Re: Steve

 
From: "Anne Abowd p.p. PEOPLE who still give a shit" <people@PROTECTED>
In-Reply-To: Steve
Date: June 1st 2018
Thank you Karen.  That’s our Steve.  Once we asked him to dinner at a good restaurant.  He ordered a lousy bowl of meatless spaghetti!  
I remember his voice stuttering softly, humbly over the phone some late nights .  We were on a list of calls he was making to alert of 
a planned protest, once about GITMO, where we would don orange prison garb; other times to oppose the murderous sanctions on Iraq, or Israel’s bombing of Gaza or Lebanon.

Someone once told me they became a long-time activist after a tall skinny guy with a pony tail handed them a flyer on the street.  Who knows all the hundreds of others who were awakened by his kind persuasion, awakened by the truth, that hid buried and unheeded, within them ?  I witnessed him answering snarky rebuttals at the car windows, with patient explanation. 

The hole he left in the world, is still felt, his Facebook page still appears on his birthday to remind us to keep on and not despair.
We miss you Steve, but I am consoled that you are at last forever in the presence of unimaginable Love and Compassion, and at the same time, always in our hearts !

On Jun 1, 2018, at 9:00 PM, dakotakwolf@PROTECTED p.p. PEOPLE who still give a shit <people@PROTECTED> wrote:

 
From: dakotakwolf@PROTECTED
I managed to get this poem published so now people all over can appreciate our Steve.

It's been three years, Steve, and we still miss you so very much.

STEVE

 

He lived alone

not by choice

it never worked out

constant search

like a kicked puppy always returning for more.

Two-room living quarters

hardly enough to contain

his expanding book addiction.

Always too hot or too cold,

cheap landlord

providing barely enough room

barely enough comfort.

But his Spartan existence,

funded by his janitorial job,

freed his mind and spirit

to work for social justice.

Which he did

spending every free moment

studying issues and demonstrating

for the rights of oppressed people everywhere.

He rallied for peace,

for LGBTQ rights and a living wage.

He spent nights with his six foot frame

folded into a bus seat

traveling south to support farm workers.

Under his gentle guidance

teach-ins on Gaza and prison reform

drew hundreds.

He often gave the last of that month’s

folding money to the homeless.

He died alone.

His passing unknown for several days.

Yet he is ever present

encouraging us to carry on.

 

                                                                        Karen Wolf

 

PEOPLE who still give a shit

Post to: PEOPLE who still give a shit ( people@PROTECTED )
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