Isn't it amazing that we have this technology now? That we have this place, a place like livejournal where thousands of us can post and talk and connect? I'm young, but I'm old enough to remember when I didn't spend any time online because the technology wasn't in every household, and today my computer is hooked up to the internet as soon as it boots up.

I've spent the past 10 hours in a state of quasi-shock. A favorite actor has died. No, I didn't know him and the only thing I've ever really seen him in is the West Wing, but his portryal of Leo McGarry inspiried things in me that I haven't felt since I was a freshman in college and I wanted to change the world. Somewhere, in a White House far far away, a good, honest man wants to do the people's work. He wants to stand up and fight not only for the president, but the people, and his staff, and he holds his head up when things get bad and when things are good, he smiles. Yes, Leo McGarry was a character, but to me he was more than that. He was a dream, an ideal, a beacon of hope in this wasteland of lackluster yes-man politics. A friend of mine said recently, that things always don't work out how we think they should in the real world, but maybe TV and movies are the ideal of what it should be. Leo McGarry was the ideal.

And tonight, across the miles, across the world, I have the ability to share the sadness I have at the loss of an actor who, for a few hours a week (depending on how often I watch my West Wing DVDs) makes that ideal real. For a few hours I can loose myself in a world that I've dreamed of since I climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when I was very young, and I listened. Tonight, across the miles and the vastness of cyberspace and the seeming desert of keyboards and faceless friends who only appear as an e-mail address or a handle on my AIM, tonight I can commiserate with them and know that they feel as I do.

The West Wing isn't just any TV show. It's smart, it challenges you to know everything from Shakespeare to exactly how the Democrats and the Republicans feel about Social Security. The West Wing isn't easy. And it is an ideal, an ideal that we can only dream that our current politicans will live up to. It's an ideal that just might inspire a younger generation to do the right thing, to stand up, to be a public servant. The stories of today inspire the leaders of tomorrow, and John Spencer was a part of that story. The stories of today have inspired me to get off my lazy butt and do what I'm always talking about doing - change the world.

So tonight, I sit here, typing this into my livejournal page, my place to post about my rather pathetic life, and know that there are people who might read it and share what I'm feeling. Tonight, someone is sitting at thier desk, staring at thier keys, watching the words appear on the screen, and tonight, that someone might have the ability to touch me.

Rest in Peace, John. Rest in Peace, Leo. You will both live on, and will be remembered as heroes.

Copyright December 17, 2005