Al fit into one category: Al.
June 10, 2017 8:23 PM Subscribe
National Review honours its mailroom guy, Alex Batey, who passed away yesterday.
And another tribute from a different colleague, Rich Lowry.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:58 PM on June 10, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:58 PM on June 10, 2017 [5 favorites]
The secrets he must've taken to his grave.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:03 PM on June 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:03 PM on June 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
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There are few things that draw my ire these days more than the National Review. But just yesterday I told a friend that I needed to be reminded that people with opposing viewpoints and ideologies are just trying to get by - just like I am. Big Al, I wish it didn't have to be your passing that humanized the publication for me today.
posted by ovenmitt at 10:06 PM on June 10, 2017 [17 favorites]
There are few things that draw my ire these days more than the National Review. But just yesterday I told a friend that I needed to be reminded that people with opposing viewpoints and ideologies are just trying to get by - just like I am. Big Al, I wish it didn't have to be your passing that humanized the publication for me today.
posted by ovenmitt at 10:06 PM on June 10, 2017 [17 favorites]
The National Review unexpectedly sounds like a great place to work. A lovely and evocative piece of writing for a departed colleague and friend.
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posted by Harald74 at 10:46 PM on June 10, 2017 [5 favorites]
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posted by Harald74 at 10:46 PM on June 10, 2017 [5 favorites]
From Rich Lowry's tribute: "Shy, awkward, unusual, he is the type of person that the busy, self-important world tends to brush by and forget. Not here. Not ever. Goodbye, Alex. We love you."
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:38 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:38 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
There were some inside jokes there but that was a lovely tribute. We should all aspire to work with people like that. (Intentionally ambiguous)
posted by bendy at 1:30 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by bendy at 1:30 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
These tributes read like the story of the BBQ guy in House of Cards to me.
The reveal that Al didn't see a primary care physician and his only treatment for a serious infection was a walk in clinic. Also he came to work to die where people would notice. That's not noble. It's terribly and horribly sad. He had no one to help him while he was dying. His co-workers were friendly but not friends.
posted by srboisvert at 5:49 AM on June 11, 2017 [30 favorites]
The reveal that Al didn't see a primary care physician and his only treatment for a serious infection was a walk in clinic. Also he came to work to die where people would notice. That's not noble. It's terribly and horribly sad. He had no one to help him while he was dying. His co-workers were friendly but not friends.
posted by srboisvert at 5:49 AM on June 11, 2017 [30 favorites]
The National Review unexpectedly sounds like a great place to work.
Let's not lose track of the fact that history is written by the victors.
posted by mhoye at 6:39 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Let's not lose track of the fact that history is written by the victors.
posted by mhoye at 6:39 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
He went to urgent care, as many of us do when ill. He called in sick for 2 days and was told to go to the ER. He did not, as many of us don't -- just go look at AskMe. He was told not to come in. He did anyway.
I watched 2 grandparents and an aunt be stubborn as hell when it came to the end. Ignoring meds, not going to doctors, not following up with doctors, hiding symptoms, etc. My father noticed a red, painful lump in his leg and continued mowing the lawn. He ended up with a pulmonary embolism and was in the hospital for a week. (And didn't tell me until 6 weeks later.)
Aaron and Mila caught him, sat him in a chair, Alexandra called 911, Galina got his records. As for Al — he couldn’t breathe or talk. The EMTs arrived, gave him oxygen and an IV, and took him to the nearby hospital. Lindsay Craig followed to make sure someone was there to have his back.
I know it's easy, SO EASY, to paint the people and institutions we disagree with as monsters and to let those drips of paint trickle down on to everyone associated with them. But it looks like plenty of people at NR helped him when he was dying. Al wanted to be with his people at the end.
posted by kimberussell at 7:13 AM on June 11, 2017 [10 favorites]
I watched 2 grandparents and an aunt be stubborn as hell when it came to the end. Ignoring meds, not going to doctors, not following up with doctors, hiding symptoms, etc. My father noticed a red, painful lump in his leg and continued mowing the lawn. He ended up with a pulmonary embolism and was in the hospital for a week. (And didn't tell me until 6 weeks later.)
