RIP Shem Kellogg

Gutted. He indeed walked the walk, and he walked it successfully. Not many of us could win an election, that's for sure.

Deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

I hope heaven has him sharing his tent with a girl, otherwise they'll never hear the end of it.

indeed. I am greatly saddened by this news.. a truly great person and awesome activist.. I remember meeting him at the March On Washington and hanging out with him quite a bit at CPAC 2011.. such a genuine guy and lover of liberty.. I really am grateful to have met him and having the opportunity to work with him

Here is a shot of some of the old school RPF crew at CPAC.. RIP, Shem.. love you man :(
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http://thedesertlynx.com/a-heartfelt-thank-you/

My friend left us today. I don’t know what to say, or what one is supposed to say, to make any of it better. I’m sure I’d screw it up anyway. What I will do is give him what I owe him: “thank you” from the bottom of my heart for what I witnessed with my own two eyes.

Shem Kellogg was one of the early giants in the New Hampshire liberty movement. I’ve heard he did a lot for the Ron Paul campaign. I know him from the Free State Project. When I was still living in Phoenix and wanted to acquire FSP literature to pass out, he was my point of contact. When I went to a Young Americans for Liberty conference in California in early 2013 to promote the FSP, Andrew Vermiglio, who has since joined us in New Hampshire, was there too, with a bunch of flyers Shem had shipped out to him. When I finally met Shem later that year, it was through going to conferences to promote the FSP.





Some of the best memories of my life were going with Shem and Carla to conferences to get signers to move to New Hampshire. Those two were insane workhorses for liberty. In fact, when you’d see the pie charts of signer sources, a large chunk came from Shem and Carla. That’s right, just two people doing their best for liberty got to be their own major category; in close competition with even Free Talk Live, with its constant barrage of the liberty message through radio stations across America. They were just that driven, just that good. I still remember dressing in my best suit from my DC days, giving my most professional and polished speech to a prospective signer, and just looking over at Shem, with his stubble and half tucked-in shirt, getting way more than me with his charmingly relaxed “Dude we’re just like trying to get people to move to New Hampshire for liberty I guess” approach.


The biggest bummer of the last few years was living far away from Shem. I’d only see him every month or so at some event, but I always made a beeline for him whenever he’d show up somewhere. Most people did. He was such a fun and chill guy with such a great sense of humor. One of those rare ones who you’re never mad at or bored with, who no one ever disliked (and if someone did, you knew that person was a monster). For me, he was one of those people I could count on half a hand who I always felt I could talk to and come to for help. And if he thought I was wrong about something, I would doubt myself before doubting him. He was always good to me without fail, but never held back from telling me when he thought I was full of it. He stuck up for me when people talked bad about me behind my back. Everyone says stuff like “Oh he was the best friend one could wish for” at times like these, only this time it’s actually true. If you would have asked me when he was healthy I would have told you the exact same thing.






The best thing about Shem is how much he was able to do while being so humble. He wasn’t this genius inventor, didn’t have a business empire, or lead an army of activists. He was just some guy. Shem and Carla were just a couple of really sweet people with day jobs, who just kept doing what they could for the cause of liberty in little meaningful ways. Turns out, all that added up. Every donation, every extra hour volunteering. Every vacation spent working to get more signers. Every hour getting involved in politics, every day taken off work to go be a state rep and fight for liberty in the legislature. This guy’s endless humility, patience, and quiet contributions of pieces of his life really make me feel like a bad person for not being on his level. I’m sure he made a lot of us feel that way.


The truth is, nothing lasts forever. We’re all on our way out. The moment our precious little baby eyes crack open the stopwatch starts, and we don’t get to try again if we mess it up. It’s just a mad sprint to make the most of your time here. While my heart is broken over Shem, I’m happy for him. I’m happy that he did such an awesome job in all areas of life, and in record time. Think about it: no one has to fake being sad. No one has to pretend to have thought he was an amazing human being. I don’t have that. If I passed tomorrow, some people would have to fake being bummed. I’m really proud of you, buddy.



When at first I received the news of Shem’s sickness, I made sure to tell him all the progress the Free State Project had made recently. He did more than anyone to see the Project through to its completion, and I’m glad he got to see us reach 20,000 signers and trigger the move. We are his legacy. I am his legacy. Every year on his birthday, I’m going to report to him all I’ve done over the last year to advance the cause he cared about, the cause of human liberty… and I just couldn’t bear the shame of showing up one year empty-handed.


