Brother Bell

Doug Bell, a friend and the co-host of this show passed away this last week at the age of 47. The doctors said that he suffered a heart attack and most likely had severe brain damage as a result of no pulse and not breathing for a significant amount of time. As a few personal friends knew, Doug had been staying with me for about a month and was making good strides towards getting his life back on track. I was the person who found Doug with no pulse and not breathing and preformed CPR until the paramedics arrived. Doug never regained consciousness and was on life support for a week until he passed away.

I first met Doug a little over 3 years ago when we were both in Integrated Media out at Mount Hood Community College. We instantly bonded because of his brilliant sardonic sense of humor coupled with our mutual appreciation of obscure and arcane pop culture knowledge. I knew very early on that if I ever wanted to do a 2nd radio show, I would want to do a show with Doug. This last year I underwent a political reawakening as I saw what was afoot around the country and actively thought about the possibility of starting and building a new show that would spotlight and advocate for progressive causes and ideals. The first person I talked to about this was Doug and he enthusiastically came aboard and shared that overall vision we had for the show. With Doug's past experiences, overall philosophies, and his deep rooted belief in God, I started giving him the moniker of Brother Bell. Brother Bell, the bearded peaceable, charismatic sage who instilled a powerful, inspiring optimism that made you feel that no matter how much of the pablum was hitting the oscillating blades that everything, everything would turn out alright. I most admired his belief in a hands on, in the trenches, hammer swinging advocacy.

I believe in what we were and are trying to do here and I have decided that I will continue to do the show and continue with the vision and mission that we set out to do. I am going to make a cardinal sin in radio here, something that you are never to do, the cardinal sin of "dead air". We are going to have a moment of silence for my co-host, my friend, and my brother, Brother Bell.