Aaron and Mila caught him, sat him in a chair, Alexandra called 911, Galina got his records. As for Al — he couldn’t breathe or talk. The EMTs arrived, gave him oxygen and an IV, and took him to the nearby hospital. Lindsay Craig followed to make sure someone was there to have his back.
I know it's easy, SO EASY, to paint the people and institutions we disagree with as monsters and to let those drips of paint trickle down on to everyone associated with them. But it looks like plenty of people at NR helped him when he was dying. Al wanted to be with his people at the end.
posted by kimberussell at 7:13 AM on June 11, 2017 [10 favorites]
The National Review unexpectedly sounds like a great place to work.
if you've literally never read anything else they've written
posted by indubitable at 7:21 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
if you've literally never read anything else they've written
posted by indubitable at 7:21 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
What do you suppose the National Review's health insurance plan is like for their mailroom workers?
posted by Nelson at 8:13 AM on June 11, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 8:13 AM on June 11, 2017 [15 favorites]
This has me unexpectedly emotional. Al was obviously loved by his co-workers, even if that's the only people he had in his life. He seems to have been someone who was just trying to get by in the world by doing the best he could at a thankless job while pursuing his passions in his own time.
There's no way anyone working at the NR didn't have their life touched profoundly by Al. They may not have noticed what he did for them, but over the next month, they certainly will notice the lack of Al in the offices.
Al is a hero to me that I never met and didn't even know existed until he was gone. My condolences go to everyone who will find they personally miss him over the next months.
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posted by hippybear at 8:24 AM on June 11, 2017 [4 favorites]
There's no way anyone working at the NR didn't have their life touched profoundly by Al. They may not have noticed what he did for them, but over the next month, they certainly will notice the lack of Al in the offices.
Al is a hero to me that I never met and didn't even know existed until he was gone. My condolences go to everyone who will find they personally miss him over the next months.
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posted by hippybear at 8:24 AM on June 11, 2017 [4 favorites]
Would that we all are so loved as to have similar tributes at our passing. For someone I'd never heard of before his eulogy, I'm saddened that I'll never have an opportunity to meet him. So long, Al.
posted by davelog at 8:25 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by davelog at 8:25 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
I know it's easy, SO EASY, to paint the people and institutions we disagree with as monsters and to let those drips of paint trickle down on to everyone associated with them. But it looks like plenty of people at NR helped him when he was dying. Al wanted to be with his people at the end.
"Go see a doctor"
"Take sick days"
This is help?
posted by srboisvert at 8:31 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
"Go see a doctor"
"Take sick days"
This is help?
posted by srboisvert at 8:31 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
What is your suggested alternative? Actively subduing an adult and forcing him into medical care against his will?
posted by hippybear at 8:37 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:37 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
What is your suggested alternative? Actively subduing an adult and forcing him into medical care against his will?
Going with them to the emergency room or clinic. Staying with them to make sure they are okay. Checking up on them at home to make sure they are okay. Bringing them chicken noodle soup. Trying basically.
You mentioned dealing with stubborn relatives who resisted help. I get it. It's hard. I've been there on both sides of the equation. But you got to the point where they were being stubborn and actively resisting help. There is no indication that Al was stubborn at all or that he turned away help. The only help that was given at the end was the same level of help I have given to (and received from!) complete strangers in a serious medical emergency.
A post death eulogy of a man with no support is very National Review to me.
It's thoughts and prayers. They're nice thoughts but that is all they are. There were no actions and no reflection at all about whether they could have helped him.
They are not monsters. They are just ordinary people who had someone they knew die. And apparently see nothing to learn from it.
posted by srboisvert at 9:00 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
Going with them to the emergency room or clinic. Staying with them to make sure they are okay. Checking up on them at home to make sure they are okay. Bringing them chicken noodle soup. Trying basically.
You mentioned dealing with stubborn relatives who resisted help. I get it. It's hard. I've been there on both sides of the equation. But you got to the point where they were being stubborn and actively resisting help. There is no indication that Al was stubborn at all or that he turned away help. The only help that was given at the end was the same level of help I have given to (and received from!) complete strangers in a serious medical emergency.
