It’s hard to avoid saying something about the death of a guy like Christopher Hitchens. But it’s equally challenging to say anything equal to the complexity, stature, and sheer audacity of the Hitchens legacy.

Love him or hate him, Christopher Hitchens was, by turns, hilariously funny and outrageously provocative.

He was also so much more than the posterboy for uncompromising, one-note atheism he made of himself; he was an unrelenting voice for economic justice, a credible advocate for precision and reason in public discourse, and a genuine socialist.

His voice may have often put the coarse in discourse but he could never be easily dismissed.

Now that he is–by the terms of his own belief system–nothing more than so much rotting flesh, a mere blank spot in the cosmos once briefly occupied by a guy named Hitchens, there is no wishing him eternal peace. But I will nonetheless raise a beverage (or four) in a goodbye toast and say thank you, Mr. Hitchens.

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