THE MOST IMPORTANT OFFICE IS “CITIZEN” (borrowed)

THE MOST IMPORTANT OFFICE IS “CITIZEN” (borrowed)

Are You Doing Your Part?

"We are the people who run this country," Molly Ivins said. "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. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans
and demanding, 'Stop it, now!' "

I so “heart” this woman. My sentiments exactly. I have written and spoken the same belief many times in my expressed passion, my speeches, my writing. “We the people” need to own our government. It is ours to own. President Bush is not the government. He certainly doesn’t represent my views, my conviction, my passions. If our politicians are doing something that we believe is not worthy of our name, then we need to stand up, speak out, never feign our loyalty, nor hide our light under any d*** bushel – if you know what I mean. We ARE the light and if we don’t shine a light on what’s wrong and what’s right, then when we find ourselves in the darkness of our laziness and disrespect for our own pain – we’ll so need that dose of humor that Molly scooped up and dished out. Just to get ourselves out of the human hell that we appear to relish. Let’s find that little whimper of a voice, America. Let’s rekindle our passion for justice for all, including the disenfranchised. Where is our backbone? If you don’t use your “freedom of speech” then I dare say you don’t have any. (And I can be funny . . . really. Just got steamed for the moment.)

I wasn’t going to post today. Had other things to do . . . you know those things that don’t move the soul or warm the heart, unless it’s that they got done. But I was doing my free weights routine, walked over to the computer to check out the numbers rising on my blog here and ended up by chance or destiny coming across what I am about to share. I am an activist of justive, human dignity and human value. I found this website that had my posts all over it. I was somewhat surprised and flabbergasted. I was cruising through the site after I “identified myself” with the listings at this site http://technorati.com/ and came across a blog called darfurdyingforheroes. And Darfur very much is dying for us to be heroes.

http://darfurdyingforheroes.blogspot.com/2007/02/darfur-hero-we-are-deciders-molly.html Then I linked and linked to articles written about someone who died last Wednesday. She is my new hero and I never knew of her until tonight. But she certainly is cut out of the same cloth as I find myself to be. I love her. Didn’t know her as I said. But I love her. I am going to include an article by E.J. Dionne Jr. of the Washington Post for those of you that don’t leave a blog, although I include the link here. The article is called “Molly Ivins's Joyful Outrage” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101496.html

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"Molly Ivins's Joyful Outrage"

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Friday, February 2, 2007; Page A15

She explained her views on gun control this way: "I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives."

She said of a certain beloved former president while he was in office that "if you put his brains in a bee, it would fly backwards" and that "if he gets even more sedate, we will have to water him twice a week."

And she said of her affection for her home state: "I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults."

Boy, will we miss Molly Ivins, the writer and happy agitator who succumbed Wednesday to cancer -- a disease, she said, not sparing herself from her own lashing wit, that "can kill you, but it doesn't make you a better person." Yes, we will remember her for being raucously funny, always at the expense of the wealthy, the powerful or the Texas legislature.

But because she made you laugh and broke all the rules of polite commentary ("I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years"), Molly made you forget how deadly serious she was about politics, democracy and social justice.

More than just about any other columnist I can think of, Molly was a genuine populist, to make proper reference to a word she couldn't stand to see misused by charlatans. She believed in lifting up the underdog and hated it when the wealthy made excuses for injustice.

When the victims of layoffs and downsizing complained, Molly said some years ago, they were met with "a more sophisticated version of 'So what.' This is the gig where you make yourself look wise by tugging your chin and opining, 'Well, yes, there is a problem, but there's really nothing we can do about it. Blah, blah, economic globalization, blah, blah, technological change, blah, blah, only long-term solutions.' " To Molly, this was all self-interested nonsense.

Molly paid far more attention than most reporters to the details of budget bills and was always on the barricades when poor people were being shortchanged. During the great government shutdown of 1995, when most journalists were obsessing over the personal drama of Clinton vs. Gingrich, Molly was writing about cuts to the Supplemental Security Income program.

She could talk CBO and OMB with the best of the budget mavens. Nobody much noticed because she'd keep people reading with such phrases as "the lick log" -- I can't translate that one -- and "fruitcake tax giveaways."

She believed in democratic politics and hated it when people didn't exercise their rights to vote and protest. She believed in government and hated it when people ran it down.

"This is a column," she wrote in September 2005, "for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, 'I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics,' or, 'There's nothing I can do about it,' or, 'Eh, they're all crooks anyway.' . . . Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would argue, 'Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people.' Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people."

I became a Molly fan many years ago when we both worked at the New York Times, a place where she was as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a piece of angel food cake (to steal shamelessly from Raymond Chandler). I was blessed to have dinner with her last November. She was dying but had lost none of her capacity for joyful outrage.

And joy was the key. Another thing she hated was anybody who didn't think that fighting the good fight was a kick. She left us all with a charge a few years ago:

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce."

If I may say so without raising complex theological issues, at least the hereafter is now a better place. Molly Ivins is the only person I can think of who, upon entering heaven, would start making jokes at God's expense and get God to laugh with her.

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LAY DOWN (Candles In The Rain) Song by Melanie Safka

Lay Down, Lay Down, Lay it all down, Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown,

We were so close, there was no room,

We bled inside each other’s wounds,

We all had caught the same disease,

And we all sang the songs of peace.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...............

So raise the candles high, ‘Cause if you don’t we could stay black against the night.

So raise them higher again. And if you do we could stay dry against the rain.

…………………………………………………………………………………….................................

We were so close, there was no room,

We bled inside each other’s wounds,

We all had caught the same disease,

And we all sang the songs of peace.

Some came to sing, some came to pray.

Some came to keep the dark away.

Now . . . Let's Get Busy.