I will repeat the sense of an earlier post: I met Jack in person, though when he was alive he was, in hindsight, compartmentalizing his life in such a way that I would only have ever met one facet of him. He was, as best as I recall, going by Magnus, not Jack, and was plainly said that there were parts of his life that were kept at the level of suggestion only when it came to practical expression of his politics because he may or may not have violated the law (and you know as much as I do about what that may have meant).

All that said, where did I meet him? At the now-long-defunct Socrates Cafe group that met (at that time) in the now-online Avol's Books in downtown Madison. He did not have the life experience or, in cases, the formal education of the usual members there, many into retirement age, but even in his late teens or early twenties we able to participate in a n articulate and informed manner in discussions that had to do with more serious topics than say, the Green Bay Packers or whatever people were watching on TV these days. His opinions were developed and often informed beyond having glanced a headline or two. Of the few younger people that would become regulars or semi-regulars, he stands out as, out of all of them, the one that most philosophically matured and best-read and informed--enough to make anyone who met him to wonder, in hindsight, what he might have achieved if he had not been mentally ill.

It is a hazardous thing to try to separate anyone who tries to educate and express themselves wholly from their mental illness--so often what is most unique and most brilliant shares the same roots with everything that might challenge it's full realization--but I will say this: Jack would have remained of interest even if the only difference would have been if he hadn't been mentally ill or even if it would have been something he could have come to better terms with.

I will leave it at that.