A (kind of) farewell to the best friend this community has ever had

This post was originally published on this site

Neeta Lind, aka Navajo, is retiring at the the end of the year. 

She is our beloved Director of Community. I don’t know when she actually started working here and I can’t bother to look it up because to me, Neeta has been tirelessly organizing this community from the very beginning. There is no Daily Kos without her. And I don’t know how you bid farewell to a friend, coworker, and resident diva. 

Of course, it’s easier to say “goodbye” when it’s not a real goodbye. To tamp down any rising panic, Neeta won’t be leaving the community. In fact, she’ll continue maintaining the Indian Country Today account, and plans to be more present in general, thanks to being free of her administrative duties. So all in all, this might be a good thing for most of you!

But it is a loss for those of us who have the pleasure of working with her—her endless sunny optimism, fierce passion, encyclopedic knowledge of this community and its history, and amazing intuition for how this community will react to potential changes. She has been the fiercest advocate for the interests of this community, providing a north star to the organization as it has evolved over the years, always guaranteeing that we center you all in every decision we make. 

I decided to take a look at her posting history, and got a big kick out of it:

Her first comment was in response to a roll call diary/story, and she chimed in. Her first story was about a mining operation trying to open up in Navajo country, a topic near and dear to her (and one with a happy resolution). That passion for her American Indian community’s rights has underpinned her advocacy work, and Neeta was an early and enthusiastic booster for Rep. Deb Haaland, just nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to run his Department of the Interior, the first American Indian to ever be selected for a cabinet office (unbelievably). 

But as you can see in that screenshot of her first diaries/stories, she quickly pivoted to getting people offline and into doing stuff in real life. And that’s truly where Neeta shone—bringing so many of us painfully reclusive introverts into actual physical contact, reinforcing the tenets of our online community with that very real human touch.

And so, I’m going to take this chance to share some photos from events she has organized over the years (it’s hard to find pictures of her in them, since she was usually taking them!). Many of you have your own, and it would be amazing if you could share them as well. 

Neeta, I love and adore you. You’ve made this site and this world a better place, you are a blessing in my life, and while I’ll miss you in the Daily Kos Slack, I do look forward to seeing you more in the comments and diaries/stories of this site. 

This one is so awesome: 

daily KD

Neeta has always been about bringing people together,  and I suspect none of that is about to change anytime soon.