A Voice For The Fans ~ A Sendoff For "One Tin Soldier"

by: PattyKay Lilley

Good day gentle readers, and welcome to RacersReunion, a site we know is read by folks that matter. Today,  this "Voice For The Fans" column takes a new and different turn. On Thursday last, the fans that frequent this thing we call the Internet lost another voice, one that has rung out loud and clear on your behalf since the mid-1990s. That voice belongs to Matt McLaughlin, long-time Motorsports writer and a man I am proud to call "Friend."

Later, I will link you to Matt's farewell, which I admit to reading through tear-dimmed eyes. It won't be the same around here without him, but looking back at all he has been through, he might feel that is a good thing. Yet, he goes proudly, at the top of his career, not as the badly beaten and broken man that a few had hoped for. What follows is a column I wrote in early February of 2005. As I have mentioned, the site for which I wrote suffered a major server crash in 2007, and all work on it was lost. Therefore, this no longer appears anywhere on the Web, until now. It will explain much, and Matt's own column will explain more.

Please then, accept my offering from seven years ago:

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