"Old Time" DUer PurityofEssence has passed [View all]

[villager]

For you other old time DUers, a note that PurityofEssence has passed.

He was in his middle years, and leaves a loving wife -- and three kids (two teens, one toddler) behind.

We were college pals, during the 70's-to-80's cusp, and had both wound up in L.A. in search of work. We found it in various forms, and hung out quite a bit in our younger days. As life took its course -- work getting busier, marriage (his sustaining, mine eventually ending), kids, etc., we didn't get to see each other nearly as much.

But we always stayed in touch, even if there were stretches of time between phone calls, or get-togethers. We always liked to talk politics, and it was PoE who first told me about a start-up discussion site called "Democratic Underground" that I might like, in terms of finding some "fellow travelers" in those early months/years after the Bush Coup.

I don't believe he made the transition from DU2 to DU3 -- he was getting fed up with the conservative drift of Democratic politics, and how woefully inadequate it was given the enormity of issues we actually face, socially, economically, environmentally, etc.

I will miss the long, emphatic discussions (sometimes when he'd call, I'd put on an ear bud, and we'd chat while I took a long walk around the neighborhood).

I had been thinking it was time to get back in touch with him anyway, when I heard from mutual college friends that he was in the hospital, took a turn for the worse, wound up off life support, and as of the other night, finally crossed over.

Rest easy, Fred. And wherever you are now, keep the bastards honest.