Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Farewell, Maria

This has been such a momentous day. But as it is with life, amidst great moments
of triumph and joy often comes a bolt from the blue to remind us of how precious
life is, as well as how fleeting and fickle. It was that way today.

A great heroine of the progressive movement is gone.

Maria Leavey.

As most of you know, I am on a seemingly never ending journey to get my radio
show back on terrestrial radio. Maria Leavey understood that dream of mine and
never hesitated to lend an ear or send an email of news about progressive radio,
good or bad, and usually about dirt that wasn\’t being printed, just to give
me a heads up.

Maria extended herself in other ways to countless people. I found out today
just how many people like me are out there, when at the Netroots party, as well
as in innumerable emails, people talked about what Maria had done for them.
Cenk, of \”The Young Turks,\” wrote movingly about her earlier today.

Frankly, I lost someone who was reaching out for me. Telling me about avenues
to investigate for new radio possibilities for my show. I know I\’m not alone.

Maria Leavey took the time to reach out to anyone who wanted to advance the
progressive cause and dreams we all hold dear. Oh, and she never asked for anything
in return. So many people I spoke to today were in shock. I actually came close
to breaking down earlier, but Matt Stoller was nice enough to see my sadness,
and reached out to me. Believe me, it helped.

The fact is that Maria died so suddenly none of us had the chance to collectively say thank
you.

Thank you for your gentle soul, Maria.

Thank you for suggesting the hotel I am sleeping in tonight, when I was looking
for a good bargain with architectural charm.

Thank you for all those emails about radio, the dish, the reality and commiserating
about the up hill climb that lies before people like me and many others who
want to get their shows back on the air.

It\’s amazing how a woman\’s life that you came to know through this great progressive
community, but never saw often, even if you spoke via emails daily and weekly,
can grow to mean so much to you.

I\’m so very sad at Maria Leavey\’s passing. If you didn\’t know her, even a little
bit, you cannot imagine just how much you missed.

I always made sure I personally thanked her for helping me, but she could never know how much her emails
from the blue of new radio news meant to me. In fact, she would barely take the thank you, because helping progressives was her passion, her purpose.

God\’s speed, good lady. If I ever get back on the air, you will be in every
show I do. In the meantime, every show I stream will have a silent nod to you.

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