Molly Ivins, August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007
What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.
It's hard to argue against cynics -- they always sound smarter than optimists because they have so much evidence on their side.
It's like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you're wrong.
The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood.
Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.
Let me say for the umpteenth time, George W. is not a stupid man. The IQ of his gut, however, is open to debate. In Texas, his gut led him to believe the death penalty has a deterrent effect, even though he acknowledged there was no evidence to support his gut's feeling. When his gut, or something, causes him to announce that he does not believe in global warming -- as though it were a theological proposition -- we once again find his gut ruling that evidence is irrelevant.
In my opinion, Bush's gut should not be entrusted with making peace in the Middle East.
The problem with those who choose received Authority over fact and logic is how they choose which part of Authority to obey. The Bible famously contradicts itself at many points (I have never understood why any Christian would choose the Old Testament over the New), and the Koran can be read as a wonderfully compassionate and humanistic document. Which suggests that the problem of fundamentalism lies not with authority, but with ourselves.
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle.
And finally, from her last column, January 11, 2007:
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there.
Rest in Peace, Miss Molly
30 comments:
Depends on your definition of greatness. Evidently in this case, she was talking your views.
I hardly care to read even those that you posted. Sounded like one angry woman to me. That is sad. There is so much to be thankful for and praise the Lord.
Great post, Dan. My sentiments exactly!
Florence Young (Mrs. Chester)
Thanks, Mrs. Chester.
mom2, speaking ill of the dead?
Anyone who's read Ivins has found much joy and praise from this funny, thoughtful Christian woman's commentary.
That she used satire to lash out in defense of justice for the poor, civil rights and civil liberties, racial and gender equality, and rational defense issues just endears her all the more to me.
But she was angry at times. Righteously so.
As the saying goes, if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
mom2, speaking ill of the dead?>
No, just calling it the way I see it. What difference does it make whether speaking ill of the living or the dead? Look at the columns she wrote about our President and you thought she was doing a great thing.
What difference does it make?
Well, most of us don't speak ill of the dead except in the case of those who, in life, were responsible for deaths or vast crimes. Just as a matter of decency and politeness.
You saw very few ill words for Gerald Ford after his death, for instance, in spite of the fact that many of us may have disagreed with him. Just as a matter of politeness.
And it is a great thing to speak out against corruption, wouldn't you agree - even if you disagree with her assessment of which policies were corrupt?
Molly could be angry, true. But she also had a great capacity for humor, including laughing at herself. She constantly told fellow liberals that they needed to learn to laugh even when the issues were important. She once said she was a populist "which is like a liberal, but we have more fun!"
She could be equally irritated with both fundamentalists and secular liberals who had no appreciation for the faith of common folk.
She loved her beer, she loved bawdy humor (Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive sometimes wondered if the only reason Molly wrote for them was because they'd let her use off-color language!). NO ONE was safe from her barbs, especially not Democrats who chose to play it safe rather than fight for peace, economic and social justice, and ordinary people.
Further, Molly could praise people she didn't normally agree with. Right after the Patriot Act came down, she was p.o.'d at the timid Dems who wouldn't stand up to its erosion of civil liberties--and praised conservatives like George Will and Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) who DID speak out early.
She fought her breast cancer with the same humor and aggression. But she poked fun at the way most people expect illness to sanctify them, saying it hadn't worked with her. "Cancer and other diseases can kill you; they don't necessarily make you a better person."
I will miss Molly Ivins--a true Texas liberal.
Mom2, you just the equivalent of stomping into the middle of a memorial service and cussing the corpse in the casket. Shut. Up.
And repent. JeSUS! Have. You. No. Shame? (NOT in vain! In sorrow and disbelief!)
Mom2, you just the equivalent of stomping into the middle of a memorial service and cussing the corpse in the casket.>
I did no such thing!!! I used no anger, no bad words, nothing. I stated my opinion that she has given me reason to think she was an angry woman. You are paranoid and delusional, it appears. I am probably almost as old as your mother, did she not teach you any manners and respect (telling me to shut up)? This is the USA and you want me to shut up? Yet the pacifist can march, chant, insult and whatever in the name of free speech?
Hello friend. I'm blogging once more.
http://www.lettersfromgrubstreet.blogspot.com
Mom2, if you are 84, then you are as old as my mother. But judging from your comments here, you are nothing close to the lady, and the Christian, that she is.
My mom taught me GRACE, which you know nothing of. And she taught me when to be quiet. Yours, apparently, did not.
Opinions are like anuses, Mom2: Everybody has one, but most of us know when to keep ours covered.
Dan, I apologise, but I am not sorry. I've had it with pretending that these imposters are "little Christians" when they're not.
Sorry, I meant "little Christs." There are plenty of "little Christians" around.
ER, You have just proved by your post that you did not learn the lessons your mother probably did try to teach you. No, I am not quite as old as your mother and she does look like a sweet person and I know from some of the things you post, that you know the truth so it was probably due to her influence. You just choose to reject the whole truth and your nasty statements do not paint you as a lovely Christian either. I am a sinner, saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus, His Son who died for my sins and whose death and resurrection have provided for my eternal destiny in heaven. I believe in the trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and I know that when I fail him (through sinning) I have to go back and confess my sins and ask His forgiveness. How about you?
Hey, you two. Cut it out.
Or I will.
Hey Brandon, welcome back.
We have indeed lost a great lady. But her words will live on. I am thankful she chose to put them on paper. I've got a stack of Texas Observers that I almost threw out the other day. But being the pack rat that I am, I put them in a drawer filled with other yesterdays. Boy, am I glad I did.
