My heart stopped when I read that. I realised that Cat was the only thing left that I believed in. Cat was the last thread connecting me to my unerring faith in humanity. Cat worked. Cat was anarchy in action. Cat was fun, vibrant meetings with energy flowing and creativity sparkling in every outrageous joke, or knowing smile. Cat was (I have to force myself to use the past tense), to be blunt, a bunch of geeks. As much as some members like to stress the human interaction side of things, Cat was really a bunch of ubercool computer, video, and audio geeks who came together to aid the rapily emerging rebellion culture of the period just before, during, and after November 1999. There were low-power radio stations, there was an open-publishing internet network, there were parties in the streets with live bands playing at each intersection, there were garbage cans on wheels that broadcast music, there was video, audio, and text, and it was all converging... But that didn't last long. The Olympics in 2000 brought a new oppression on the streets, and 2001 brought down a boot of a different make onto our necks, but no less oppressive. 2002 and 2003 I remember only as being full of selfishness from all corners. But perhaps that's only hindsight, through the glasses of 2004. That was the year cat died for me. I knew it, but I could not let it be. I wanted to believe that cat could survive Pred's passing... that his energy was so strong that it could sustain momentum after death. But I was wrong. Now somebody finally said it... Cat is dead, long live Cat. All I can do now is hope that the energy will come back in another form. That's why I ended my email on the subject with this: The atom bomb fell just the other day, The H-Bomb fell in the very same way; Russia went, England went, and then the U.S.A. The human race was finished without a chance to pray. But the cat came back the very next day, The cat came back, we thought he was a goner But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away. -Harry S. Miller, "The Cat Came Back"