Beautiful, poignant tribute to the life, times, lessons, and legend of Lenny Kohm by JW Randolph (Carry the light. Carry the light. Carry the light.): Our friend Lenny Kohm, one of the most amazing people Ive ever known, passed away yesterday. For myself and countless others, Lenny was family, he was a dear friend and compatriot, and he was our coach on how to maximize our citizenship of this planet and in this country. There have been a lot of ups and downs today, sharing laughter and tears with old friends, remembering Lenny and the things that he inspired us to do. This is a guy who was not only a husband and father, but who played drums with Jimi Hendrix, partied with The Who, became a world-ranked percussionist, became an incredible photographer, and told incredible stories, all before beginning his life as an unstoppable force for good as a road-dog for our great wild places - the Arctic and Appalachia - on behalf of the people who call those places home. On those long tours taking America by storm and slide projector, Lenny not only learned a lot about living - but honed his craft, and found his voice. His voice, as it turns out, is simply all of us. Lenny understood that power needs to be challenged to change, change is driven by movements, and movements - at the end of the day - are just people. Thats us. And I think Lenny - although I dont think hed care about being remembered as an individual - would like to be remembered as a guy who brought people together to make the world a better place. Both eternally old and eternally young, Lennys energy and dedication to building our voice was endless. I once called him to complain that I had driven 12 hours to talk to 5 people, and I felt tired and grumpy about it. Before he picked up, I thought better of whining, and held my tongue (because Id learned better than to complain to Lenny.) It came out in that conversation that on countless occasions Lenny had driven 24 hours or *more* to talk about the Arctic, and sometimes not a single person showed up. He did this for *decades.* With nothing but his voice and a slide projector. Never complained once (or, if he did, it was to make us all laugh and chill out.) Person by person. Door by door. Church by rotary club by school, and all over again. Lenny never acted alone, because he was both affable *and* understood where power comes from - the you part of us. That said, without him, I dont think the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would exist as it does today. Lenny also set the strategy and the stage for Appalachia to make its mark at the national and international level. Mountaintop removal was still a secret when I first joined team AV in 2004, even among people in the environmental community. Not so anymore. Across Appalachia, we owe a portion of the power we carry to Lenny. He taught so many of us, confused about how to become activists to just begin. To start NOW. Without him, I certainly never would have been able to find my own voice, or to have found a professional life that was so rewarding as working with my big Appalachian family in Washington, Tennessee, and elsewhere. The beautiful thing is how many people across the country can say the same thing. I think we can honor him by being good to those around us, by shutting up and organizing, by remembering that we are all just people. Carry the light. Carry the light. Carry the light.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 19:20:03 +0000
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