Molly Ivins has always been my favorite newspaper columnist and finding out that she and I had the same rare form of cancer, (Inflammatory Breast Cancer, or IBC) only made her even more inspirational if that is possible. I saw Molly in person years ago at the SXSW music festival in Austin Texas. She sat in with the world-renowed rock band, "The Rock Bottom Remainders" (http://www.rockbottomremainders.com) which includes Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, and Kathi Kamen Goldmark. People more commonly known for their bookwriting skills (but they HAVE played with Bruce Springsteen (so in my book, they are utterly, completely - IN!) Molly didn't really sing that night -- unless you consider what Rex Harrision did with his songs in My Fair Lady singing. SHe did a more of a Ginsbergian-Howl-cadenced rant, which she read off what looked to be a bar napkin. Of all the memories that chemo has washed away, the specifics of that night are some I would pay dearly to get back. (OK, maybe I can't blame chemo on the memory cells lost that night. Instead, I will blame it on the evil Hacking Cat Productions gang who forced me to drink heavily through out that vacation. I also forgot that I saw Junior Brown at the Continental Club play "My wife thinks youre dead." But it came flashing back to me when he came to St Pete.
Molly Ivins checked out last month after living seven years with IBC. As she said herself, "It was a good run."
A friend of Molly's wrote that her greatest words of wisdom came with three children's books she gave his son when he was born.
" In "Alice in Wonderland," she offered, "Here's to six impossible things before breakfast." For "The Wind in the Willows," it was, "May you have Toad's zest for life." And in "The Little Prince," she wrote, "May your heart always see clearly."
Now those are some words to live by. The last column she wrote was not a walk down memory lane or an Oscar-style thank you speech. IT was a call to arms. It was angry. And not just at the idiots in charge. She is angry with us for watching from the sidelines. "We are the deciders!" she cries. Raise hell! Hit the streets!
It is not to late to start paying attention. Start reading newspapers and watching CSPAN, Olbermann and Face the Nation. Make Real Time with Bill Maher and The Daily Show required viewing and realize that while they are making jokes, the situations they are calling attention to are real, and scary, and that we are all just one freak storm away from living the Katrina life. really.
Make Molly proud. It is not too late to be one of the deciders.
oh, and that last column? Here it is. . . Read it and don't weep. ACT!
Molly Ivins is a nationally syndicated columnist.
Ivins: Stand up against the surge
POSTED: 4:59 p.m. EST, January 11, 2007
(CREATORS) -- The purpose of this old-fashioned newspaper crusade to stop the war is not to make George W. Bush look like the dumbest president ever. People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they bought into the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb was the Egypt-Suez war? How massively stupid was the entire war in Vietnam? Even at that, the challenge with this misbegotten adventure is that WE simply cannot let it continue.
It is not a matter of whether we will lose or we are losing. We have lost. Gen. John P. Abizaid, until recently the senior commander in the Middle East, insists that the answer to our problems there is not military. "You have to internationalize the problem. You have to attack it diplomatically, geo-strategically," he said.
His assessment is supported by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who only recommend releasing forces with a clear definition of the goals for the additional troops.
Bush's call for a "surge" or "escalation" also goes against the Iraq Study Group. Talk is that the White House has planned to do anything but what the group suggested after months of investigation and proposals based on much broader strategic implications.
About the only politician out there besides Bush actively calling for a surge is Sen. John McCain. In a recent opinion piece, he wrote: "The presence of additional coalition forces would allow the Iraqi government to do what it cannot accomplish today on its own -- impose its rule throughout the country. ... By surging troops and bringing security to Baghdad and other areas, we will give the Iraqis the best possible chance to succeed." But with all due respect to the senator from Arizona, that ship has long since sailed.
A surge is not acceptable to the people in this country -- we have voted overwhelmingly against this war in polls (about 80 percent of the public is against escalation, and a recent Military Times poll shows only 38 percent of active military want more troops sent) and at the polls. We know this is wrong. The people understand, the people have the right to make this decision, and the people have the obligation to make sure our will is implemented.
Congress must work for the people in the resolution of this fiasco. Ted Kennedy's proposal to control the money and tighten oversight is a welcome first step. And if Republicans want to continue to rubber-stamp this administration's idiotic "plans" and go against the will of the people, they should be thrown out as soon as possible, to join their recent colleagues.
Anyone who wants to talk knowledgably about our Iraq misadventure should pick up Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone." It's like reading a horror novel. You just want to put your face down and moan: How could we have let this happen? How could we have been so stupid?
As The Washington Post's review notes, Chandrasekaran's book "methodically documents the baffling ineptitude that dominated U.S. attempts to influence Iraq's fiendish politics, rebuild the electrical grid, privatize the economy, run the oil industry, recruit expert staff or instill a modicum of normalcy to the lives of Iraqis."
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. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on January 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"
