A year ago I lost a friend. On March 1st, 2012 Andrew Breitbart died but every day, I still see both his personal and mobile IM accounts online. They serve as a sad reminder of the loss of a man I will always remember as kind. I gather his IM accounts are still online so they can continue his horrible project of wrecking America.
Andrew and I were friends. Last year when he passed away, I am ashamed to admit, I was afraid to write anything or to share how sad it was to lose such a good guy who cared so passionately about his friends. I was afraid because his life’s work was monstrous.
I met Andrew around 2007. He was building Breitbart.com and I was helping get Federated Media going. We had both grown up in Santa Monica and while he went to Pali, and I SaMo (proud of you guys this week!), we had a lot of mutual friends and experiences. We became fast friends.
As a kid growing up in Santa Monica, I rebelled against most of what was around me by imagining I was conservative. This didn’t last long for me, but apparently Andrew had a similar experience—and with him, I guess it stuck. We’d talk politics when we used to hang out, but we soon learned to let our disagreements lie. Except for that one night/fight in a bar in Sausalito after a Giants/Dodgers game where he forced me to get into it with him. Politics were the least interesting thing about Andrew.
Andrew was an incredible resource to me during the adoption of my daughter. As an adoptee himself, he was passionately engaged in the process with me. If you can imagine the energy Andrew put into his work, imagine what he’d do for his friends. He wanted to know where everything was in the process.
Andrew Breitbart by Gage Skidmore
When things got hung up in my family’s adoption process, he was as angry as I was. He shared so many stories with me about his experience growing up. As an adult, he tried to really help me understand some of what an adoptee experiences in life. The time and energy Andrew invested in me lives on in my daughter. I often remember those conversations, and they do guide my parenting.
We watched baseball games together. We laughed about crappy music from the 80s. He was my friend.
I hated what he was doing to our country. I miss his friendship.
I hope he responds to one of my IMs soon. I’d like to know how Harry Houdini is doing.