George Carlin

A little over a year ago, Kurt Vonnegut, my literary hero, passed away. Yesterday, another of my heroes died. I'm running out.


I don't really know what to say. George Carlin was an idol to me for his comedy, for his cleverness with language, for his powerful stances against the abuses done in the names of censorship, politics, and religion, and for his anger and disappointment over the failures of humanity in general, always expressed with savagely biting humor.

I count myself as incredibly fortunate for having seen Carlin in concert once in my lifetime (which I wrote about here), even though his performance suggested his rage was on the edge of swallowing him whole. At least the rage proved (I think) that he never stopped caring about these fools who frustrated him so, that he never stopped wanting the human race to better itself as a whole. If more people could channel their anger the way he did, maybe we would be.

Goodbye, George.