Long-time WI Civil Liberties & Union Activist Ben Masel Passes Away (No Health Insurance)

Longtime civil liberties activist Ben Masel, a Kossack for seven-and-a-half years, has passed away as a consequence of lung cancer. He was 56. Here is his final diary.
He was a fighter to the end, going to the last of hundreds of protests he was involved in during the uprising against Gov. Scott Walker at the capitol in Madison, Wis., where he lived for 40 years:

He doesn't have health insurance and hasn't had a conventional job in a long time. But he has a history of winning false arrest and First Amendment lawsuits, "which is a great hourly rate if you can wait forever to get paid," he joked [six weeks ago].
Masel has also been a constant presence at the Capitol protests over the past month, even defying a doctor's order that he remain in the hospital.

"If I'm going to be deceased today, I can't think of a better place than in the rotunda," he told his doctor.