Alexander Cockburn RIP

[Paul Mackin]

On 7/22/2012 1:28 PM, Dave Monroe wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 12:24 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>> http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/21/farewell-alex-my-friend/
>>>
>> The site times out,  apparently flooded with condolers.
> Weekend Edition July 21-23, 2012
> Alexander Cockburn, 1941-2012
> Farewell, Alex, My Friend
> by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
>
> Our friend and comrade Alexander Cockburn died last night in Germany,
> after a fierce two-year long battle against cancer. His daughter Daisy
> was at his bedside.
>
> Alex kept his illness a tightly guarded secret. Only a handful of us
> knew how terribly sick he truly was. He didn’t want the disease to
> define him. He didn’t want his friends and readers to shower him with
> sympathy. He didn’t want to blog his own death as Christopher Hitchens
> had done. Alex wanted to keep living his life right to the end. He
> wanted to live on his terms. And he wanted to continue writing through
> it all, just as his brilliant father, the novelist and journalist
> Claud Cockburn had done. And so he did. His body was deteriorating,
> but his prose remained as sharp, lucid and deadly as ever.
>
> In one of Alex’s last emails to me, he patted himself on the back (and
> deservedly so) for having only missed one column through his
> incredibly debilitating and painful last few months. Amid the chemo
> and blood transfusions and painkillers, Alex turned out not only
> columns for CounterPunch and The Nation and First Post, but he also
> wrote a small book called Guillotine and finished his memoirs, A
> Colossal Wreck, both of which CounterPunch plans to publish over the
> course of the next year.
>
> Alex lived a huge life and he lived it his way. He hated compromise in
> politics and he didn’t tolerate it in his own life. Alex was my pal,
> my mentor, my comrade. We joked, gossiped, argued and worked together
> nearly every day for the last twenty years. He leaves a huge void in
> our lives. But he taught at least two generations how to think, how to
> look at the world, how to live a life of joyful and creative
> resistance. So, the struggle continues and we’re going to remain
> engaged. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
>
> In the coming days and weeks, CounterPunch will publish many tributes
> to Alex from his friends and colleagues. But for this day, let us
> remember him through a few images taken by our friend Tao Ruspoli.
>
> http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/21/farewell-alex-my-friend/
>
> images:
>
> http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/alexjasper9694.jpg
> http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/alexwriting.jpg
> http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/DSC03726.jpg
>
Thanks, it's available again.