once-active Daily Kos accounts show the RIP mojo, a special icon we created in 2013 to replace the mojo bars that would otherwise dwindle with disuse. As with other tombstones, the symbol itself reveals little of the life of the person whose passing is noted by it. Some of the users who have passed had very high site profiles; others likely were known only to a relatively small number of other users. No matter their prominence onsite, each departed member leaves an unmendable hole in the fabric of their communities.
The record they left here, however, permits us at least a glimpse into each one of these imperfect, glorious, unique, and irreplaceable individuals who left us too soon. I regret not having the time or space to mention each one of these 144 by name, so please feel free to use the spreadsheet below. Each hyperlink connects to a user’s profile page, enabling access to their stories and comments.
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Below I highlight the contributions of 15 site members, or about 10% of those with RIP mojo. These Daily Kos members had an outsized impact on the Community. They created and/or led notable site groups and series, and wrote with exceptional eloquence, humor, and power. Their work breathed life into the functions and features of the site. In short, they were distinctive, opinionated, and engaged Daily Kos members whose idiosyncratic voices helped shape the site into what it is today. Any one of us might choose a different group of 15 to lift up, and I do hope to read more personal remembrances in the comments.
Some of the site members featured below were people I came to know while they were still alive and active on the site, especially those who participated in the Monday Night Cancer Club (MNCC). We said goodbye to far too many lovely MNCC members, including shadowplayer, crystal eyes, and alliedoc. Many others likely died without asking their survivors to let us know. (I still hope to be mistaken about DarkHawk98, lunacat, and commander retired, but my pessimistic inferences are likely correct.) I remember them all with tenderness. Others I came to know through other site associations, and still others I know only through their legacy of writings here.
Three key Daily Kos groups have made the task of remembrance a central focus of their activity. Collectively, they convey the great care we have taken to honor the lives of those who have gone ahead, whether they were Daily Kos members or personally known to us.
Daily Kos Groups of Remembrance
in memoriam
In Memoriam “republishes obituaries, memorials and last diaries of Daily Kos members who have passed on.” The entire list of stories published to In Memoriam now stands at 68, of which only 3 were originally posted to the group. Since many of the republished stories cover the same person, there are obviously many members whose passing has not yet been noted—or, more likely, a site memorial post has not yet been republished to the group. Early in the group’s existence, Deep Harm and then VetGrl wrote Roll Call posts (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 respectively) to serve as repositories of memorials on behalf of deceased site members, but no one has replicated their enormous effort since then. Please help us improve the completeness of this group’s list by mentioning stories we should republish there in a comment (including the URL, if you would be so kind).
the grieving room
Founded by TrueBlueMajority in 2011 and run almost single-handedly by her for several years, the posts of The Grieving Room are
for those who are experiencing grief or loss. And diaries of those going through the loss of a person or pet, whether recent or long ago. Or yet to happen. And those that come to console because they too have gone through the fire. A safe space.
Human beings are complicated and not always easy to love—hence the “safe space” stipulation, I infer, allowing for the expression of the contradictory feelings that can arise in discussing the recently departed.
Many of the most heart-rending posts we have ever published on this site have emerged out of deep grief—parents mourning children and vice versa; siblings grieving the passing of another; partners lamenting the loss of their beloveds; friends remembering their dear ones (human and otherwise) with love and regret.
Sometimes the most painful stories come from missed opportunities and life-long estrangements never to be resolved. Sometimes the stories are raw; other times, they come from a calmer place. In all, a common theme emerges: Someone was here, and now they are gone. We miss them dearly, all these precious and irreplaceable beings whose like will never be seen again, and we cherish their memories.
igtnt (i got the news today)
IGTNT, or I Got the News Today, was founded in 2004, making it the second-oldest site series after Cheers and Jeers, and nearly as old as the site itself. Its purpose is ”to honor, respect and remind us of the sacrifices made by our troops and to provide Community members a venue to pay their respects” to U.S. service members who died while on active duty. At last count, 550 stories have been published to the group, many reporting on the death of multiple service members at once.
DrLori profiled the group about six months ago.
For 17 years, IGTNT has cut against the media (and sometimes, the government) impulse to anonymize the military, working to honor the people who gave their lives in service to the country as individuals, not merely numbers. Born of the anger of anti-war sentiment combined with outrage over the callous treatment that servicemembers received from their own government, IGTNT became a glue that cements the Daily Kos Community both to the military and to each other.
Thankfully, the deaths of active-duty service members occur much less frequently now than they did even a few months ago, when we still had forces deployed in Afghanistan (where the last tragic service deaths associated with the withdrawal were acknowledged in a post last August). But should the need arise, the IGTNT team will rise to the occasion.
We remember
We often say here, with good reason, “People come for the politics but stay for the Community.” Being part of a community means allowing oneself to be open to sorrow as well as to joy, to loss as well as to fulfillment. I hope you will make the acquaintance of the marvelous individuals I have chosen to highlight here, and take the time to revisit their writing if you know it already. I welcome you to help us honor others (on or off the site) whose memories you cherish by mentioning them in the comments, and to write your own remembrance posts if you are so inclined.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/26/2099737/-Daily-Kos-20th-Anniversary-Honoring-the-memory-of-those-who-have-passed
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