Sometimes the bravest thing a man can do is stand on the back wall and cry. Which is what I did at the Central Avenue Synagogue in Highland Park, my community, the community I was raised in, for the funeral of Aaron Swartz.
I stood on the back wall and listened. At the front of the room, there was a microphone. As tempting as it was to step-up, and speak from the heart, I felt an overwhelming urge to listen.
When Aaron was 2-years old, he began talking in full sentences. In the code of sounds, he taught himself how to speak.
When Aaron was 3-years old, as the family was sitting in the kitchen, Aaron asked if later that night, he could go to the festival in downtown Highland Park. Not knowing how their little boy had learned of the festival in downtown Highland Park, they asked Aaron, who pointed to a postcard announcing the event his mother had taped to the refrigerator. In the code of letters, he taught himself how to read. 
When Aaron was 14-years old, he changed the world. In the code of information, he taught himself how to re-imagine web feeds.
Aaron went to high school. He grew bored, dropping out. No because high school was too hard or to be a punk, but to challenge himself. He created RSS.
Aaron went to Stanford. He grew bored, dropping out. Not because Stanford was too hard or to be a punk, but to challenge himself. He created Reddit.
Aaron was the most beautiful punk in the history of punks. He was also a kid.
This kid’s imagination was too free for any institution: not high school, not college. So what made Carmen Oritiz, the United States Attorney from the District of Massachusetts, think 35-years in prison was a good idea? For Aaron?!!
Aaron Swartz did not commit a crime with intent to harm. Aaron Swartz did not commit a crime with intent to defraud. Aaron Swartz did not commit a crime with intent to withhold the truth. Aaron Swartz did not commit a crime with intent to withhold access to information – it was the opposite.
Please allow me remind you…
Not 1-banker has been charged. Not 1-AIG Bonus has been returned. Not 1-member of the Bush Administration has been subpoenaed for torture. And yet, our government decided to harass Aaron Swartz? With a gavel?!!
Carmen Ortiz needs to be found guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter. She needs to be fitted for an orange jumpsuit. 
She needs to spend 35-years in prison. When she’s done being fully institutionalized, disbarred and disgraced, Carmen Ortiz needs to spend the rest of her life working at Walmart, where ambition goes to die.
When your ambition places greater importance on “the case” than “the kid,” you’re sick.
This is the world we live in, a world where sadistic adults prey on imaginative children, rubbing the clit of their ambition, finger banging their greed, getting-off on the media glory hole, with an eye on the governor’s mansion, even at the expense of the future, especially at the expense of the future.
Scared to death, literally scared to death, Aaron Swartz hung himself. He was 26.
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Gregor, you of all people know that we are all hypocrites! Jobs and Wozniak defrauded the phone companies with a “Blue Box” and were heralded as geniuses. Bill Gates literally ripped off Xerox of DOS and created windows which changed technology forever. Mark Zukerberg stole Harvard’s database to create “Face Mash” and was hounded by silicon valley for his brilliance. And you even have some wing nut from Whole Foods who’s cutting health care in spite of Obama to make profit at a friggon Health food store and his stock was rewarded with a record quarter.
Total Capitalism is a dichotomy of hypocracy at its best so there really isn’t any surprise to this story, just shock and horror. You’d think there is a lesson to learn here but who’s really listening anyway?
You’re listening, just like I did, standing on the back wall of the synagogue, listening to the heartbroken father of Aaron Swartz.
It’s time for the grown-ups to start acting like grown-ups. It’s time to stop reasoning with spoiled assholes pretending to be grown-ups, simply because they have grey pubes.
I’d like to thank Anonymous for making sure the name and memory of Aaron Swartz becomes anything but Anonymous.
Thanks for your comment.
State prosecutors who investigated Aaron Swartz had planned to let him off with a strong warning, but federal prosecutor Carmen Ortiz took over and chose to make an example of him. She wants to be Governor.
Ortiz, 57, also came under fire this week for her attempt to seize a family-owned motel in Tewksbury, Mass., for allegedly facilitating drug crimes, despite ample evidence that the owners worked closely with local cops. In a stinging rebuke, U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein tossed out the case yesterday, siding with the motel owners. The Judge noted that the prosecutors had alleged a mere “15 specific drug-related incidents” over a 14-year period during which “the Motel Caswell rented out approximately 196,000 rooms.” Ortiz is a criminal.
I look forward to Carmen Ortiz being placed under the microscope of a Federal Probe. Let’s see how she likes having her entire life disrupted and turned upside down by the courts. Unfortunately, if I had to guess, Carmen Ortiz strikes me as someone who’ll get-off on it.
From my limited perspective, in the limited time I’ve been aware of her, I tend to agree with Andy when he says this: Ortiz is a criminal.
People say nothing is impossible. I do nothing all day!
Didn’t write above comments.
Didn’t write the above blog
Andy, just when I liked your post and thought it was smart and well written, you say it wasn’t really you. Go figure.
And more on the need to repeal the 2nd Amendment…
A 15-year-old majorette who performed at some of President Barack Obama’s recent inauguration festivities has been shot to death in Chicago.
Police say Hadiya Pendleton was shot in the back Tuesday in a South Side park and died at a city hospital.
Authorities say Hadiya was one of about 12 teenagers sheltering from heavy rain under a canopy when a man jumped a fence, ran toward the group and opened fire. The man fled the scene in a vehicle. No arrests have been made.
Police do not believe Hadiya was the intended target of the shooting. A teenage boy was shot in the leg. Police did not release his name.
