Gender and consent, from Yemen to West Texas

Maggie says:
Since we're talking gender, marriage, and consent thanks to the lovely "Yearning for Zion" case, I thought it appropriate to add a face and a personality to our abstract discussions.

Meet Nojoud Muhammed Nasser, who is without a doubt one of the cutest 8-year-olds I've ever seen. But don't let Nojoud's innocent face fool you - this girl is as tough and strong as they come. Here's Nojoud's story: She lives in Yemen, where females are not especially celebrated (Yemen ranks 138 out of 140 on the list of "Best Places to be a Mother"). Despite this egregious ranking, Yemen has actually made some progress on the child marriage front: the average marrying age of girls has climbed from ten to fourteen over two generations. Given this progress, Yemen hasn't seen fit to issue a minimum age to marry as long as there is parental consent, although in 1999 they determined that marriage "contracts" could not be legally consummated until the female was "mature."

None of this helped Nojoud two months ago when her father, a mentally unstable panhandler, sold her to a 30-year-old man for marriage. Nojoud described her father's actions this way: "He beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me." Well, the marriage happened, and shockingly, Nojoud's "husband" did not follow the law and wait until his "bride" was mature enough for sex. He raped Nojoud, repeatedly. She is eight, which is a fact that hits home when you read childlike quotes like this one: "Whenever I wanted to play in the yard, he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him."

I bring Najoud up because she is, in fact, an enormous success story. Actually, she's a heroine for all of us. See, eight-year-old Najoud took herself to court - the first minor to do so in Yemini history - and sued her father and her husband for divorce, charging sexual and domestic abuse. Both men were arrested, although her father has since been released.

“I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced," Najoud told the Yemen Times. "They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done.”

Najoud won her case in that she is being protected and will not have to return to her husband, but it is unclear how or if the husband will be prosecuted. Charmingly, he had this to say from jail, where he is still being held: "It is not a matter of loving her, I don’t, but it’s just a challenge to her and her uncle who think that they can put me in jail and also the judge has no right to bring me here. How did she dare to complain about me?"

Najoud's case helped spur a push for additional marriage protections at the national level, but that attempt failed. In other words, nothing will prevent Najoud's little sister, all of six years old, from experiencing the same horror Najoud did.

Coming back full-circle to "Yearning for Zion," I wonder this: how different might things be if the abuse call that was placed to authorities could be authenticated? The ability to judge the sect by U.S. laws (when they do pay taxes and don't maintain their marriages are legal) would be stronger if one of their own was asking for it, just like Najoud did in Yemen. Until we get that verification, I'm afraid this feels far too much like a witch hunt, even if most of us hope those children never see the inside of that compound again. On the other hand, is waiting for one of those girls to overcome extraordinary pressures and reach out to the authorities the opposite of Big Brother - is it shamelessly negligent?

I'm really not sure. But I know that Najoud is an amazing little girl. And I hope the girls of "Yearning for Zion" have a chance to one day feel her power, too.

ps: Kudos to Jezebel for bringing my attention to Najoud's case.

Not feeling sorry for Britney

Maggie says:
The Britney Spears trainwreck continues to fascinate and appall me. She is obviously a complete mess, but it's also scary how anxious the media and paparazzi seem to be for a spectacularly dramatic conclusion that involves a former teen pop star killing herself in a photogenic way. It's really sad. When I see clips of what it's like for her to drive anywhere, get out of her car, etc., I can admit that it's an intimidating situation. No wonder she's run over feet and freaked out on a few of them.

And yet... this is clearly a woman who is incapable of making good choices for herself or her sons. She's a disaster of the highest order.

