Monday, February 5, 2007

Molly Ivins' Last Request

I'm sitting in an Internet cafe while traveling and just read Molly Ivins' last column forwarded to me by my father. My father is a conservative man - he was born and raised in Waco, TX, and worked as a banker and real estate developer. He's also one of the most pragmatic, level-headed people I've ever met. And he sure loved Molly Ivins.

And for good reason. Back in Jan. 16, 2003 she wrote:
“I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, ‘Horrible three-way civil war?’ ”
This should have been obvious to all of us, and I wish I'd read it back then. I was a reluctant supporter of the war, because of my terror of nuclear terrorism. All the more reason to honor her last request:
"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."
Most people I know aren't hell raisers by nature, and all of them are busy. But if you had time to read this, you have time to do something.

If, like me, you have more money than time, I ask that you start by making a donation to the Texas Observer, the paper she made great. You can do it via PayPal here.

I'm not affiliated with the Observer, but it's one of the things that makes me proud to be from Texas.

If you leave a comment stating how much you donated, I'll do a two to one match up to a total of $25,000.

6 comments:

Jim Greer said...

Also, please forward this to friends and family, as appropriate.

Candu said...

Thank you! We donated $100 today.

Texas League of Conservation Voters said...

Wow - that's a tremendous offer. I already gave to the Observer, but what about the ACLU? Molly's other favorite organization. She devoted one speech a month about the Bill of Rights, mostly to ACLU audiences nationwide. The ACLU has set up a special tribute page as well:

http://www.aclu.org/about/28226prs20070201.html

Here's Molly on the ACLU:

"We suffer the worst attack on this country since Pearl Harbor, and the Bush administration sends the FBI after the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU exists to protect every citizen’s rights as defined in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States. The ACLU works solely through the legal system: It does not advocate violence, terrorism or any other damn thing except the Bill of Rights. Since when is that extremist? … We are living in a time when our government is investigating an organization that stands for the highest and best American ideals."

jubi said...

I gave $100 today. Thank you for your great offer.

Jim Greer said...

James -

Thanks for the donations: we're up to $1,200 (counting the $500 my father contributed but didn't mention here). I'll make a $2,400 donation. I'll check back here regularly to see if we get more.

James - I like the ACLU, too, but just wanted to keep this focused.

Jim said...

I'm in for $100. Great idea!