Poet/journalista John Ross died this morning at Casa Santiago Bed and Breakfast, the home of lifelong friends Arminda and Kevin in Tzipijo, near Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico. He’d been battling liver cancer, knew he was fading and had returned to his beloved Mexico for his final days.
He will be cremated, and it’s likely some of his ashes will make the journey back to Humboldt, a place John called home for a time. A local memorial is in the works — “maybe near his birthday, which would be March 11,” we’re told.
Counterpunch has an obit; we’ll have more to say later. As the friend who informed us put it: “Que descanse en paz…”
This article appears in The Council that Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.
John Ross was a true journalist of the people, and an inspiration to hope and work for more than one’s own little good. I hope we can still make radicals like him anymore.
The Counterpunch article/obit was a very good read, reminding me of John Updike’s poem, ‘Perfection Wasted’; there will be no imitators nor descendents of John. No one. He was truly himself and one of a kind, a unique giant, an opinionated character, activist and author who simply did things his way and without compromise:
http://counterpunch.org/bardacke01182011.html
I happened to cross paths with John several times living in Arcata during the early 80’s. He always made an impression. His visual writing, independent thinking, scathing critiques and woeful satires were always superb, striking, and spot on for their honesty and ingenuity.
Oh no! That’s too bad.
I very often disagreed with the man. I used to see him on various occasions walking around the Mission District of San Francisco back in the early 1990s when he was writing the early accounts of the Zapatista uprising. Kind of a dogmatic old leftist, but with depth of personally experienced history and a deep passion.
John Ross was a great man.
John Ross’ life and times by Counterpunch’s Frank Bardacke quietly referenced here underscores Mr. Ross’ keen awareness of the impermanence and suffering inherent in this world, a subject he frequently wrote of.
Mr. Bardacke describes this best: ” …bags of misery and compassion under his eyes, offset by his wonderful toothless smile and the cackling laugh that punctuated his comical riffs on the miserable state of the universe. He was among the last of the beats, master of the poetic rant, committed to the exemplary public act, always on the side of the poor and defeated.
His tormentors defined him. A sadistic prison dentist pulled six of his teeth. The San Francisco Tac Squad twice bludgeoned his head, ruining one eye and damaging the other. The guards of Mexico’s vain, poet-potentate Octavio Paz beat him to the ground in a Mexico City airport, and continued to kick him while he was down. Israeli settlers pummeled him with clubs until he bled, and wrecked his back forever.”
There’s more. I encourage you, the dear reader, to please give his kind obit a read. Mr. Ross, our traveling Humboldt ‘investigative poet’ and first rate journailst, would have liked that. Many owe so much to this man.
peace, Mr. Ross. skips
John Nichols also has a nice tribute here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/157839/rebel-journalist-john-ross-master-speaking-truth-power-dead.
I saw John Ross speak several times in the Mission District when I lived in San Francisco. He was one of a kind. An inspirational figure who will be missed.
Another hearty salute, this one from the SF Bay Guardian.
His tormentors defined him. A sadistic prison dentist pulled six of his teeth. The San Francisco Tac Squad twice bludgeoned his head, ruining one eye and damaging the other. The guards of Mexico’s vain, poet-potentate Octavio Paz beat him to the ground in a Mexico City airport, and continued to kick him while he was down. Israeli settlers pummeled him with clubs until he bled, and wrecked his back forever.”
He was also beaten by a group of Black Panther members, probably because he was stacking the meeting on behalf of the Progressive Labor Party. He played it on the edge at times.
The book stores of the Mission District will miss him. He was a fixture.