I attended my first Dean meetup more out of curiosity than anything. I had never been 'political' before. When I got there, though, I wasn't given the option of
not participating. I guess that's a strategy of a good leader: never question that others will follow.
As a result of that, I met Gov. Dean a few weeks afterwards when he came into town for the Jefferson-Jackson dinner. This solidified my support of him and gave me my first taste of how fun it could be, standing on a sidewalk and waving a sign.
One person was always present at those early stages of the developing Hoosier fervor for Dean. Scott was one of the hosts at that first meetup in May '03. He was there for the JJ dinner and he was always around for meetups later that summer. I'm not good at networking or figuring out the dynamics of a group, but I could tell he was somebody that many in the group deferred to. To be honest, he didn't impress me greatly in the beginning. After one meetup, though, there was some mention of him needing a ride home. I probably didn't know him well enough, but I offered to take him. He probably didn't know me well enough to accept! But there was talk of him calling someone from home to come get him (it was late) or getting a cab (I've taken cabs around town--stupidly expensive) and this seemed a little silly to me. It was kind of on my way.
He started telling me about himself on the ride home. It was a sad story. I got a picture of someone who was very lost but who had found something to believe in and hang onto in this campaign. It was something he thought he could do to make the world a better place. I dropped him off in what I considered a bad neighborhood. After my work this year in voter canvassing, getting to know the little nooks and crannies of my city, I know it was just an average working class area.
I think the last time I saw Scott was at a church near downtown when William Rivers Pitt came into town to speak. I kind of tried to talk to him, but I don't think he really remembered me. He seemed very focused on other things and the little details, such as how he'd get home at night, weren't of much consequence. I found out that Scott did a lot of research for Pitt. I'd read Pitt's stuff on truthout.org and thought that was pretty impressive. In my mind, I finally gave Scott the regard he deserved in the first place.
Scott stuck with Hoosiers for Dean until the fall of 2003. At that point, there was a huge blowup in the yahoo group. There may have been more behind it (again, what do I know of group dynamics?) but it ended with Scott leaving the group and all of us splintering. It's a shame, but things have been like that ever since. Misunderstandings and mistrust characterize much of the interactions of the larger Dean community in Indianapolis.
Because of that, I don't read the yahoo group much anymore. It's mostly full of forwards and you seldom hear from a real person. But I logged on tonight for some reason (catching up) and I found a couple posts that told me Scott has died. It happened this weekend. No details were given.
William Rivers Pitt wrote about it on truthout Sunday. Somebody must have called him right away. Scroll down to "On the Death of a Patriot" to read it. (Sorry, no direct links.) I learned a lot about Scott and what he had to do with the beginnings of the Hoosier campaign for Dean and, really, my involvement with the Dean campaign. I found out what he did with himself after he left our group.
As must be painfully obvious by now, I didn't get to know Scott well. I expect few did. I can still mourn his passing though, as well as grieving a bit for that thing inside us that doesn't recognize the humanity in others until it's too late. From that one time we talked, I learned that Scott desperately wanted to make a difference. I hope he knew that he did.