Here's why I don't sympathize that the throng of paparazzi waiting for her at the courthouse yesterday intimidated her into leaving without speaking up for her sons: because she faces them all the time, by choice, and most of the time I think she loves it. A selection of recent interactions with the paparazzi include:

• Starbucks Frappuccino run
• Visiting car dealerships
• Shopping
• Fast food drive-through
  
• Checking into a hotel
  
• Hitting up a gas station for snacks
• Interacting with local police/emergency rescue folks
  
• Starbucks Frappuccino run
• Visiting car dealerships
• Shopping
• Fast food drive-through
• Checking into a hotel
  
• Hitting up a gas station for snacks
• Interacting with local police/emergency rescue folks
• Starbucks Frappuccino run
• Visiting car dealerships
• Shopping
• Fast food drive-through
• Checking into a hotel
  
• Hitting up a gas station for snacks
• Interacting with local police/emergency rescue folks

And that's just one day! Ah yes, the life of Britney Spears. The girl does these esteemed activities on an hourly basis, every damn day of her crazy life, facing the cameras and the throngs of photographers because to her, attention = love. So why exactly should we sympathize when she decides she can't face that same crowd to walk into a courthouse where she has been summoned by her lawyers to speak up for her own children?

Not buying it. Glad the kids are with their respectable father. Go and get some rest, girl. Away from the spotlight, please.

Isabel Allende and the "warrior heart"

Maggie says:
This video beautifully illustrates some of the many reasons I adore Isabel Allende. She exudes more charm, passion, and compassion in a flash of her eyes than most of us can embody in a lifetime. Allende is the fullest woman I can think of: she runs the gamut from mournful mother to wild cook, from strident activist to joyful sage. And then there are her words: Paula remains for me a touchstone of beauty and emotion, and is the standard-bearer for tributes that matter.

At this conference talk, Allende starts with Sophia Loren's beauty tips and gracefully segues into the plight of international refugees, 80% of whom are women and girls. In proclaiming the "warrior hearts" of women living in poverty and at the bottom rung of familial and societal power structures, Allende reveals to us (again) her warrior heart, too.

Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion



Via Salon's Broadsheet.

Goodbye to Madeleine L'Engle

Mikaela says:
I was very sad to read that Madeleine L'Engle, author of the kids classic, A Wrinkle in Time, died September 7.

I so vividly remember reading these books, deep into the night, with a thrilling fear that my mom would burst in on me and I would catch holy hell for still being awake.

I remember feeling so akin to the brainy but loving Meg character, who lacks confidence and yet steps up at every dire circumstance. Over the course of the three-book series, she also gets prettier as time goes on and marries a wonderful guy. Good news for us not-so-beautiful brainiac kids!

The parents of the Murray family were partner scientists who work on chemistry and genetic codes (I think). The best part is the picture of domesticity as Mrs. Murray cooks a big vat of soup on her Bunsen burner so that she can feed her family AND work to solve a scientific mystery. So cool. (And reassuring to those of us brainiac yet maternal types out there!).

Of course the books are all about the power of love, but they're also great reads with amazing characters and such imaginitive events. I actually best-loved A Swiftly Tilting Planet, for its weaved narrative of historic events and the potential to radically avoid a cataclysmic current political event (nuclear both threat from a crazy South American despot). There's Native American lore, Salem witch trials, and all the arguments against nuclear proliferation you can imagine. In a kids book! Not to mention cosmic travel through space and time. Come on!

She was an author who wrote quality literature accessible to kids that actually gave good models and good stories about characters that helped me have choices that I might not have known I had otherwise. I so wanted to be a chemist for a good two years after reading these books! And have a family of five...

Ms. L'Engle also was very active promoting other writers, sponsoring scholarships and programs at the University of New Mexico for young authors. She put her money where her heart was to home-grow talent and support others' dreams.

What a beautiful model for all of us. I can't wait to read her books to my own kids.

Margaret Randall: Woman We Love

Maggie says:
I'm so proud to have been part of an amazing night for change last Friday. Amidst friends, music, and community, the SouthWest Organizing Project hosted a Silent Art Auction at the Central Park Deli in the Silver Moon Lodge for a very special cause.

Late next week, a delegation of 100 New Mexicans will travel together across the Deep South, with very special stops along the way to pick up fellow grassroots organizations, arriving in Atlanta for the U.S. Social Forum at the end of the month. The trip's going to be powerful, taking many folks through communities they otherwise might never see first-hand. The Social Forum itself will be an event to be remembered, and I love that the organizers chose the South as their host. Lucky for us, we'll get to experience the tour and the forum through one M's blogging (leave it to Marjorie to ensure wireless internet access on the bus!).