A post death eulogy of a man with no support is very National Review to me.
It's thoughts and prayers. They're nice thoughts but that is all they are. There were no actions and no reflection at all about whether they could have helped him.
They are not monsters. They are just ordinary people who had someone they knew die. And apparently see nothing to learn from it.
posted by srboisvert at 9:00 AM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]
Lindsey Craig is specifically named as going with him to the hospital when the EMTs took him away.
The man worked there for 25 years. He was known to his colleagues. He was cared for at the end and they attempted to him to do self-care as the end was approaching. I think you're assuming less involvement than was actually happening.
I didn't mention stubborn relatives at all, but others in this thread have.
I think you're being ungenerous about your assumptions re: what this death meant to the people who knew Al and witnessed his collapse.
posted by hippybear at 9:14 AM on June 11, 2017 [4 favorites]
The man worked there for 25 years. He was known to his colleagues. He was cared for at the end and they attempted to him to do self-care as the end was approaching. I think you're assuming less involvement than was actually happening.
I didn't mention stubborn relatives at all, but others in this thread have.
I think you're being ungenerous about your assumptions re: what this death meant to the people who knew Al and witnessed his collapse.
posted by hippybear at 9:14 AM on June 11, 2017 [4 favorites]
A post death eulogy of a man with no support is very National Review to me.
I think you're being skewed because it is the NR, and not considering the context given. Additionally, from what it sounds, short of physically forcing him to go to an ER, none of that would have saved him, and it's possible he knew that. Sometimes we just die and there is not much anyone can do about it. He had friends there at the end who jumped to his aid when he collapsed. He was remembered in a way few people who work on the lower margins of 'real' work never ever are.
He was a co-worker to them, not a child or family. They treated him as a workfriend. Could the NR have better health care or HR policies about illness? Surely, but there's no evidence to support that being the reason he died, he was a man with agency who chose his path and came back into work instead of going to the ER. I'm certain that if he'd asked, someone would have gone with him.
Most people without family or close friends outside work die silently. They die alone in their house or apartment and are discovered when bills are due or it starts smelling. Their deaths are a municipal function. They die the same pointless deaths we all do, and all of them and all of us could have better healthcare, but we don't. Sometimes we get massive infections and we're wrong about how we're feeling and we don't go to the ER and we die.
posted by neonrev at 9:30 AM on June 11, 2017 [4 favorites]
Mostly though, eulogies like this are written for editors and writers, for the people whose names 'matter'. They are not written for the people in the mailroom, the janitors, the IT techs, the people who do any of the administrative and support work for the kind of work that people care about, for the kind of work that gets your name attached to it.
Al was important enough to break that mold. Al sounds like the kind of old goat that some of us are lucky enough to work with at least once in our lives, a dying breed, a man who'd done his job, one kind of work, for decades, and had gotten to the point where it flowed from him like water.
I work with an Al. His name is John and he's been an optician for almost 40 years. He's an incredible worker and the sort of person we won't see in the industry again for many reasons. He's dying of terminal cancer and still comes in, every day, never late, always early, always there with a joke or a smile or advice. He knows that if he wanted to slow down, if he needed any help, he'd have it from us, but he is a tough old goat and he wants to live like he wants while he can. I worry that I'll learn of his passing days later when he doesn't come into work, but in the meantime all I can feel is respect and admiration. I suspect the people who wrote these eulogies felt similar feelings.
posted by neonrev at 9:44 AM on June 11, 2017 [7 favorites]
Al was important enough to break that mold. Al sounds like the kind of old goat that some of us are lucky enough to work with at least once in our lives, a dying breed, a man who'd done his job, one kind of work, for decades, and had gotten to the point where it flowed from him like water.
