Goodbye, Matt Mahoney

Today, I attended the memorial services for a friend of mine. I arrived at the chapel early, but not early enough to get a seat inside. I would estimate that 200-300 people showed up to say goodbye to Matt. As a casual friend, I know that I haven't been hurting as badly as the friends and family that he held so close have been, but nonetheless, I felt a great feeling of relief and happiness to see how well attended his service was.

Having only been to one other memorial in my life, I consider myself very fortunate to not have had a very clear understanding of the nature of such a gathering. Things became clear today when I had a revelation – a memorial isn't meant to be a grim and morose occasion where one stews in miserable feelings of loss. Instead, it really is meant to bring comfort and closure through a demonstration of just how much love and respect surrounded the dearly departed in life, and especially in death.



Rest In Peace, Matthew Joel Mahoney. You were a really great kid, and I wish we could have shared more time together.

Oscar Grant murdered by BART police

All too often, it's easy enough to wiggle out of having an opinion on anything. When the matter is controversial it's even easier to resign yourself to simply not have any opinion at all. We've become used to the idea that there are two sides to every story, and that the truth always gets buried and obscured under a ton of political rubble.

This is not the case in this matter. Less than a week ago, a young man was murdered by police at the Fruitvale BART track. I still fall for the bullshit "cops have a tough job" type of excuse from time to time, especially when allegations of "murder" are thrown about regarding a police involved death; but the following video is horrifying, and will thoroughly allay any doubts of this story's veracity.



"...graphic video taken by a passenger was released by the Bay Area television station KTVU. It shows an unarmed and unresisting Grant, lying face down, shot at point-blank range by an officer as his horrified friends and onlookers watch."


Please read a more detailed account of this police murder from this website.

A Little Bit of Recent SF History

I came across this article written by, G. William Domhoff. It's pretty interesting so far, but I haven't done much more than scan through it, and zero in on a few sections here and there.

sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/san_francisco.html

Death at a young age...

I got a phone call today and found out that a friend of mine had died. He was strong and managed to battle his illness throughout all of his young life, but I guess that wretched disease finally beat my friend into the ground.

I wish he had more of a chance to do all of the things that I simply take for granted, but I hope he's found a better place now.

Happy Holidays from Taiwan

This e-postcard was found on the very informative SF Fixed message board. It's nice to see the smiling, proud faces of the folks that built my bike frame and fork. There's a lot to be said for boutique frames, and I certainly have no qualms with bespoke goods for those that can afford it, but for the rest of us, there's brands like IRO, which outsource their production to Maxway in Taiwan.



Now here's a picture of me on said bike trying way too hard to look serious. Absolutely ridiculous.