The highlight of Friday's auction was a collection of 19 Margaret Randall photographs from Nicaragua. I'd seen these photos in the shape that SWOP found them in previous to the event - a little bit dusty, a little bit disorganized, and basically the best "under the couch" kind of find a grassroots organization can hope for. That said, I was unprepared for the impact of seeing them displayed together, beautifully matted and framed, and signed by Randall herself. The photos were taken in 1979, just after the Sandinistas came to power, and the imagery is overwhelming. Take a look at the link above to see the entire collection and I think you'll agree.

In addition to the Randall photographs, the other highlight of the auction was a room full of political posters from all over the world. The variety was really amazing, and the collection was pretty outstanding.

For me, though, it had to be a Randall. Right away, one jumped out at me, and sure enough, the bidding escalated... but my shopping instincts took over (not to mention my texting instincts to a favorite co-buyer), and I won it in the end. Here's what I took home:


Tonight, I spent some time adding some nuance to what my winning bid got me (although owning an original photograph that I really adore is enough in itself). What I discovered was truly incredible, because I had no idea just how amazing a woman Margaret Randall is. (It's outrageous this woman doesn't have a wikipedia entry, by the way!) Her story - as told in a documentary I'd love to see, "The Unapologetic Life of Margaret Randall," takes her through chapters of poetry, photography, activism, art, and fiction so "subversive" that the U.S. government tried to deport her. The author of more than 70 books, "Sandino's Daughters: Testimonies of Nicaraguan Women in Struggle," is considered a classic. Happily, I discovered that my photograph appears in her book "Women Brave in the Face of Danger: Photographs of and Writing by Latin and North American Women."

Finally, the photo itself has a wonderful story of its own. Here's what Randall says about the moment she took it:

There was the day I spotted those lines from Leonel Rugama’s poem, jumped out of the jeep and raised my camera to capture the wall with the words “Los heroes, nuestros heroes, nunca dijeron que morían por la patria sino que murieron . . .” Three women carrying loads of wash walked into the picture plane, and turned and posed just as I snapped the shutter. Rugama had been a 20 year old seminary student when he was assassinated in 1967 by Somoza’s National Guard. Had he lived, he would have been one of his country’s finest poets. Many ordinary Nicaraguans know his poetry by heart.

I'm appalled I'd never before heard of Leonel Rugama, but reading more about him online and knowing the full context of this amazing photo, not to mention the woman who took it, makes me one satisfied SWOP contributor.

For more information on Margaret Randall, head over to the Center for Southwest Research at UNM. The Margaret Randall Papers are housed there, and include a significant amount of material and correspondence from throughout her life, much of it related to her lawsuit against the U.S. government over her immigration status. Now aging gracefully (and spunkily, I'm sure) in New Mexico, Randall recently signed all the mats at SWOP and was generous enough to write a reflection supporting the delegation to the U.S. Social Forum. No question about it; Margaret Randall has officially become one of m-pyre's "Women We Love."

For more information on how you can still contribute to the SWOP delegation, contact the office. And don't forget about SWOPblogger, too! Jo Ann, another woman we love, has been doing an incredible job over there. And I continue to give all the credit in the world to SWOP for being able to pull off such a fantastic night; I can only imagine the goodness that'll come out of the delegation.

PS: I swear the Central Park Deli has the best falafel sandwich in town. I know, who would've guessed?! They also have really kick-ass fries for when falafel's not going to cut it. Go support them when you're craving something good; they were extremely generous to SWOP in hosting the event and couldn't be nicer folks.

All is not lost... Naomi Shihab Nye

Mikaela says:
Apologies, but I'm reposting from a YogaNow newsletter. Too good not to! This poet has several amazing books, including one of my favorite kids books these days, a collection of poems from around the world, "This Same Sky."

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal by Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately. Well one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her problem?

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu-biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew however poorly used - she stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you'll get there, just late, who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English.

