Faretheewell, Freespeaker

What do you do when you hear the news that an online -- well, friend -- has died?

I heard today that someone I knew and esteemed as a fellow smiter of anti-science and pseudoscience, Freespeaker, had died.  I also knew Freespeaker as a fierce advocate for people with disabilites.

A couple of years ago, Freespeaker started a blog, Age of Ignorance.  I want to share with you a selection from his  introductory post:

I know that vaccination has been one of the most, if not the most, important developments of scientific medicine in the last two hundred years. Yes, sanitation and flush toilets did decrease disease incidence, but, that last stubborn rate of infection was resistant, until killed off by vaccination. My family and I have been affected by what are now vaccine preventable diseases.

My paternal grandparents died in the 1918-1919 worldwide flu pandemic. Two of their children, who would have been my aunts, also died. That left four young boys, with my dad being the oldest at 16, to fend for themselves. My father quit school and went to work along with one of his younger brothers. They raised themselves in the 1920's and suffered during the Depression of the 1930's. All because of a disease which is not vaccine preventable.

I recall that when I attended elementary school in the 1950s there were classmates who did not come back to school in September. One was in an iron lung, whatever that was, and another was going to a school for the deaf. Funny, he was not deaf in June. He had something called the mumps.

In Vietnam I saw people die from many causes. One entire village was infected with plague. Fortunately, we had been vaccinated against it.

"Freespeaker" was a pseudonym, or a nom de blogue but even so, if you are paying attention, you learn things about the person behind the pseudonym. 

He loved and admired his wife.  His pride in his children was immense, and he took great joy in their accomplishments.  He was a patriot and proud of his military service.

I don't know if Freespeaker approved of women rabbis, but I do know this is the appropriate prayer to say upon his death.  I never met him or spoke on the phone with him, but the man saying this prayer has the kind of voice I imagined he would have.

 

 

I wish his wife and his children take some comfort from this expression of appreciation for his life and works.

Comments

[Chris]

He will be missed. He was an online friend whose youngest son was the same age as my oldest son. His posts on Usenet about disability gave me hope, and made me fight for for son.

He loved his family, and only wrote positive things about all of them.

This is just so sad. Many condolences to his family.

[KWombles]

Freespeaker was one of the first folks to read Countering when I began writing it. I respected his writing tremendously.