We saw a play about Molly Ivins last night, and it touched me and caused me to see right speech as heroic, in her case. She lived in Texas most of her life and wrote about hypocrisy and incompetence and fraud with panache and humor. She made us laugh about our foibles, but she had points of view she wanted to convey, and voting and politicians mattered to her. She was a liberal in a state that has few, and she spoke her piece in her own way no matter what the cost. She was authentic: authentically Texan, bigger than life, authentically outrageous, authentically passionate about this country.
I wish Democrats would take a swig of her juice and man up and say what they believe instead of what will get them elected. They don't appear to have the core of beliefs she had.
Her battle with breast cancer was as brave as the rest of her life, and she became a spokesperson for telling it like is is about diagnosis, treatment and facing death.
Speech matters so much. When I think of all the people she influenced, the minds she probably changed, the perspective she offered, I see true power. The power of the voice in the wilderness.
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