A Mentor by Example

Steve Gilliard of "The News Blog,"passed away last Saturday June 2, 2007. He had been ill for a few months but I was convinced he would be back to blogging within the year. He was 42 years old, his age made me confident that he would recuperate. Studying maniacally over the past week or so preparing for a State examination my "first thing in the morning" ritual of going to the computer to catch up on the news was put on hold. (This is for the two people who read my blog), I know you didn't know who he was but he truly inspired me. I read his blog first thing in the morning every day and would go back to his blog at least once more, but usually twice, before the day was over.

Clicking a link from some other website four years ago led me to The News Blog. I can't recall the topic now but how he said what he said, and that he said it told me he was Black. It shouldn't have mattered but it did. For me, it was like seeing that first black television show, my first was "Julia" starring Dianne Carroll, except it was a blog, but it had the same effect. Actually, it was better because it was in a voice that was familiar to my ear. Steve would dissect a given news item cutting away all the fat, aka bullshit. He would then hold it up so you could see it through his eyes. Well to make it short, my going straight to his blog every day sort of made him the first person I interacted with most days of the week. This past Monday when I went to his site to see if Jen, his close friend, had an update on his condition, even though a few weeks earlier his family had asked her not give anymore updates, it was like a kick in the stomach to see that he had died two days earlier. He was a brilliant man who made a difference. I'll miss him.