It's true. Norb is no longer with us. Norb was a man who was a farmer living downwind of a nuclear reactor turned lifetime vigiler against nuclear weapons and waste ... a man who drove around town with a red car blazing with messages of peace, love and justice ... a man many of us knew personally and many of us respected greatly ... a man so humble he would blush at the very knowledge of such comments ... a father, a son, a brother to us all, a pleasant man whom we loved and whom we will be learning from for a long time.

He didn't leave us with the written word so we can read his ideas and thoughts. He didn't leave us with art or movies to look at or watch. He didn't leave us, those of us still living and struggling to overcome the oppression and exploitation that overwhelms our lives, with instructions or suggestions. He didn't leave us with much of anything, mostly because he didn't have much of anything. But if he failed to leave us materials to remember him by, one could say he greatly succeeded in leaving us with memories by the millions.

Norb travelled all over the world to challenge the nuclear nations and their nuclear power. He walked and drove across the U.S. to combat the nuclear industry within our country and point out the horrors this industry so desparately seeks to cover up. Norb spoke for many of us as he sat day after day on Las Vegas Blvd. with his self-made signs against nuclear proliferation and U.S.-based wars.

I first met Norb soon after the March 19 invasion of Iraq in 2003. We held a small protest outside the New York, New York 9/11 Memorial on Las Vegas Blvd. and Norb stopped by to see how things were coming along. Norb had been busy with his own vigil in front of the Federal Building everyday at noon, if I remember correctly. He brought a chair to sit in and he sat. His sign that day had a list of all the wars and military operations that the U.S. had engaged in since World War II, I believe.

I saw Norb at other actions around town and at the Nevada Test Site. I felt most honored when Norb parked his car outside my old apartment and asked if it was ok for him to sleep there. When offered to sleep inside, he opted to stay in his car stating that he felt comfortable in his car, it was set up just the way he liked it. Man, that car is messy, but it's the kind of mess that when I looked inside, I inevitably saw the politics of the ages fall out and into my brain.

I remember Norb most recently at a Peace Now meeting stating that he didn't feel comfortable being in a mass of people walking down the sidewalk on Las Vegas Blvd. during the busiest time, Saturday night. He must have felt something from the universe, or more likely, he knew from past experience because he rightly foreshadowed the problems that we later experienced.

And then, recently, I remember talking to him once more, I don't remember where we were, but we spoke about our first encounter that day in front of New York, New York. I didn't remember it, to be honest. He reminded me of it and then impersonated me as I was back then, handing out flyers to folks passing by. I never knew he noticed me. I always felt insignificant in his presence and figured he'd not given me a second thought. I'm glad we had that conversation.

It's no use for me to say goodbye because he's already gone. Instead, I'm going to keep these thoughts in my memory for as long as possible and keep going ... just like he did ... until I join him.