There's a point to this, bear with me. I've long been an admirer of the columnist Molly Ivins. Though Texas was her foundation, her words cut across state lines and added perspective to America. You may know her best from her famous comment -- often adapted by others to fit the situation -- about a creepy far-right "culture war" speech given by Pat Buchanan at the 1992 Republican Convention. "It sounded better in the original German." (Let it be noted for all those trying to claim that the far-right fascism of Trump in the Republican Party is just a Trump phenomenon. To repeat -- Buchanan's speech was not at some small, out-of-the-way event but rather the Republican National Convention in 1992.) She also was famous for having a deep insight into George W. Bush, having covered him for years as governor of Texas. From this she wrote two bestsellers -- Shrub and Bushwacked. Related to this, she once said (and this is a paraphrase but close), "The next time I tell you not to elect a Texan as president, pay attention." This is a piece that I wrote for the Huffington Post on Molly Ivins after she passed away. I'm tempted to repost it, but it would take us too far away from the point. However, if you have any appreciation of Ivins, you can read it here. I was watching a documentary last Sunday, Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins. It was very enjoyable – but one utterly surreal moment leaped out. I wanted to write about it then, but as you may have noticed, much too much other news got in the way -- even though this was related to it directly. But again as a reminder and for perspective, it was a week ago last Sunday when I was watching the film. As much as her life was centered in Texas, what I didn't realize until watching the documentary is that at the very beginning of her career, after a few years writing for a very small publication in Texas, she got an offer to work for a major city paper up north. Now, keep in mind, this was around 1965, about 55 years ago. The paper was the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, where was not only a police reporter, but the first female police reporter in Minneapolis. And I’m doing a double-take given what’s going on in the country -- again, this was last Sunday when the protests were at their height, and riots had started to break out, and so much attention of the country was focused specifically on Minneapolis and the Minneapolis police, where George Floyd had been murdered. But then it got even more weird. The documentary brings up how the Minneapolis police had a pet mascot that was a pig (and yes, how strange was that, given what was to come in about three years in American society…), which the police named – “Molly,” as a mark of their great dislike of her. The film then had footage of her later in her career when she was much more prominent, a national figure at that point, looking back on that period, and she’s on a TV show being interviewed, During the conversation, she’s asked about that police mascot pig having been named “Molly” years earlier. And she just laughs and says (and this is a paraphrase, but close – and remember this is about something 55 years ago in Minneapolis), “Oh, I took it as a great badge of honor. I thought it was pretty funny. I know they didn’t look at it that way, but I did. But they didn’t like me because I’d written a number of stories about police brutality there.” Wow. It wasn’t an out-of-body experience, but came close. There I was last Sunday night, watching her talk years ago about something that is now 55 years after the fact. And I was sort of looking around the room and out the window at the surrealness of the moment, with riots throughout the country over a murder in Minneapolis charged against the police, trying to place myself in time. I have two videos here. First, this is a good clip from the documentary which then leads into her making her famous comment about Pat Buchanan. And here is the trailer.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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