Hadiya belonged to the King College Prep High School band, which performed at several inaugural events in Washington, D.C.
Andy, did the libs conspire to kill this girl too; just to take your AK-47?
Busy. Just finishing lunch. But let me say the day a shithouse LawYa praises me, is the day I don’t want to wake up anymore. So Thanks for the compliment. Good thing we have the strictest gun laws in Chicago. Boy they really kept that girl safe. No meaningful gun control will pass, let alone repeal. Sorry ambulance chaser, you’re going to have to live with an armed populace. Hey, there goes an ambulance. Vince, go fetch!
Back to work.
Jealous much, Andy? You reak of it. Shit, you’re too legit, midget. I know why you laugh when you run across the grass; it tickels your balls, dwarf. Who, besides little Andy can suck a dick while standing up? Ahhh, a new super hero – Toilet paper boy….around around around and down.
Sorry, gotta run, having too much fun. Sirens are screaming and people are bleeding. Up up and away, LawYa to the rescue.
Get A Room.
Is this what passes for civil discourse? As Rodney King said, can’t we agree to disagree? And maybe during the discussion some common ground can b found. Come on Andy, you can’t be against a ban on 30 round clips or a law that would TRULY register all guns? Over 80% of Americans favor some really hard core legislation! The gun show loophole has to be closed. Get a grip on reality!!
Barb,
Your stats are off. And yes I oppose any and all gun control because liberals are incrementalists-little by little they chip away at your gun rights until you have none. The Lawya is just an odd ball who speaks out loud about what Diane Feinstein truly believes, a gun ban. You see Barb Andy understands Communist Vince. And Comrade Vince understands Andy. But Andy and Comrade Vince will never understand the left wing panzy weak NRA and their equally left wing spineless Republican shitheads in Congress.
Well Said, Comrade.
Every day, more shooting deaths. More school shootings. More crazy stuff. On the Daily Show, Stewart made a great point. The NRA says criminals won’t follow gun laws so they are useless. So we should just pass laws that criminals will follow????????
“Nuts” is the new “Normal.”
Did you see the way McCain treated Hagel at his confirmation hearing? This is the very same guy McCain said he would have nominated to be Defense Secretary if he were president.
Nuts!
As far as school shootings and the NRA, I’d say get used to it. In this country, the crazier you are, the meaner you are, the wealthier you are, the easier it is to get away with pre-meditated fraud & murder.
“God” and “The Founding Fathers” are nothing more than alibis. Why did it take me 5-years shy of a half-century to realize?
“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.”
– Mahatma Gandhi, “Gandhi, An Autobiography”, M. K. Gandhi, page 372
if only that woman who got gang raped and killed on a bus in
India in a country where alot of people think this is ok cause ashe was married and with a another man on bus had a gun maybe she would be alive and those 5 barbarians would be dead.
like to share a song that from an artist my wife turned me onto and i think is amazing beautiful sad song especially lyrically. get his album trobodour very very addicting..
he is from somalia moved here when he was thirteen.
he is on a different level than any other rapper especially the commercial ones..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A2hcqVbyVY
“Damn you shooter, Damn you building,
Whose walls hid the blood she was spilling.
Damn you Country, so good at Killing
Damn you Feeling, for Persevering.”
Beautiful song. Thanks for turning me on to a new artist.
How is it that just anybody can create a weblog and get as popular as this? It’s not like you’ve said something especially impressive. More like you’ve painted a picture around an issue that you know nothing about!
I don’t want to sound mean, right here. But do you actually think that you can get away with adding pictures and not seriously saying something?
VanFarto you don’t have to read this! So stop being a mean jerk and go away!!
BarbI check this blog before going to bed and I must say we’ve lost our mojo. Frankie or Chef Blo Blo rarely write. It’s just Greg. I hope we’re not swirling in the shitter.
I got a list here’s the order of my list that it’s in.
It goes, Reggie, Jay-Z, Tupac and Biggie, Andre from OutKast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas and then me.
But in this industry I’m the cause of a lot of envy, so when I’m not put on this list the shit does not offend me.
Did you all see my bud Emanu-el give a crocodile tear for the dead kids?
I taught him that trick in Miami around September of 2001.
To all the girls I loved before
Who traveled in an out like whores
To flamming closeted queers like Andy
And all hurt the yankee suckers hurt by storm Sandy
I’m glad you read along
Now suck on my fat schlong
Just like you did before.
Anyone who would trade liberty for security deserves neither.
Well, the Heat win again. We are the best, just ask my kids. And they know basketball. Lebron James is better than Michael Jordan.
Aaron Swart was the best; he was a genius, and those are hard to find. A genius with an ability to reshape the world. Two weeks of pretend mourning are over and the crime of his death is evaporating. Time moves on, nothing means anything, really.
Except a championship ring of course.
Get 1 ring, all you want is a 2nd ring. And a 3rd. Once you get a ring on each finger, all you want is a ring for the other hand.
Stuff, Stuff, Stuff, Stuff. Distraction, Distraction, Distraction, Distraction.
I don’t envy talent, never have. I envy genius. Aaron Swartz was a genius. The only thing he lacked was stamina. But stamina isn’t a gift. It’s just a matter of getting back up after you been knocked down.
Over and over and over. Again and again and again. I wonder why people ever have children, we’re such a crummy species. Step out of line, take one chance, and people can’t wait to snuff out the spark.
Sure will be fun to see The Heat take on The Bulls, once D.Rose gets back in the game. I don’t envy the athletes. But I sure like watching them sell sneakers.