The Weekly Post: Vermont Blogger of the year

This summer, Seven Days included a "Best Vermont Blog" category in its annual Daysies awards.  Readers chose Bill Simmon of Candleblog as this year's winner. Well now it's my turn to pick my favorite blogger of 2005, and I've chosen the late Patricia Hejny.

I was going to wait to post this — it won't appear until the issue that comes out Dec. 28th — but I just listened to the fantastic VPR piece on Pat, and felt like sharing this sooner than I'd planned. In its tribute, VPR includes an audio montage of recordings of Pat calling in to Switchboard. It made me smile. Very much worth downloading and listening to. The piece on Pat is the last segment of the program.

Weekly Post Dec. 28

From 802 Online

Vermont Blogger of the Year

This year’s winner is self-described “granny blogger” Pat Hejny. Pat, who died on December 13 at age 79, kept a blog called Pat Political. 

Pat inspired me. She started blogging at an age when most people are beyond caring about the newest new thing. I first spoke with her in February for Senior Surfers, a story I wrote about senior citizens and technology. "I enjoy the computer,” she told me. “I don't quite know what I'd do without it."

Pat was an enthusiastic activist. In her blog’s left-hand sidebar, she declared her support for universal health care, instant run-off voting and a renewable biomass fuel economy. A two-time independent candidate for governor, she was mulling plans for a third run when she suffered the stroke that precipitated her death; in her final post, on November 29, she discussed her possible platform.

The thing I admired most about Pat was her insistence on taking part in society’s ongoing conversation — about politics, technology, you name it. On her blog’s masthead, she wrote: “Plenty of bad things these days. I saw the start of a lot of them. Here's what I know. We'll talk
about what we can do.”

We’ll keep talking, Pat.