Were it not for losing some dear relatives, I would say there’s no one I’d like to have come back to life more than Molly Ivins. The great political writer – and Texan – died four years ago.
How much do I miss her? Consider three quotations – especially the last — and when she wrote them:
Wretched excess always accompanies war fever — in World War I, “patriots” used to go around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that they were “German dogs.” As I have noted elsewhere, people like that do not go around kicking German shepherds. Molly Ivins, “What. A. Mess.,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 19, 2004.
Back in the 1950s, when the late Rep. Bob Eckhardt was still in the Texas legislature, a bill to cut off all state aid to illegitimate children was under debate. After listening to some of his “Christian” colleagues explain why illegitimate children should be left to starve, Eckhardt rose and said, “I am not so much concerned about the natural bastards as I am about the self-made ones.” I consider that one of the most Christian things ever said during legislative debate. Molly Ivins, “When Pietism Dances With Partisan Politics,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 1, 2004.
These [Texans] are Shiite Republicans — they don’t compromise, they don’t deal, they don’t look for the middle way. Because they believe they’re right. They think it’s them against evil. And everybody who ain’t them is evil. I’m just warning you: This is about to happen everywhere. The whole country is being turned into the state whose proudest boast is that sometimes we’re ahead of Mississippi. Molly Ivins, “Tales Of the Texas Border,” Nation, June 9, 2003, p. 17.
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