As you probably know by now, Andrew Breitbart passed early Thursday morning at the age of 43. A husband, father of four children, and savvy entrepreneur, it is reported that he died of natural causes just about one hour after a lengthy discussion with a marketing executive named Arthur Sando at a local bar and restaurant called The Brentwood.
I’ve sat and struggled, trying to find just the right information to link to, or just the right thing to say I read today, that will somehow raise my “Worthiness” as I write a few words about this man who left us far too soon. But there are no stories to share from the internet, that tell the story as strongly as the feelings I have, so for me it’s just this simple:
Today I lost a friend.
I never met Andrew Breitbart, and to be honest I didn’t really visit his websites very often. But he was a spirit that I connected with, in a way. As a resident of the Brentwood district of Los Angeles, Andrew Breitbart was surrounded by liberalism all his life. Yet he fought through it to find the light of traditional values and conservative beliefs, and then he promoted his beliefs relentlessly – sometimes to a fault. He was accused of being over-the-top and extremely partisan, even though his values align with the majority of Americans, and he and his associates unearthed some very important information that the traditional media types wanted nothing to do with.
Sometimes he was wrong, more often he was correct. Regardless, he put himself out there as a lightning rod for a movement he largely created, that which was called today by one writer “Punk Rock Republican.”
Here is his speech from CPAC 2012, at which he explained exactly how I feel about my participation in the blogosphere. “Everything has changed, everything has changed in the last few years, conservatives used to take it and we're not taking it anymore," Breitbart began this speech.
That spirit is exactly why I began writing this blog some three years ago, and why I have decided I need to begin writing again.
It will take a thousand or more voices to fill the void left by the loss of Andrew Breitbart. Rest in Peace, Happy Warrior. Thank you for blazing the trail and for showing us the way. We’ll take it from here, and we’ll never forget you.
If I'm not here, you might find me on Twitter.
