About Roger Gardner and Radarsite: Friendships in the Blogosphere

It is odd how well we can get to know a person by their blogs. When someone writes consistently, daily, and writes about subjects affecting our daily lives, our writing is a perfect profile of who we are. I "met" Roger Gardner of Radarsite seven months ago. It seems much longer. The bloggers in my circle of blogger friends do not trade much personal information back and forth...just enough to ask for prayers when one of us, or one of ours, needs prayer. We might know a little about another's children or grandchildren...and we might not. What we do know is that we are all passionate about traditional American values. That is our common bond. Roger obsessed over the elections. He laid-out all of his election emotion in his writing. He was "up" in spirits in one post, and "down" in spirits in the next. He waged the battle. He never gave up. In a recent post, he said:

Of course my friends think I take it all too seriously. They have a much healthier view of it all, a much more cavalier attitude. Politics is politics, they say. It's the same old game. Not worth getting yourself all upset about it. Liberals who have responded to my emotional pleas and dire warnings have invariably characterized me as a bitter, lonely, hate-filled right-winger racist, an obsessive anti-social paranoid, clinging to a semi-mythical and long-gone past. An uptight reactionary, fearful of change, stubbornly rejecting the promise of a bright future.

Most of us did not think he took it "all too seriously." We recognized that he could put it into words better than most of us, and was driven to do so. The elections are over. Now Roger has another battle to wage. Here is his message. Dear loyal Radarsite readers -- This is a strange message for me to be writing. But it must be done. But how? What can I say? I think I'll just say it up front. Two days ago I got diagnosed with acute leukemia. It is considered "lethal". I have been told that it could come to an end in as short a time as 2 weeks. I have been allowed to come home for one night before I go into the hospital tomorrow for chemo. If I survive the first week, things could get better, if I survive four weeks thing could really get better. However, as of now, the first prognosis does seem the most likely. I think we all wonder how we might react to news like this. At this point I can tell you that I am in a good mood, and I have accepted it and I have nothing but gratitude that I have been allowed to live this long, and to have found such a fulfilling mission this late in life. I am so grateful to have made so many good friends and to have found so many worthy patriots who love this great country of ours as much as I do, not despite what we have done but because of what we have done. This may be my last article and of course I would like it to be my best. I would like to fill it with everything I have learned or felt. I would like to say something really profound and meaningful, but I just can't. I'm getting too tired right now to go much further. I can only say thank you for all I have learned from you and for your steadfast loyalty. My fondest hope of course would be that I would come back home all cured and find this article to be an embarrassment to me. lol But of course that's not up to me. Please, all of you, all of you who are my fellow warriors, all of you who have commented here, and all of you who have been quiet readers, keep up the good fight, and I hope that you have enjoyed me as much as I have enjoyed you. With great respect, Roger W. Gardner Radarsite

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Roger has been a beloved contributor here at Maggie's Notebook. Please continue to visit Radarsite and comment there. Several of us will continue to post for Roger. I have great confidence that he will be back. Help us keep his blog alive until he is back and posting again.