Steve Gilliard, dead at 41

Steve was a left-wing blogger that I got on with quite well. He took the time to read articles which I emailed to him. Steve's blog, The News Blog, posted about 5 or 6 of my articles and allowed me to gain some blog traffic.

Steve was bombastic and oftentimes rude in his commentary. Woe betide any person who got up his nose. He was once attacked in print by Boston Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby for being "racist" and making insensitive remarks about African Americans - but if Jacoby had done any research at all he would have discovered that Gilliard was himself an African American and was using language from his own culture.

A few months ago Steve fell ill. I don't know, as yet, what his condition was. But it was serious. He endured a number of painful operations and spent most of the last few months of his life in intensive care. His prognosis was not good. I was not surprised when I discovered this morning that his death had been announced by a number of lefty blogs.

I'm very sad that this has happened. Steve and I occasionally emailed - especially when I discovered that one of my ancestors was a black African slave. I never met the guy in person although others have said he was a kind and sensitive man in person - quite the opposite of his online persona.

As you all know, I am an Evangelical Christian. I can only hope that Steve read some of my posts on Christianity and that somehow made some impact on him. We can never know for certain what goes through the mind of a person as he lies dying, but I hope and pray that God spoke to him in his final hours and showed him the glory of heaven and the cross of Christ.

Kos has his own personal obituary here.