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.

When I said Norby put the young to shame that included myself. Though I'm old enough to run for president, Norby fought in WWII and protested most things nuclear throughout the Cold War. If I'm Obi-Wan, he's Yoda ...

A guy named PJ Perez I knew back in the day recently made this crack about me online, "The funny thing about any sort of 'radical' or 'activist' – take notes, Saab Lofton – is that they can't possibly be switched to the 'on' position all of the time."

http://members.cox.net/pjperez/ingamuscio.html

The point is Norby WAS on all the time--even more so than a guy who goes so far as to dress like a superhero at protests; I pale in comparison in terms of both passion and dedication. So Norby--a man who anointed his entire car with pro-peace movement graffiti--evidently didn't think being on all the time was a bad thing. Neither should anyone else who cares about making the future of this planet and its people far better than its past ever was ...

Despite whatever's swimming around in the heads of the Religious Right, Norby is in Heaven even as you're reading this. He's no doubt been shown around by now by his hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and as a result, Norby is now prevy to the very future all of us have sacrificed so much for. Without giving anything away, I'm sure Norby's smiling ...

Then again, there are infinite timelines; infinite futures, so Norby's smile doesn't let ANY of us off the hook. The future he was smiling at MAY not manifest itself within our timeline. That'll all depend on whether or not we the people are willing to be like he was: on all the time. Just like Scrooge ...

On a personal note, if I recall correctly, this was a man who fed the homeless even during times when he was so poor he was sleeping in that graffitied car of his. I also remember a man who always had a positive attitude no matter what Orwellian headline FOX was trying to ram down our collective throats. All of this and more is why I always made it a point to salute the man just as any subordinate would a superior officer; it seemed like the right thing to do.

I'm going to close with something recently written about Norby's hero, Dr. King:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0406-30.htm

Is There Still A Dream?
by Steven Laffoley

"Is it that being our brother's keeper - as Dr. King relentlessly reminded us - is out of fashion ... Or is it that Americans are weary of collective social ideals - and they just don't care anymore? The ultimate celebration of self-interested individualism. The Reagan revolution finally realized ... Or is it, quite simply, that Americans are ashamed? No one wants to remember King and his message, because his words cut too close to the truth. Consider his words, written in 1958: 'To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor.' How many of us would wither under that judgment? How many of us - by our resignation with, or loss of interest in, or our short attention span for, this illegal, immoral war in Iraq - would accept that we are tacitly 'cooperating with the system'? Not enough of us."

“Good Spirit, assure me that I may change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life. I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”

Norb Drouhard was my grandpa... I had the honor of knowing him as a peace activist as well as an excellent dominos player. Just thought I'd tell you your website made me smile in remembrance.