Back in the days of "The Bush Dark Ages", when ignorance & fear ruled the country, Bartcop.com was a voice of sanity for progressively-minded people like myself.
I started this blog almost 10 years ago, and Bartcop was one of my early inspirations for creating a regular outlet for my personal interests & views. Every day, the Bartcop blog always had great political cartoons from different artists, links to important stories, & of course Bart's awesome commentary.
Bartcop had an online following, with dozens of readers (...as he would say), but he always had an 'underground' quality to his iconoclastic approach to political commentary. His appeal came from his irreverence toward authority & "the establishment," regardless of whether he was railing against incompetent crooks in the government, media, or private sector.
Although he was an uncompromising liberal voice, he also wouldn't hesitate to criticize President Obama or other Democrats when they acted against the interests of the American people. Even after Obama was elected & it seemed we might have a slightly better situation, there were still plenty of material for Bart to work with. That's one good thing about being in the parody/mockery business- there's never an end to the absurdity that Life has to offer.
I emailed Bart once in awhile, & he would always respond or post the political graphics I make from time to time. The open forum he provided for other bloggers was much appreciated, & was one of the many things that made Bartcop.com so unique. Even though the layout of his blog was fairly basic and never really changed, the original content & images he would provide every day were continually fresh, interesting, & relevant.
Bartcop.com was a daily read for me, for almost a decade, so when Bart got sick recently, I continued to check the page each day. Yesterday, however, I visited his page & saw a message that made my heart drop...
I was deeply saddened to learn that Terry Coppage, aka Bartcop, passed away.
Obituary:
Although I never met him in person, when you read someone's daily thoughts for 10 years, you can't help but feel a deep connection with that individual. I probably feel like many of his other readers, that a mind-meld I really enjoyed has been shut off...
Brad Blog:
Crooks & Liars:
Raw Story:
Although it is great that he influenced so many people, it's a damn shame that he wasn't more well-known. I see all these assholes & idiots on cable news getting a platform to spew total bullshit, while Bartcop hammered out the truth, day after day, while remaining virtually unrecognized by the "mainstream" media.
I felt that after enjoying his work for so many years, I wanted to help his memory live on, with a tribute to someone who will be sorely missed by myself & many others. Hopefully the Bartcop archives will remain in the future, so our descendants can look back & see his contribution to American political discourse in the beginning of the 21st century.
He provided a light, during times when so many people felt like the world was very dark... and for that we are grateful.
Here are some graphics I volunteered to make for Bartcop a couple years ago, when he asked for some designs for stickers:
Thanks for this post. I am long time reader of his blog and contributed on the news of his passing what I could. I know his family needs it and he provided a of reality and a light of humored reason during the dark years of Bush and the constant attacks against Clinton. I will miss his updates but I hope the site stays up as I missed some of his pages.
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