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ThesaurasaurusKeks ago

I wonder if Arizona Republic columnist E. J. Montini has anything else in common with his good buddy Ed Buck besides knowing gay teenagers dying of AIDS?

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/136426001/ Democrat and Chronicle Rochester, New York Friday, October 20, 2000 - Page 12

Jon could have been a great candidate E.J. MONTINI

Just before we burst out laughing, I turned to one of the other pallbearers at Jon Fladhammer's funeral and said, "The little so-and-so set us up."

We were sitting in the front row at Jon's memorial service. There were hundreds of people in the room.

Toward the end of the service, the preacher running the show implored all those in attendance to raise their hands if they had prayed for Jon in the past couple of days. In an instant, the room was transformed into a forest of human palms. Each prayerful mourner faced the front of the room, where, in the midst of the worshipful timberland, there was a gap.

Among the pallbearers.

I was sitting there next to Ed Buck, the wildly outspoken activist who was leading the recall effort against then-Gov. Evan Mecham.

I had introduced Jon to Buck, who got to know the teenager during the last months of his life, as I had.

Jon called me out of the blue one morning, a 17-year-old kid who said he had some free time during the day and wanted to know if I could put him in touch with the Mecham Recall Committee. Why would a person who should be in high school have free time during the day? I wanted to know. "Because I'm dying," Jon said.

It was 1987. He'd had cancer for several years by then. He'd lost a leg to it. Now it was in his lungs and he had a few months left.

"One of my philosophies is that, you know, it's happening, so you might as well laugh with it," he told me at the time. And he did.

He had planned to go to law school or to become an actor. He imagined a career in politics.

He loved practical jokes. And in the end, he skunked me and Buck, a couple of less-than-holy loudmouths. He'd made us pallbearers, knowing when the preacher asked those who had prayed to raise their hands, the two of us would stand out like a patch of hedonistic clear-cut in the congregation's worshipful timberland.

He must have been howling in heaven, that kid.

His mother, Dana, wrote to me recently on the 13th anniversary of his passing. I've been thinking about him ever since, particularly during these days when the whole country mourns a group of sailors who died too young.

And because it's election time. Jon Fladhammer would have been 30 by now, perhaps a lawyer, perhaps seeking his first public office.

Imagine, a candidate who makes you want to laugh and still want to vote for him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._J._Montini

E.J. Montini is a columnist for The Arizona Republic. He began working for The Arizona Republic in December 1979 as a news metro columnist. He has worked for The Arizona Republic for over 25 years covering illegal immigrants, the increase in daily temperatures, and the decrease in rainfall. Montini is also an avid baseball fan, often found walking around the office with a wooden baseball bat.

Montini obtained his B.A. in Journalism from Penn State University [Yikes] in 1976.