Today I Did

In our lives, if we are fortunate, when we are young we meet someone and just know that someday well tell our friends, our kids, our grandchildren, “I knew him when…” In the fall of 2003, while taking part in the SUNY Brockport internship program in D.C. I met someone like that. Joe Sullivan.

He called himself President in his AIM screen name. I’d like to be able to tell you that after talking to him I found it was a inside joke, or that he really wanted to be president some day. But the truth is we never spoke much. We spoke every so often, and he gave me and another intern in the program a ride home from the bar when we had a few too many. That was probably the extent of our social interaction.

After the program ended I kept him on my buddy list. He always seemed to have a entertaining or enlightening away message. Some times it was a quote from a movie, some times it was a quote from one of Pres. Reagans speechs. When President Reagan died, he waited in line to pay his respect. When he came back he had a away message that was one of the sadder messages I have encountered in away message “Today I saw my hero for the first time, in a coffin.” I wanted to cry.

Today, upon hearing the news of Joes death, I did.