I'm not usually affected when famous people pass away. I appreciate learning about or remembering the good they did in the world as people eulogize them. But the death of Patrick Stewart this week moved me. Noah Smith's eulogy was particularly good in explaining what his portrayal of Captain Picard meant to me, so I'm going to copy a large part of it here. The short version is that Captain Picard and TNG more broadly was fundamentally hopeful about who we as people and societies could become. We can solve problems collaboratively and find win-wins that give everyone something of what they want. Pres. Oaks spoke a lot about this in his address on Constitution Day. The last decade or so, I've been missing that. His passing has been a reminder of that better vision that seems further away just now than it did 30 years ago. And for all I appreciate about Kirk, Sisko, Janeway, and Archer, ... Picard is my Captain.
