Today Rewire bids farewell to one person that each of us would happily describe as the most important part of our team. He is our new media wizard, an outstanding writer and thinker, brilliant teacher, good friend. Twenty years my junior, he and his generation are why I am so optimistic about the future of this country and the world. They are turning away from the politics of old and inventing something unlike anything we have seen, something they may not fully appreciate until much later in their own lives, perspective being what it is. Some of us have just enough perspective to glimpse it. The embrace of global diversity, interwoven acceptance of faith and science, not simple belief in true equality for all, but the real possibility of seeing it in their lifetimes as no one on the planet has ever before experienced it.

As you can tell, we're going to miss him and there simply are not enough superlatives to capture him.

Because of the world we live in and the nature of the most extreme far right "pro-lifers", perhaps the saddest commentary on the current state of political discourse, is that you know this gifted young man only as Ian. To those who know him, that has simply conferred Cher or Madonna like status on him.

Please join Rewire publishers David Harwood and Ellen Marshall, Associate Editor Tyler LePard, our woman of international intrigue and blogista suprema Andrea Lynch and me in thanking Ian for all he has done to launch Rewire and make it a success. He's not going far, but too far for us. We wish him nothing but success.