I work with an Al. His name is John and he's been an optician for almost 40 years. He's an incredible worker and the sort of person we won't see in the industry again for many reasons. He's dying of terminal cancer and still comes in, every day, never late, always early, always there with a joke or a smile or advice. He knows that if he wanted to slow down, if he needed any help, he'd have it from us, but he is a tough old goat and he wants to live like he wants while he can. I worry that I'll learn of his passing days later when he doesn't come into work, but in the meantime all I can feel is respect and admiration. I suspect the people who wrote these eulogies felt similar feelings.
posted by neonrev at 9:44 AM on June 11, 2017 [7 favorites]
I am, frankly, staggered that a number of commenters whom I respect are insisting on completely ignoring the context of the publication in which this piece appeared. It is not a trivial or incidental point, especially with regards to the content of the article. It mentions Al's dealings with William Buckley, Jr.; here is what Buckley thought of people like Al in general. (And please don't tell me about Buckley changing his mind later; I can read Wikipedia too, thanks. Speaking of Wikipedia, his entry makes a good case that all Buckley really did was switch targets.) They helped Al in his final hours, but this is what they think about providing healthcare to people like him.
I do not believe that the people who wrote and published this did it for Al's sake. I believe that they did it in an attempt to humanize themselves, even as they go about promoting inhumane views.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:03 AM on June 11, 2017 [15 favorites]
I do not believe that the people who wrote and published this did it for Al's sake. I believe that they did it in an attempt to humanize themselves, even as they go about promoting inhumane views.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:03 AM on June 11, 2017 [15 favorites]
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Thank you for posting this. I really like it when prominent obituaries are published for people who didn't make headline news while they were alive.
This past week, there was an AskMe that honestly questioned why white conservatives would demonstrate concern for missing children of POC. And I answered, because I thought it was a good question. I thought it was worth considering, and I put forth hypotheses. And the whole time I was thinking, Jesus, has it come to this? Has it come to where we have to question each other's common humanity so much? Or was it always this way, and I was just too young or too privileged to understand it?
It appears that they cared about Al. Maybe they weren't good at caring. I'm not always good at it either (although my deficits are significantly less likely to shape policy). But if we believe that they are ipso facto incapable of empathy and fondness, we prepare ourselves to believe much worse, and to do much worse. I will believe that they miss Al, not so much for their sake as for mine.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:08 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
Thank you for posting this. I really like it when prominent obituaries are published for people who didn't make headline news while they were alive.
This past week, there was an AskMe that honestly questioned why white conservatives would demonstrate concern for missing children of POC. And I answered, because I thought it was a good question. I thought it was worth considering, and I put forth hypotheses. And the whole time I was thinking, Jesus, has it come to this? Has it come to where we have to question each other's common humanity so much? Or was it always this way, and I was just too young or too privileged to understand it?
It appears that they cared about Al. Maybe they weren't good at caring. I'm not always good at it either (although my deficits are significantly less likely to shape policy). But if we believe that they are ipso facto incapable of empathy and fondness, we prepare ourselves to believe much worse, and to do much worse. I will believe that they miss Al, not so much for their sake as for mine.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:08 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
he had a house after all, left to him by his late parents. He also had ample experience in Mobil’s massive mailroom.
I read this as: "Great--highly qualified and owns a house so doesn't need to be paid a living wage!"
Maybe I'm prejudiced against the publication.
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:24 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
I read this as: "Great--highly qualified and owns a house so doesn't need to be paid a living wage!"
Maybe I'm prejudiced against the publication.
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:24 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
It appears that they cared about Al. Maybe they weren't good at caring.
He was one of the good ones.
posted by Etrigan at 10:26 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
He was one of the good ones.
posted by Etrigan at 10:26 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
Maybe I'm prejudiced against the publication.
I think that's way more than a "maybe".
posted by hippybear at 10:28 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think that's way more than a "maybe".
posted by hippybear at 10:28 AM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
Maybe, just maybe, we can consider this eulogy of a man in a way that doesn't place the people he worked for above him? Maybe, just once, we can respect the life of a man who lives like many of us, on the lower end of things, without focusing our attention solely on the people we don't like that he worked for? Who already get far more attention than is ever given to people like him?
Fuck the National Review. I kind of figured that was an assumed thing here. I don't really need to be educated on what they are and what they've said. People are fucked. Utter villains can love too. The death of this particular lower class man does not always need to become the same sort of strawman people like him are in life for the ametuer commentariat. When I die I want to be seen as more than a statistic and commentary on my employers and the broader state of the world. If we can't consider him outside of his employer then we are falling into the same mental space as them.
