I just wanted to pass along the news I received a little while ago from Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax) that our friend Teddy Goodson passed away yesterday after a long illness (she had moved to Texas in September 2013, I believe for health reasons and to be closer to her family). According to Del. Bulova, there will be a service in late August. Here’s some video of Teddy from March 6, 2011, as she accepts the Fred Silverthorne Community Service Award at the 11th Congressional District Awards Luncheon at Vespucci’s in Fairfax City, Virginia. A well-deserved honor. As Teddy wrote at the time:
I didn’t become a Democrat because I like stuffing envelopes or phone banking. In 2004 I left the Republicans and became a Democrat because of ideas and values—- I despised what the Republican Party was becoming, and felt the Democrats generally had better ideas and values.
As it happens, though, I also have found that elected Democrats do not always honor those ideas and values once they are in office and engaging in the give-and-take of politics, nor do they always listen to the ideas from their “base,” (which tends to cling to those Democratic values and ideas). We, the so-called base, or grassroots, is too often taken for granted by our Establishment leaders…Time for that to change, folks.
For those of us who knew Teddy Goodson well (I first met her in 2005, during the Kaine-Kilgore race, when I was told – by Sam Penney, if I recall correctly – that someone named “Teddy Goodson” – a woman, not a man, I’d soon find out – would be a great addition to the blog!), that’s vintage Teddy Goodson right there. If you’re interested in reading a lot more of what Teddy had to say, here’s a link to her Blue Virginia diaries, and here’s one to her comments. Also, click here for Teddy’s posts on Raising Kaine/RK. The first time she posted it was On Limousine Liberals, Cadillac Conservatives, and Four-Letter Words, which began: “Oh joy. As a former, long-time Republican, I have received yet another campaign letter from Jerry Kilgore, begging for my financial support in the race for Governor of Virginia. Of course, since I am no longer a Republican (by the way, the party left me, I didn’t leave the party!), I’m not interested. But even if I were still a Republican, this letter would be a turnoff. What a nonsensical mishmash!” Again, that’s Teddy to a “T,” who morphed from a Republican, hopefully of the progressive variety (yes, there used to be such a thing as a “Progressive Republican,” including my hero – and Teddy’s – President Teddy Roosevelt) to a progressive warrior. And no, you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of that warrior, but you most certainly DID want to be on her side of any battle!
Another classic Teddy Goodson post was Ex-Republican at Democratic Boot Camp, about which she wrote: “I knew instantly I was NOT in a staid Republican gathering, as I did not see even one coiffed and manicured, mascara-tipped lady; even one self-important stuffed shirt of any kind, sucking up to more important stuffed shirts. In contrast, I saw a magnificent cross section of today’s America — all colors, all ages, all kinds of dress (except no buttoned-down shirts).”
Anyway, there’s a lot more to say about Teddy Goodson, and I’m sure that many of us will say it, but for now, I mostly just wanted to pass on the sad, albeit not unexpected, news.
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