Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press.
Thank you for your fierce truth telling and for being true to your own voice when others demanded that you betray it.
The world is a far less beautiful place without you.
And yet, you will forever be an inspiration.
Ms. Ivins learned she had breast cancer in 1999 and was typically unvarnished in describing her treatments. “First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you,” she wrote. “I have been on blind dates better than that.”
But she continued to write her columns and continued to write and raise money for The Observer.
Indeed, rarely has a reporter so embodied the ethos of her publication. On the paper’s 50th anniversary in 2004, she wrote: “This is where you can tell the truth without the bark on it, laugh at anyone who is ridiculous, and go after the bad guys with all the energy you have.”
3 comments:
i was so sad when that came across the wire tonight.
Molly covered the Texas legislature back when it was full of characters - not just ideologues and whackos. My favorite story hers involved her asking a pol whether it didn't bother his conscience just a tad to eat and drink on lobbyists' tabs, and then vote on issues that mean millions of dollars for them. She quoted the old boy - whose name escapes me now - as responding, "Hell, if you can drink their whiskey, f**k their women and still vote against them, you don't deserve to be here."
There aren't any pols like that any more, and now there aren't any writers like that, either. Not to say that there couldn't BE a woman writer with the style and grace and humor that Molly had one day in the future. I can think of one with the talent, waiting in the wings ;->)
I blew it:
The correct quote is, "If you CAN'T drink their whiskey, f**k their women and still vote against 'em, you don't deserve to be here."
But I reckon you figured that out without my help.
If you haven't read her laat two columns - she only had three, I think, since Thanksgiving, so you might imagine how she must have labored to put them out - you really ought to. Drudge has a link to her syndicated site. She only wrote them I think, to remind us that sometimes in a representative democracy, the people have to take responsibility when their representatives won't. And this is such a time.
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