I haven’t been able to be as active on this site as I’d like to be (more on that tomorrow), but there are a couple things that have happened recently that – although they’ve already been discussed on this and/or other blogs – I feel the need to diary on personally.
Starting with the bad news, a lot has already been said about the passing of Peter Freyne. I didn’t know Peter personally, beyond a passing acquaintance that you smile and say hi to when you see, so I’ll just comment as a blogger. Peter has meant a lot to Vermont through his long career as a print journalist and columnist, but he has played an irreplaceable role in the development of Vermont’s political blogosphere as well, as new and immature as it still is.
When GMD launched, I dropped Peter an email letting him know I was starting a blog. His response was simply a six word “Might as well. Everyone else is.” I suspected at the time he just wasn’t sure what to make of it all, and that sense was reinforced in the early days of his own blog when he still didn’t seem to know what to make of it. He “metablogged” quite a bit, all the while coming off almost like an excited kid discovering an amusement park for the first time.
Which was ironic, truly, because I have never seen a person from the traditional media (or the blogs, for that matter) so effortlessly walk from one world to the other. It’s hard to know whether Freyne was made for the politcal blogosphere or vice versa, but his style and content was such a perfect fit that his engagement with the medium served to raise the quality, profile and impact of all of us almost overnight. Media pros often have a hard time with the transition because the medium is so interactive, meaning that not only are you likely to get back as good as you dish out, but you’re likely to get it from some amateur in his pajamas just getting home from his shift waiting tables. Clearly, Peter was completely comfortable with those rules and that world. More than comfortable, really, as someone who so easily and casually lived and breathed the give and take of politics and media, it seemed an ideal fit. Even though he wasn’t the first in, he was indeed the godfather of the Vermont political blogosphere.
And then there are the happier tidings, as wedding bells rang last week for Rep. Peter Welch. As profound an impact as it can be to lose someone, it is just as powerful a thing to find someone. So while it may not be as broadly newsworthy as the passing of Peter Freyne, the recent marriage of Rep. Peter Welch to State Rep. Margaret Cheney merits a special mention as well. Welch gets a lot of grief, and lord knows a lot of that grief gets delivered by this very blog (and ofttimes this very blogger), but regardless, I know Peter to be a very, very good man. A good human being with a good heart, a sharp mind, and a real desire to make the world a better place. Anybody who would suggest otherwise is, frankly, full of crap (or more likely, full of themselves).
So Peter, if I had a glass right now, I’d be raising it, as belated as that toast would be at this point. You deserve all the joy that finding someone you want to share your life with gives you, and I wish the two of you health, happiness, and good times.
Granted I’m just as likely to give you a hard time about something tomorrow, but that’s blogs for ya. Just for god’s sake, don’t give any more quotes to Republicans for campaign literature, ‘kay?