I miss you. We miss you. We’ll do you proud. Promise.
 
Shem was nice enough to let me stay with him in 2012 and 2015 in New Hampshire. He also drove me from Manchester to Boston once when I missed my flight and had to buy a new one. He was always willing to help out, and he will be missed very much.
 
I met him once at a meetup in Boston during one of Ron's debates. Great guy. Last time I saw him was like two years ago. I was driving through downtown Haverhill with my wife, and saw Shem and Carla sitting outside at a restaurant. I wish I would have gotten the chance to know him better.
 
Shem was nice enough to let me stay with him in 2012 and 2015 in New Hampshire. He also drove me from Manchester to Boston once when I missed my flight and had to buy a new one. He was always willing to help out, and he will be missed very much.

He helped with advice for my campaign as well.

Really good guy that just liked to help for the sake of advancing liberty and not personal recognition.

He will be missed. :(
 
.....

I have a handwritten note from him thanking me for donating to his campaign. I kept it in a safe place because I felt like he was going to go on to do great things. This is so sad....
 
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http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?442835-Which-pic-is-best-for-my-website-(24hr-poll)
 
Post from the past:

so yeah i was debatin on how do ultimately write suttin up and decided i'd do it one giant post rather that droppin a bubncha random ass half-sentence posts.

excuse all the spaces (and spelling), i'm writing this in Notepad before pasting into rpf post.

i didn't bring a notebook or a laptop help summarize things as they were happening so yall will have to just deal

so yeah i flew into MSP from boston via atlanta (wtf) on sunday. i was wearing ron paul gear and both of my flights were jammed packed with mccain delegates.

all these old ass dudes were like "hey ron paul, thanks for all the dvd's, i threw 'em all away."

ran into a few ron paul supporters along the way and one cool ass neutral republican who had been displaced by gustav and was goin to MN to host some home shopping network show.

when i got to MN i hopped on that light rail to the nicollete stop where i pretty much ran into the liberty parade and where i started seeing a shitload of rp shirts. thanks for danke for suggesting i go here.

i saw some weird ass paper mache polar bear and knew i needed to run towards the end or towards the beginning of the parade if i wanted to see find the walk4freedom kids.

looking back the c4L should have officially gotten a float and posted this event on the site

turns out i missed them, but when i finally got to loring park turns out that not only were the walk4freedom kids there but a group of mostly ronstockers (including a few rpf kids) had marched with a giant vinyl constitution

here i met up with malkusm who i had met at the dc march and our admin bryan, our hero ronpaulhawaii, and a bunch of others, caseyjones, specialty blend, ninja, etc.

i thanked rphawaii for everything he'd done and he told me to thank him by givin some rally cards and some free tickets to some people

so me and this kid john had a blast tryin to find the hottest chicks to give these things out to. was that ron paul's grand daughter in that greenish dress?

anyways, i scrubbed a ride with this dude who sold liberty coins back to ronstock. shit was a long ass ride, and that city faded to farmlands damn quick.

so i got to the campsite and was like damn, this shit is in the middle of fucking no where. no turning back, etc.

so yeah, hit up this keg they had goin and started talkin to people around the campfire. walk4freedom made a cameo, my DC ronvoy driver and that chick wendy who dressed up as lady liberty showed up too.

mark scibilia played a little acoustic set for us while we ate FRESH burgers and steaks around the campfire til about 3Am. dude had some fine ass groupies too

emily, who owned the farm gave me a tent that i ended up givin to that dude john or w/e. i ended up sleepin in this dude's tent who fixed emily's reefer truck (not the same kinda reefer) and had a hotel or suttin in a nearby town

so yeah that night was freezing cold and lonley but i passed the fuck out.

woke up early had some FRESH milk (the kind ron paul later reminds us that we aren't allowed to have) and lukewarm rinse in the makeshift showers. @ first glance these shits were pretty ghetto but they def got the job done.

