Sorry to hear about this, debiannj. Agree or disagree, stylistic objections or no, Reeder was an unforgettable part of this board and it’s a shame his friends and family won’t have him around.
I’m going to combine this thread with your first one and make up a new title, just to everybody can stay up to date.
My condolences on his passing. Even though I didn’t agree with him, I respect the fact he wanted to speak up about his strong convictions and make people think. He seems like he would have been quite a character to know in real life. I noticed that he kept visiting this board even after being banned (according to his profile), so it seems like it must have meant something to him. He’ll certainly be remembered around here.
debiannj, my sincere condolences to you for the loss of your friend - and to his family as well. Nothing that I say here will lessen the pain, but you are in my thoughts.
The anonymity of this place brings out the worst in people a lot of times.
Reeder’s offline friends are saying what a great guy he was, but because of our ideological differences, I wasn’t able to see this side of him. To him I was just a Bush supporter to attack - and his over the top behavior here just led be to blow off his arguments most times and not engage him very much.
I’m sure if I had met him offline I would have liked him better - I get along with just about everyone. I regret the fact that this wasn’t possible, and send my condolences to those he did love and who loved him back.
I’m not going to post here how much I liked Reeder or how right he was - nobody would believe that coming from me. I am sorry he’s gone, and maybe this should remind a lot of us, especially those of us who disagree, to look past the political positions and try to learn about the people posting them.