The important thing is that he lived outside of his work. He was a fully realized human being with his own life and interests outside of his work. He, like many of us, spent his life working for people who didn't care about people like him politically and actively functioned to harm people like him. That is the nature of being working class in the US. It's not actually interesting to point out because most people live it?
When I RTFA and went to comment on this neat dude who did good work all his life, who collected model trains and loved wrestling and was a memorable human being to his coworkers, who was a dedicated worker and one of the core parts of how the world functions, I figured we'd be talking about that. I'd imagined that on one of the few occasions a background worker is mentioned that we'd care about him than his bosses. Instead I'm arguing with people I respect.
posted by neonrev at 11:19 AM on June 11, 2017 [8 favorites]
Fuck the National Review. I kind of figured that was an assumed thing here. I don't really need to be educated on what they are and what they've said. People are fucked. Utter villains can love too. The death of this particular lower class man does not always need to become the same sort of strawman people like him are in life for the ametuer commentariat. When I die I want to be seen as more than a statistic and commentary on my employers and the broader state of the world. If we can't consider him outside of his employer then we are falling into the same mental space as them.
The important thing is that he lived outside of his work. He was a fully realized human being with his own life and interests outside of his work. He, like many of us, spent his life working for people who didn't care about people like him politically and actively functioned to harm people like him. That is the nature of being working class in the US. It's not actually interesting to point out because most people live it?
When I RTFA and went to comment on this neat dude who did good work all his life, who collected model trains and loved wrestling and was a memorable human being to his coworkers, who was a dedicated worker and one of the core parts of how the world functions, I figured we'd be talking about that. I'd imagined that on one of the few occasions a background worker is mentioned that we'd care about him than his bosses. Instead I'm arguing with people I respect.
posted by neonrev at 11:19 AM on June 11, 2017 [8 favorites]
When I lived in (then West) Germany, Hannover, for a year as an exchange student, one of the family members there had a model train thing going on, and he had converted his entire bedroom into a multi-level train set, very elaborate, and he slept on the floor under his elevated train display and he'd taken the door off his walk-in closet so he could crawl in there and stand up to sort through clothes which he would have to then take and crawl under the train set to the bedroom door...
I mean, train sets can be REALLY amazing. I wonder what Al's train set looked like!
posted by hippybear at 11:25 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
I mean, train sets can be REALLY amazing. I wonder what Al's train set looked like!
posted by hippybear at 11:25 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
My grandpa had/has an amazing 8x12 table set-up for HO scale trains which used to have all sorts of little houses and trees and all sorts of decoration. I hope Al had something like that, or also maybe he had a neatly kept shelf of all his models somewhere in his house, a little display of historic trains.
Maybe he was a train watcher too, if he was into obscure trains, maybe his trips were to see different train types.
posted by neonrev at 11:30 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Maybe he was a train watcher too, if he was into obscure trains, maybe his trips were to see different train types.
posted by neonrev at 11:30 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm gonna bet Al was white.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 12:02 PM on June 11, 2017
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 12:02 PM on June 11, 2017
I wonder what Al's train set looked like!
The article links to his YouTube channel. Go see!
posted by Shmuel510 at 12:09 PM on June 11, 2017 [3 favorites]
The article links to his YouTube channel. Go see!
posted by Shmuel510 at 12:09 PM on June 11, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'm gonna bet Al was white.
There's an entire discussion to be had about why you might think that.
posted by hippybear at 12:18 PM on June 11, 2017 [10 favorites]
There's an entire discussion to be had about why you might think that.
posted by hippybear at 12:18 PM on June 11, 2017 [10 favorites]
I'm gonna bet Al was awesome.
posted by clawsoon at 2:19 PM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 2:19 PM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]
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That was a really well written and touching tribute. I'm so glad Alex Batey did not die alone, but with people who, from the sounds of it, cared about him very much and whom he cared about in return.
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posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:54 PM on June 10, 2017 [16 favorites]