Thank you, Mr. Andrew Breitbart.

I’m sure you had no idea what an impact you had on so many people, how could you? Of course, I imagine you had glimpses at times and had many people tell you but how does anyone really ever know what type of impact they have while alive? So here today, 10 years after your passing, people will commemorate your passing and once again recall with fondness and laughter — so much laughter — the things you did, and the respect you commanded from so many people.

Respect that you earned every minute of every hour for the short time that you were a public figure. Your friend and often partner in crime, Larry O’ Connor, a couple of years ago mentioned that you were not in the public eye for very long, maybe less than five years. Yet in that short amount of time, you taught so many of us to stand up and have our voices heard and even though we might be nervous or scared to do it, the encouragement you gave reassured us it could be done.

You destroyed the book on how to take the beating from a media narrative, nuke it, and turn it back on those arses, and to do it with the zeal of a leftist hack calling anyone whom they do not agree with a racist, homophobe, etc. That you helped give countless people that confidence is something any normal person would be thrilled with as a legacy. Yet I think it is pretty safe to say, in addition to you being a Husky male model, being normal was not your style.

Your roadmap on fighting the media and also, by extension, those on social media has had a decade-long impact — and continues to show the way.

Let’s take a look at some of the people who were in your inner circle and what they are doing now, continuing the work you started and inspired them to carry forward.

Mr. Stage Right himself, Larry O’ Connor, is now hosting his own show in Washington D.C. on WMAL  — O’Connor & Company  — each morning and also is a contributing editor at Townhall.com. From starting off on Blog Talk Radio (which, let’s face it, sounded like some cans strung together on Gilligan’s Island) and working in the basement of your home on the Breitbart sites, to now kicking arse in the mornings in the national capital, is some damn impressive stuff.  Larry has also carried on something that you were known for, treating everyone as an equal no matter if they are a no-name blogger or a prime-time cable news host. People notice that stuff and never forget it.

Dana Loesch, who did a solid article today about you called Remembering Breitbart: Six Things I Learned From Andrew, is now also a nationally syndicated radio talk show host.

From her remembrance of you posted above…

Andrew would walk through the fires of hell holding gas cans for a friend and/or ally. My ringtone for him was the Rolling Stones’s “Gimme Shelter,” ironic because he hated the Stones but not ironic in that it’s how everyone viewed him — everyone went to Andrew when they needed shelter from the fury of the press, the left, sometimes even inter-party fighting. Many people benefited from his furious and unrelenting defense, myself included. I never forgot that and I and others hold ourselves to this maxim, still, these ten years after his passing.

I witnessed this loyalty first hand when you went to all hands on deck after a VIP event in Grand Rapids, Michigan after you learned the news about Dana getting disinvited to an event because she cracked a joke on air. This, in the hotel lobby with a bunch of people who were not sure what was going on or what Twitter even was at the time, is still a favorite memory of mine. Dana was one of your people and you were not going to allow her to stand alone.

Ben Shapiro went off and founded The Daily Wire and is also doing radio and has made a bit of a name for himself appearing on college campuses and crushing the politically correct nonsense there. Here is a perfect example of him doing this a couple of years ago.

Also, the site that bears your name today is flourishing and they put out an incredible tribute to you today that honors you in an amazing way: Andrew Breitbart 10 year tribute.

All of these people who were in your orbit or just encouraged by you, like moi, take a moment today to honor and recall your legacy. Yet each and every day we are influenced by you in ways that we all probably don’t come close to recognizing. That is part of the legacy you leave behind but it also is something else I realize with each passing year, hearing the new stories I had not heard before. This lifts you to another level.

Legend.

That really has to piss off every one of those Twitter egg accounts that thought they were getting the best of you.

As well as all these people above who knew you well, I can’t imagine what it must have been like for your family to have had you taken away on this day. My heart and prayers still go out to your wife and kids, who I know from just having adult beverages with you on occasion, you adored.

In the short amount of time you were here, you left the world a much better place.  As your Twitter protégé, Kurt Schlichter, wrote 10 years ago on this day.

There'll never be another conservative warrior exactly like Andrew, but there will be many more conservative warriors b/c of him. #Breitbart

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) March 1, 2012

I don’t attend the get-togethers much anymore but I’m blessed to be able to opine here at RedState and on my own radio show each and every week. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to do it if I had not met you, but I do know now that a whole army of others aside from the people I mentioned above, are involved because of you. Their stories are amazing and hilarious and it is a credit to who you are.

Normally, if I would use a song title in an article title, I would do the obligatory move of using some lyrics from said song. Yet recalling a conversation with Schlicter a number of years ago about your similar tastes in music, I have the distinct impression you might not have been a Pink Floyd fan.

So I will end this, in the same manner, I started it.

Thank you, Mr. Andrew Breitbart, and shine on you crazy diamond.

Sorry, I had to get one line in.