On August 30, 1944 Molly Ivins came into this world,
no doubt shouting her dismay at the manner of her entrance. Although no longer with us, she left a legacy
of exhortations to all of us to get up off our butts, make some noise, make a
difference and have some fun along the way.
Molly and I grew up in the same city, Houston,
Texas. She was born two and a half months before I
was. I often wonder when our paths
might have crossed. Certainly not at
Smith College. My undergraduate years
were spent at UT Austin. Certainly not
in Paris. I could ill afford any
semester abroad program. I spent my
summers working at a paint company to earn enough money for college expenses in
the coming year. Certainly not at
Columbia University. My graduate degree
is from the University of Oklahoma.
Molly came from privilege, going to St John’s School located in a
wealthy enclave of Houston; I attended Galena Park High School located within
shouting distance of the highly industrialized, polluted ship channel where I
held my breath on the school bus each morning as we passed a petro chemical
plant.
But at some point Molly fled her roots, at least
those anchored in privilege, and began to focus her sharp edged wit and
intelligence on the world beyond the walls of wealth.
It was at The Texas Observer that she honed to a
razor’s edge her ability to cut through the bullshit and deliver an incisive
shot that would puncture the inflated ego of some political operator or cast a
laser beam on an inane argument, shattering it into shards of fragmented
nonsense.
It was last autumn while visiting family in Texas
that my cousin gave me two of her books to read. Next I came across the play Red
Hot Patriot, ordered it, devoured it and decided it was the perfect
centerpiece for The Path 2014 Festival, The Artist’s Response to the Changing Landscape of Journalism & Ethics through Theatre, Film & Photography. On youtube I listened to a speech she gave at
Tulane University and found her not only funny and acerbic but also
compassionate and insightful. It was
that speech that convinced me to take on ‘Patriot’ and play a fellow
Houstonian even if we grew up in very different universes.
But The Artist’s Path attempts each year
a bit more than just producing a play.
My own roots in education both secondary and higher push me to offer
something more substantive. Don’t get me
wrong, Red Hot Patriot is a wonderful
piece and I look forward to playing Molly, but I also want to offer more.
Molly Ivins made her bones in the domestic politics
of Texas. She did not report from
foreign lands, but from littered offices in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Ft Worth
and her own home not to mention the hallowed halls of the New York Times. But I
believe she would have honored those who travel to distant shores to bring us
the news-- news which eventually impacts us in whatever large or small community we
call home here in America.
And so Path will honor those journalists who have
lost their lives while doing their jobs.
Over 900 reporters have been killed worldwide since 1992. In honor of
them and of Molly, we will hold a Roll Call in Remembrance in conjunction with
a Symposium on the Changing Landscape of Journalism and Ethics in the 21st
Century.
Molly’s biting commentary notwithstanding, she believed
in digging out the truth and telling it.
She skewered the powerful in defense of the powerless. In her final months of life as she battled
cancer, she also battled what she saw clearly as the trampling of the Bill of
Rights, co-authoring with Lou Dubois, The Bill of Wrongs.
In early January 2007 during a rare ice storm, Molly
asked to be driven to a fundraiser to thank supporters of The Texas Observer. On
January 31, 2007 she passed away.
Molly often said, “Good thing we’ve still got
politics—finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”
