On Aaron Swartz

I can't remember a death feeling this much like a personal attack. The best way I can describe the feeling is this: One of my heroes was slaughtered by my government for defending my beliefs. Of course, the sad reality is that Aaron took his own life, persecuted or not. As a disclaimer, I never knew him over the net or otherwise but I always looked up to him as one of our brightest lights. As written in another article, I have always aspired to be more like Aaron and can see myself winding up in his position, fighting his battles. That's probably why he is the most significant activist of this generation for me. To everyone else who is grieving, I love you. Hold together and we will create the better world that Aaron was so clearly fighting for.

EDIT: Initially, I had intended this post to explain in greater detail why Aaron's death has affected me as much as it has. I couldn't quite find the words but John Atkinson has done a beautiful job capturing my feelings on his blog. Please read it.

Other articles on Aaron's death follow:

• Wall Street Journal
• Washington Post
• New York Times
• CNN
• Boston Globe
• The New Yorker
• Quinn Norton
• Lawrence Lessig
• Cory Doctorow
• John Atkinson
• Danah Boyd
• Doc Searls
• Naked Capitalism
• MuckRock
• QuestionCopyright
• Tim Berners Lee
• Eugene Eric Kim
• Derek Willis
• Ben Adida
• Remember Aaron Swartz and the corresponding github repo
• The Aaron Swartz Archive
• Aaron's Guerilla Open Access Manifesto