I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and would ride next to her Southwest. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts out of her bag and was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo; we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers and the two little girls for our flight, one African-American, one Mexican-American ran around serving us all apple juice and lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend by now we were holding hands had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves.

Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in.

The shared world. Not a single person in this gate once the crying of confusion stopped has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.

This can still happen, anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Kindness -- Naomi Shihab-Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
You must lose things,
Feel the future dissolve in a moment
Like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
What you counted and carefully saved,
All this must go so you know
How desolate the landscape can be
Between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
Thinking the bus will never stop,
The passengers eating maize and chicken
Will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
You must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
Lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
How he too was someone
Who journeyed through the night with plans
And the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
Catches the thread of all sorrows
And you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
Only kindness that ties your shoes
And sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
Only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
And then goes with you everywhere
Like a shadow or a friend.

TONIGHT: Women and Planning

Maggie says:
An organization near and dear to M³'s hearts, the Albuquerque Planners Network is presenting a forum tonight that's sure to generate community, conversation, and connection. Planning always involves community, conversation, and connection... but when women are the focus, it's bound to be especially captivating. This event should be a great one, so we hope to see many of you there!

Women and Planning
Panelists from different sectors of the planning profession will discuss
the role of gender in planning.

Thursday, March 22
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sawmill Lofts Multipurpose Room, 1801 Bellamah NW

Panel
Connie Chavez, Sawmill Community Land Trust
Paula Garcia, New Mexico Acequia Association
Bernadette Miera, Bernalillo County
Nichole Sanchez-Howell, Village of Corrales
Renee Villareal, Santa Fe County

Moderator
Claudia Isaac, UNM School of Architecture and Planning (and m-pyre hero)

Women in Action: The Run-down

Mikaela says:
What a beautiful event. I admit that as it drew closer and closer, I was actually wishing I could just call in sick. I was totally exhausted and had no idea where I was going to get the energy for this. Then it looked like no one was going to come. I was ready to go home.

All of a sudden, we were started, the energy flowed through the room, and we had 40 people in our audience, feeding fuel to the fire.

These women were amazing. All different, all individual, yet somehow as we heard story after story, the picture of women's pivotal role in social change, in our communities, came into focus. There was a fabulous discussion, too. The audience was right there with the hard questions -- "You've taken on such big issues. Most days do you feel optimistic or depressed?" and "Given that so much has actually gone backward from the 60s, how do you still keep working and pushing to move forward?"

Here were some of the great lines of the night (some may be paraphrased, I admit):

• "Consciousness creates choices." -- Joann Bejar
• "I ask myself three questions about the way I spend my money, my time, and my relationships: 1) Is it giving me as much fulfillment as I put in? 2) It is in alignment with my values? 3) Is it in alignment with my purposes?" -- Margo Ganster
  
• "We ask our teens: How can you cause social change? How can you get beyond limitations? What are your core beliefs that hold you back?" -- Myra Murphy-Jacobs
• "Working for Corporate America is a little like jumping in with the wolves, but it's giving me the tools that companies have used for years to get ahead." -- Dory Wegryzn
• "I'm driven by desperation. But you have to do what you can with two small hands. You just have to keep flailing them until people see." -- Naomi Natale
• "I had dreams of my own, but for 27 years in an abusive relationship, I could not see people, even though I like being with others, or leave the house, or do anything. When I divorced my husband, it was like I was reborn again." -- Sandra Montes
• "Non-profits have a problem. They're too territorial about their projects. As long as they're fighting each other over crumbs, they will never succeed. And until we face the issues of race and gender -- which I've seen in every non-profit -- we can't move forward together." -- Dory Wegryn
  
