One of the first rules in this business is that if you’re going to steal something, steal from the best. Which means I have been using Molly Ivins’ phrase about the Texas legislature — "When the Legislature is set to convene, every village is about to lose its idiot” — for as long as I can remember.
Ivins died yesterday, and those of us who admired her work will miss her. In fact, even those of us who didn’t admire her work should miss her. In Texas, there are very few voices that aren’t in lockstep with the establishment. There are very few writers and commentators who ask why — why are we doing this, why does this have to be done this way, why can’t we do something else instead. Ivins was someone who asked why, and she asked it often and over and over until the bosses paid attention. Even if you disagreed with everything she said (and a lot of people around here certainly did), she was doing it as much for you as for those of us who agreed with her. She looked out for everyone who isn’t skeptical and questioning of the bosses, be they in government or business. She was doing the work they didn’t want to do.
I worked at the Times Herald when Ivins was there, which means I may have seen her once or twice (though I still have the newsroom phone book with her name in it). She didn’t write much about Dallas, which is too bad, for she understood it all too well. Dallas, she used to say,is the kind of town that would have rooted for Goliath to beat David. Now that she has died, there is one less person to help David load his sling shot.
