Molly Ivins 1944 - 2007
I didn’t even know she was ill. Apparently, Molly Ivins had been fighting breast cancer since 1999. On January 31st, the beast finally claimed one of our finest writers.
It is amazing to me that I had not heard about our loss until listening to last Thursday’s NPR podcast of “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me”. They made a passing reference during the broadcast which was taped just a day after her passing.
My discovery of Molly Ivins happened a little over a year ago. I found her at the workingforchange.com website. Workingforchange.com features many funny and insightful writers such as Joe Conason, A.J. Dionne, Will Durst and Arianna Huffington. Quickly, I realized that Ivins was my favorite.
The program “Wait, Wait…” referred to a story from early in her career. The California born, Texas raised Ivins somehow secured a writing job at the New York Times from 1976 to 1982. She covered the nine western states as the paper’s “Rocky Mountain” bureau chief. Her style finally clashed with the paper’s editors when she wrote about a community chicken-killing as a “gang-pluck”. Somehow, the Times failed to spot the humor.
The wonderful aspect of Ivins was that she had intelligence, confidence and a sense of humor. Among her best lines include, “Good thing we've still got politics in Texas - finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”; As they say around the [Texas] Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.”’; “You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to.”
The last comment was pursued in the final column published at workingforchange.com. In she says, “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.”
In yet another example of how she felt about people being involved in the world, Anthony Zurcher wrote this for the Creators Syndicate, “Last fall, before an audience at the University of Texas, her voice began as barely a whisper. But as she went on, she drew strength from the standing-room-only crowd until, at the end of the hour, she was forcefully imploring the students to get involved and make a difference. As Molly once wrote, ‘Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don't much care for.’"
If we learn anything from the life of Molly Ivins, it is that all of us have a voice. Some of us may write a blog. Others may participate in a rally or run for office. Others may donate money or work to raise money for a good cause. All of us need to vote!
As for me, I may not be nearly as “funny, intelligent or insightful” as Ms. Molly Ivins. I may not be able to inspire people to get up and fight to make the world a little better. There can only be one Molly Ivins. But the best tribute I can think of is to say, “I’m going to try.”
It is amazing to me that I had not heard about our loss until listening to last Thursday’s NPR podcast of “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me”. They made a passing reference during the broadcast which was taped just a day after her passing.
My discovery of Molly Ivins happened a little over a year ago. I found her at the workingforchange.com website. Workingforchange.com features many funny and insightful writers such as Joe Conason, A.J. Dionne, Will Durst and Arianna Huffington. Quickly, I realized that Ivins was my favorite.
The program “Wait, Wait…” referred to a story from early in her career. The California born, Texas raised Ivins somehow secured a writing job at the New York Times from 1976 to 1982. She covered the nine western states as the paper’s “Rocky Mountain” bureau chief. Her style finally clashed with the paper’s editors when she wrote about a community chicken-killing as a “gang-pluck”. Somehow, the Times failed to spot the humor.
The wonderful aspect of Ivins was that she had intelligence, confidence and a sense of humor. Among her best lines include, “Good thing we've still got politics in Texas - finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”; As they say around the [Texas] Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.”’; “You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to.”
The last comment was pursued in the final column published at workingforchange.com. In she says, “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.”
In yet another example of how she felt about people being involved in the world, Anthony Zurcher wrote this for the Creators Syndicate, “Last fall, before an audience at the University of Texas, her voice began as barely a whisper. But as she went on, she drew strength from the standing-room-only crowd until, at the end of the hour, she was forcefully imploring the students to get involved and make a difference. As Molly once wrote, ‘Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don't much care for.’"
If we learn anything from the life of Molly Ivins, it is that all of us have a voice. Some of us may write a blog. Others may participate in a rally or run for office. Others may donate money or work to raise money for a good cause. All of us need to vote!
As for me, I may not be nearly as “funny, intelligent or insightful” as Ms. Molly Ivins. I may not be able to inspire people to get up and fight to make the world a little better. There can only be one Molly Ivins. But the best tribute I can think of is to say, “I’m going to try.”
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posted by Alexander Dimm | 6:20 AM
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