Overcome by darkness

I learned late in the day that Stu Sugarman, blipped here a little over a year ago (he's the tall man on the right, in the blue shirt) died March 28th. There went a great soul. He was an attorney and a member of the National Lawyers Guild. At any hour of the day or night he answered calls or text messages from those who stood beside him in the struggle for social justice. The people he defended were legion. Most recently he defended Greenpeace activists who suspended themselves from the St. Johns bridge last summer (and he won their freedom). He defended Occupiers, civil rights activists, protesters whose right to speech had been violated. Before becoming an attorney he was a marine scientist, and he loved underwater photographs of strange and marvelous creatures and often posted them on Facebook as a source of nourishment and beauty. 

I am struggling to take in this loss. I feel shattered, confused, disoriented. I can't envision a world without Stu's kind-hearted, good-humored, upright goodness and compassion.