went out to eat at this dairy queen kinda place with some ronstockers & tipped the waitress in liberty coins

scrubbed a ride to the book signing and the picnic (great job setting everything up there btw danke), but didn't get to see rp speak cause we were late and got lost at the corner of como and como

helped danke carry some shit back to his house and scrubbed a to the celebration with rphawaii, nick, the naked cowboy man, and jim in one of the walk4freedom RV's

shit was pretty cool. beer line was much too long and not going anywhere but i had a blast talkin to people in line. met john cunningham who is a ron paul repub running for congress in a district very close to mines

adam kokesh spoke, that was cool, i wasn't expecting him. aimee allen's shit was iight, a little too poppy for my taste, and not even in a way that you could dance to. plus here one background singer is hotter anyways. no wonder aimee doesn't let her sign autographs

dude john was mackin it to these 2 delegate chicks and told 'em to stop by ronstock AND THEY ACTUALLY DID. he was all about this druggy one and the unfort the other one (dropdead) was married

rocky lynn actually wunt that bad, he could play the guitar a lot better than these pop country frontmen out there today

scrubbed a ride with this kid from kansas back to ronstock. adam kokesh crashed the party. we all chilled til like 3 or 4 again. this dude slept alone again :/

woke up too early and took my last shower (they needed to be disassembled). also took down the tent i slept in last two nights so i knew i had to do something for that night

ended up hitchhiking 60 miles up the city for the rally. i figured, if this movement is as big as they say it is i shouldn't have any trouble gettin a ride with a ron paul shirt on

some TSA agent scooped me up. he said he knew who ron paul was but wasn't a huge fan. i had a decent time talkin with him tho and am grateful for the ride

$1.50 train ride to the end of the line and the rally had already started. my seats were okay, but i didn't end up sitting for very long. i was walkin around, talkin with people, checkin out the booths

jesse ventura;s speech was dope, i gotta youtube it to see it again.

grabbed a starbucks at the break and then saw there was hooters right next door. so i tried to go back in and get people hangin out around the rpf booth to go to hooters but they wouldn't let me back in with the coffee.

i nearly gave myself a heat attack tryin the chug the thing to get back in the arena but i knew we weren't gonna have enough time so said fuck hooters and bought a liberty straw poll ticket instead :/

ron paul gave one of his better speeches and then most of the crowd left. i didn't end up going to jager to see jimmie vaughn but got a couple vodka redbulls at applebees and went to some bar that a group of freestaters took over

was in there for a little while and eventually ended up chillin outside where that short chick with the thick accent was interviewing neocon delegates for her youtube site.

lemme tell you, there were some hoochied out FINE ASS chicks with these neocons, but honestly i think they were mostly escorts cause this dude came down the same corner i was on with a bunch of strippers from some place down the street tryin to solicit business

so yeah, the chicks that "stay" and "bomb iran" at the liberty parade were walkin thru the city doin there

the one singer (randomly?) dressed as a white cat was tellin me about how rage against the machine had been unplugged by the cops earlier that day

scrubbed a ride with charles from NH back to camp. things were REAL quiet and REAL cold.

was shootin the shit about a legal patriot co-op AKA the bank of the republic and ended up sleepin on a chair under berry bunch's blanket in front of the fire. this cool ass independent reporter showed up and was [informally] nterviewin us. he really was drawn this old ass hippy dude dean and took some portraits

we took some group pics, said some goodbyes and eventually got a ride back up the airport with the dude steve who made the ronstock shirts and had missed his flight

i unpacked some shit and typed up this post.

sorry this is just a play by play with no emotion really, but i just need to get all the fact down while they're still fresh in my head

apologize if i didn't shout you out, i prolly didn't remember you real name or screen name or both or either or neither. thanks to EVERYoNE that made this one of the bestweekends of my life.

pc

:cool: :rolleyes: :D :) :p ;) :eek:
 
Damn, I figured something was wrong because I'd been waiting on him or Carla to send me his godaddy username/pw so I could update the nameservers for shemkellogg.com which I moved on May 26th to a new server. This was before he left for Mexico. He told me a few days ago that he would send the info on Saturday (this last weekend) when he got home from the hospital, then I didn't hear from him. Now I know why.

The domain is still good for a while and I'd be glad to keep the site going, perhaps with a different focus, but as of now it's not showing up, it's still pointed to the old server and I don't know how to change that.
 
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