I quit playing "My Jesus is bigger than your Jesus" awhile back.
Sorry again, Dan.
I have never heard of her, but after reading some of her work she seemed to be just like any other writer in the op-ed section of any home town newspaper. Correct me if I am wrong and i very well could be since I have just been made aware of her. She seemed to be a writer who points out who she thinks is wrong (10% democrat, 90% republican) but can never point to anyone who in her opinion has the solution.
LOLOLOLOLAROTFLSM!!!!!!! (to what Rusty said)
AMEN! But God rest her soul nonetheless.
Did Rusty say something funny?
Rusty,
I'm sorry you've been deprived of reading the great Molly Ivins. She began as a reporter in the '70s when the Texas State Legislature was firmly controlled by Democrats--and that didn't stop her from being very critical, so I'd revise that 10 vs. 90 percentage you have.
She often offered constructive proposals, but her calling was as a gadfly to those in power.
Get to your local library and you should have plenty of opportunity to read her writings:
Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
Nothin' But Good Times Ahead
You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You which is a great book about how big money corrupts even good politicians because once they finance your campaigns they expect you to vote their way.
Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush
Bushwacked: Life in George W. Bush's America
Who Let the Dogs In: Political Animals I Have Known
and the anthology she edited, Fifty Years of the Texas Observer
The Texas Observer has collected tributes from friends, colleagues and even targets of her criticism (GWB--whom she called "Shrub" and Texas Gov. Rick Perry whom Molly called "Governor Goodhair") which you can read here: http://www.texasobserver.org/molly_tributes.html
That should give you a better picture of who she was. She wrote for the NY Times, The Texas Observer, papers in Dallas and Austin and Michigan, had a syndicated column and additional columns in The Nation, The Progressive, and Mother Jones.
OK. My blood pressure is back down, life issues thast have had me screwed up lately are, at the moment, on pause, and I see where I should not have reacted at all to what I perceived as disrespect toward Molly Ivins on Mom2's part.
I honestly felt the way I felt, and I do not regret expressing it. I apologize for the way I expressed it. Mama ER, however, as feisty a mama as she is, wouldn't disapprove of my sentiments nor the way I expressed my anger, although she might very well ask me if I thought that was the right way to go about it. Well, no, I reckon not. Again, I apologize.
My pastor dedicated his sermon this morning to Molly Ivins, his only mention of her passing -- and the congregation applauded.
Praise God for Molly Ivins' and her influence. A true prophet, in the calling-leaders-to-account sense.
As Jim Wallis wrote, "I’m sure she was never called a 'woman of God,' but I believe was the kind of woman that God really likes. I suspect she has already been asking the Lord some tough questions. That, she thought, was always the job of a good muckraking journalist."
ER, I can understand that your emotions are raw, what with the stress you are under. I hold no grudges. You are entitled to your opinions, as I am to mine.
I do pray for your mother and think she looks a sweet lady and I admire the love you feel and express for her. God bless all of you!
Thanks.
Peace. :-)
Molly is right. Our governer does have good hair. In fact, it's probably what got him re-elected.
I've been googling "Molly Ivins" & "Christian" and can't find anything that even remotely suggests she was a Christian. Where do you get the idea she was a Christian? Seriously? Because she was the preeminent Bush hater? Seriously, I've found nothing to suggest she was a Christian. As famous as she was surely there would be something, some evidence, some footprints, that pointed to her faith.
Honestly, have I missed something?
Unless *I've* missed something, no one here said she was a Christian.
Who says one has to be a Christian to be used of God? To be missed? To be admired?
I mentioned her being a Christian, I was thinking I'd read she was a church-goer, but that does not appear to be the case.
So, in that case, I'd revise it to "Christ-ian," in that she took up the causes Christ talked of, walked in the ways of Christ, whether she claimed Christianity or not.
Sort of like the brother in the parable of the two brothers told by their father to do a task. The first one said "No," but then went and did it. The second one said, "Yes, Daddy," but then didn't do the task.
It seems to me that Molly "did the task" in her words, whether she claimed Christianity or not.
Look, as a regular reader of Molly Ivins' columns, I know that she mentioned her personal faith more than a few times, always in a casual way. When she took on fundamentalists, she always did so with a strong knowledge of Scripture and basic Christianity--learned from the Baptist churches she attended as a child. I THINK she was an infrequent attendee at United Church of Christ churches as an adult, but I cannot be sure.
Nor was she a Bush-hater, preeminent or otherwise. She grew up near Bush and their families casually knew one another since she was small. She constantly rebuked those who dismissed "Shrub" as stupid or simply mean. She called both shallow analyses and proceeded to describe in detail the forces which shaped him. Now, she DID detest most of his policies, but that's not "Bush-hatred."
Really. You ought to actually read some of Molly's stuff before trying to tear her down.
That's what I was thinking, too, Michael - that she had mentioned her faith. But I couldn't find anything about it when I did a quick google search.
I did find one remark from Jim Wallis who said:
Religion wasn’t much of an interest for Molly, but over the only breakfast talk we ever had together, several years ago, she told me that the only kind of religion she ever respected and might even consider is the kind she found in Sojourners. She loved how the biblical prophets would stick it to the powers that be – and, indeed, that is exactly what she spent her life doing.
"I've been googling "Molly Ivins" & "Christian" and can't find anything that even remotely suggests she was a Christian.....Honestly, have I missed something?"
Yeah, you've missed about 40 years of reading Molly Ivins and another little tidbit from Jesus: "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged".
It really urks me for people to "judge" whether someone is a christian or not. I don't think that is something you can "google". Sheesh.
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