By Jim Stanford on June 23, 2009
Willie Neal on the eve of the 2008 Wyoming Democratic Convention. The next day, we elected him to be an Obama delegate at the national convention.
Willie Neal, eight-time Nordic skiing state champion and hero of the local Obama campaign, is dead after being hit by a car Sunday in Maine. He was 19 years old.
If ever there was a life with more promise senselessly snuffed out, I am not aware of it.
Neal was roller skiing at the time of the accident. He was training to make the U.S. World Junior Biathlon Team.
Last year Willie was a catalyst in mobilizing the youth vote for Obama and other progressive candidates, helping to engineer a landslide for Obama in the Democratic primary and a decisive victory in the general election in Teton County. He served as an Obama delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
He also was a leader in efforts to reduce pollution and fuel consumption in Jackson Hole. He formed a nonprofit, Cookies 4 Climate Change, that held bake sales to raise money for signs asking motorists to shut off their vehicles. He lobbied the city council to pass a no-idling ordinance, to no avail.
The News&Guide has a statement from Sen. John Kerry, for whom Willie worked as an intern this spring:
Willie was such a spectacular young man with so much passion for the environment and he was already turning that energy into activism. I was blown away reading about the contributions he’d already made, let alone thinking about what he could have done. It’s just sickening to think about this tragedy.
Here’s a video of Willie taking on the haters at the DNC.
At 19 years old, he was already an inspiration to many of us. Let’s effect some positive change in Willie’s memory.
Posted under Deaths, Democratic Party, Politics, Sports
Seems like one way to honor Willie’s commitment to the environment and civic engagement would be get the No-Idling Ordinance passed. And, of course, to each find ways to take action and be involved in creating positive change in the way Willie did. I was so inspired by this 19-year-old and I barely knew him.
You’re right–he was an inspiration. And losing such an amazing combination of passion and promise diminishes all of us. Well written.
I agree with Amy’s comment regarding the idling ordinance. It would be a tribute to his passion and everyone’s wellbeing while also turning his death in to a vehicle for change.
This is where these effort come to life or die of apathy. Write your commissioners and council.
Jim,
Yesterday I left a comment letting you know that your blog posts as fed to me via Google Reader have been taken over and appear as lots of text about various Viagra sources. Today’s post on Willie, as viewed in Google Reader, is the same Viagra nonsense again today.
I read a couple of days ago that someone else is experiencing the same problem with your posts. I’m just letting you know it appears to be an ongoing problem.
Yes, thanks for bringing that to my attention. A friend showed me the problem today, too.
I’ll consult with my technical advisers and try to fix it.
But in the meantime, just continue to click on the title link, which should bring you right here to the site.
Willie’s loss to all of us who knew him and were inspired by him is immeasurable. He was such a star and accomplished so much at the young age of 19. He will be missed terribly.
I wrote a letter to The Driver Provider, asking them to adopt a no idling policy with the vehicles they have with windows. I’m not sure if they have one or not. I asked them to do it in Willie’s name. I’ll let you know if I hear back from them or not. Maybe other tour guide operators could partner with Cookies for Climate to adopt no idling policies, and educate their customers as a result.
I’d like to ask the GTNP Park Personnel to enforce their no idling policy, which, if I understood the ranger yesterday, was that busses need to shut off after idling for five minutes. This was not being enforced at Jenny Lake yesterday even though a ranger spoke with the bus driver.
We’re all going to have to work a lot harder without Willie around. This is a huge loss for our community and the rest of the world.