To another great Conservative.......LEFT COAST CHUCK

A Tribute

Front Page Magazine is where I started getting interested in politics while living in Paris, France. The internet was a great way to stay in touch with America and internet politics most captured my attention. It hadn’t before, I’d always figured we had a great country and would always have a great country. Today, I know we have a great country…….to save.

9/11 happened while I lived in Paris. Over night, I went from pleasantly coasting through Politics 101 to a crash (you should pardon the expression) course in Advanced Politics with a double major in Islamofascism. 9/11 drew me with more interest to FPM and to where I met a lot of great people. This is how I got to know a fellow with the screen name of Left Coast Chuck.

Chuck was a mild mannered gentleman who told me how much he liked my posts and often responded to them, as I did to his. He was a staunch conservative, free market, America-loving, wonderfully sweet man of faith; nothing worn on his sleeve, but you felt it. He had values which echoed those of our forefathers; he was a flag waving, gun totin’ patriot. He and I had a nice cozy situation with another great conservative poster, Lorena Meadows. The three of us hit it off and posted to each other a lot.

Then, one day, Lorena wrote me asking if I’d seen any postings from Chuck and I told her I hadn’t. I reminded her that, months before, he’d said he was very ill. She reminded me then that he’d come back recently, after a week off, saying he’d been taken ill again. So, we worried. But, there was a country to save and there are probably 15 posters I enjoyed and bantered with on a regular basis. Life went on at FPM, but I would occasionally scan the screen names for Left Coast Chuck and wouldn’t see him.

One day, I got this post from the screen name “Left Coast kid”.

“To ZinLA and Lorena Meadows, Left Coast Chuck was my dad, and as you know he has been ill recently. My dad had asked me to tell you if anything were to happen to him, and unfortunately I have to tell you that he has passed away, on Nov. 4. unexpectedly. We were told that he would have up to 2 years left so we were not prepared for this. Forgive me for waiting to notify you, but things have been very difficult with dealing with this through his birthday NOV. 19 and the holidays. He considered you his friends and admired you, and I would like to thank you for all your kindness, and prayers, and friendship you showed him. It meant more than you know! He was a great man, my hero, and I miss him more than words can say. Thank you again, Jamie”

I have an FPM file I’ve kept over the years of kind, crazy, or otherwise meaningful posts I’ve had written to me. There are only about twenty, but they’re important to me. This one certainly is.

We’d never met, never spoken on the telephone, but Chuck couldn’t leave without Lorena and me knowing that he’d not be coming back. A man who was a stranger for all intents and purposes wanted to thank us for our friendship. This man with such great values and such kindness imposed it on his child to tell his closest pals at FPM he was gone and wouldn’t be coming back. He didn’t want us to worry.

I was very fond of Left Coast Chuck. I’ll never forget him. It’s fine to write about politics, get upset about what’s going on, hate the Left, call Islam for what it is, complain, whine and rant and rave; this is fun and keeps the heart pumping. But, it didn’t work for Chuck. And no post I ever get will top his kid Jamie’s. Not because he told us his dad had died, but that his dad had wanted him to tell us goodbye and thanks. He wanted us to know why we wouldn’t hear from him again.

I still post a lot at FPM, and I still think of Left Coast Chuck, and I remind myself that it’s men like him who made this country great and it’s men like him for whom we have to save it. Get busy. For my friend, Mr. Left Coast Chuck.
Z