Here is the scoop on Thumb. He told me you two had a chat! This may be late, but oh well.

It might seem odd that I didn't get the time to post my Introductory Who Am I? until I headed for (was pushed toward?) the exit. It might be a waste of time, but I'm hoping it can serve as a base to understand where I was coming from and why I still think everything I've been trying to say for the last few weeks comes from a place of experience and love.

Because I'm leaving, I've edited it way down so it no longer includes what my awards, businesses, and industries referenced are, which I normally don't reference anyway because I had hoped my words were universal enough and carried enough weight that I didn't need to say who I am and what I've done in the specific for them to hold useful meaning. Most of you got this.

So, first, where am I coming from, and below that, why am I leaving.

(my tl;dr version) I’ve lived a hundred lives, been a genius and a fool, a homeless dumpster diver and a millionaire inventor, a college dropout who walked away from an Air Force scholarship, a silver medalist and a world champion (in two very different sports). I never had children but lost two (and 15 years later still cry if I try to talk about it). I've changed an entire industry for free to prove a point to the experts who said I was crazy and should be ignored, and I’ve been a lobbyist who’s changed laws dramatically affecting another completely different industry. I’ve been a pool hustler, a card shark, an Amway Salesman, a “rebel commander” and a “mayor” (enjoyed the former more than the latter), an artisan and engineer (occasionally at the same time), elected president (twice) and deposed (once), and about to be voted back to restore the damage done by the forces who deposed me ("Now let's all make policies and rules and take charge, dammit! Who wants to be on the Beige Door Enforcement Committee?" was their undoing). I’ve played tournament chess, cribbage, and backgammon. I lead a legal Battle Royal against two different billion dollar corporations throwing everything they could against us, and won both times - one out of court, the other all the way through Appellate Court - This video clip is of their lead attorney calling their CEO with the bad news.

For a toad of a kid who used to be bullied and sleep in alleys I now live a good life trapped in a gilded cage, living in the home of my dreams, with the woman of my dreams, driving a car I call my favorite toy, all in a world I still intend to change until I can no longer fight.

I've guest blogged for Atrios, Digby (authored a piece she said was the most linked-to piece ever on Hullabaloo, possibly still to this day), and held a three digit Kos UID (stubbornness about not liking the new sign-up cost me a single digit UID).

I was barely a C- student as my dyslexia wasn't diagnosed until later and was a problem, and because for years I read slower than I could talk I never read anything until well after High School (only after discovering Stephen King did I learn to speed read). I currently have an extensive personal library of motivational, organizational, and spiritual books (I highly recommend Autobiography Of a Yogi). I 'study buddied' my wife and business partner (10 years married, 27 years as business partners) through her degree in Communications and Organizational Development (3.97gpa - damn calculus) and her Masters in Performance and Professional Skills Training. She built our business from the garage and den into a national brand before a single college credit. I continue to run the business while she went on to be a professional business consultant and business broker. Currently one of her jobs is teaching marketing at a local college, and I’m her online TA support.

Now, why am I leaving?

Here's the tl;dr version:

Someone shot my Border Collie spirit animal and replaced it with a Torquemada.

Over the weekend we moved from a place of enlightened engagement toward a shared goal, a place where refugees were welcome and we would guide tortured souls toward the light, a place where people were responding in waves and drama was kept to a minimum, a place where we worked to nurture and guide and enlighten and entertain and educate a growing movement from a diverse range of newly displaced and disaffected non-establishment fighters wandering dazed in the dessert, where we lead by example and not by decree or shame. And now after Saturday that's shifted and we're turning into a place that... well, if you fight the same enemy long enough, you become them.

I won't allow myself to become like those who I fight. I don't believe in expanding a movement by laying edicts and shame, and then proudly burning heretics as a show our our righteousness and power. I don't believe in kicking the kennels and then shooting the dogs that bark.

I left for a day to try and nurse my Border Collie back to health, and came back last night to find the bodies of dead dogs littered everywhere.

And then my Border Collie died.