• "We're in a better space than we ever have been before. We're at the tipping point, and we're right there where we need to be when this system stops working." -- Joann Bejar
• "I've faced a lot of hardships in my life. I ask myself: How do I harness this energy of sorrow? I have a promise to myself -- a dream, a vision: That we can powerfully and effectively communicate to the extent that we wake up the compassion for each other that will energize us to work for change. We teach a workshop to teens that focuses on 'awakening the dreamer, changing the dream.'" -- Myra Murphy-Jacobs
• "I've made a choice to read success stories." -- Margo Ganster
• "I focus on our successes. I refuse to think about everything that still needs to be done. That's overwhelming. I'm stubborn. If someone says I can't do something, I do the opposite." -- Sandra Montes
• "Be silent and notice what interests you. Follow that until you know what you need to know. Then move on to the next thing." -- Margo Ganster
• "We've faced lots of barriers, namely politics and men." -- Sandra Montes
• "In our organization, we have no hierarcy. We share the same title. When there's a problem or someone's uncomfortable, we talk about it. When somebody hears you, frequently nothing has to change." -- Margo Ganster

And that, dear friends, is exactly the power of events like last night. Sometimes when you make the space for people to tell their stories and be heard, nothing has to change. Sometimes, that's all that has to happen for change to begin.

Reminder: TONIGHT! Women in Action @ the NHCC

Mikaela reminds:
TODAY,March 6 at 6 pm, the NHCC is hosting Women in Action, a panel discussion of local women activists, artists, and entrepreneurs, also as part of Women & Creativity. This one's near and dear to my little political heart. The panel includes:

• Dory Wegryzn, who was instrumental in forming the Sawmill Community Land Trust,
• Sandra Montes, who's fought tirelessly for the rights of Pajarito Mesa residents in Albuquerque's South Valley,
  
• Joann Bejar, who's done everything from being a filmaker, labor organizer, to mom,
  
• Naomi Natale, who created the Cradle Project -- an art project that calls attention to and raises funds for children orphaned by disease and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa,
• Myra Murphy-Jacob of Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance, which trains and sends leaders to other countries, where they help train others as leaders in sustainable, eco- and community-friendly business practices, and
  
• Margo Ganster of Green It!, a local company that helps other companies to incorporate ways to be "green," adding to the sustainability of our economy & our environment

m stands for "moving"

Mikaela says:
I personally love it when life is moving too fast to get caught up in the immobility of rage at current events. There's plenty I'm fuming about (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans, Libby trial, executive orders, creeping fascism of the Bush administration that seems to go all-but unnoticed by the general public... whew, better stop there!), but for a little while, I've got too much on my plate here in the Q to worry myself into inaction about the rest of the world.

It's all about doing what you can where you can, right?

So this evening (starting around 7 pm), I'm taking part in an event for women: Firestorm, at the Winning Coffee Co. on Harvard & Central (m-pyre readers know all about how much we love Winning!), hosted by Maresa Thompson, organizer of the fabulous National Poetry Slam in 2005. I'm even going to read a poem during the open mic! Then, with my bestest m-friends, we'll cheer and support our fellow creative women, strong women w/ strong voices telling us all what we need to hear, even when we sometimes don't want to listen. Tonight's all about listening!

Thursday, if I didn't have a conflict, I'd be going to see "When the Levees Broke," Spike Lee's documentary on the Katrina disaster in New Orleans, being shown by the Albuquerque chapter of Planners Network, made up of UNM Community & Regional Planning students & community members, at Out Ch-Yonda in Barelas (4th & Santa Fe). 6 pm.

On Saturday, I'll be going to hear local poets read at the Main Library downtown. How cool is it that our urban library is opening its doors to a largely urban movement of spoken-word poetry. Totally cool. That's from 3-5 pm. Afterward, I'll join Lisa Gill @ 7 pm for a reading celebrating her 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in UNM's Student Union Building (SUB) Acoma Room. Who else wins an award and throws a party for her community? Lisa rocks.

Friday, March 2, the NHCC, Harwood, ABQ Slams, & IPI are putting on Women Centerstage as part of the NHCC's Women & Creativity festival. We've gathered some of the coolest women poets around -- Lisa Gill, Esther Griego, Valerie Martinez, Demetria Martinez -- and paired them with Rah Goddess, who some of you may have heard and been electrified by on NPR's Bioneers show this summer. She's a hip-hop feminist poet and performance artist who coined the term "floetry" and spawned a whole generation of empowered and empowering women performers. Show starts at 7. Afterward, an all-women slam will choose the winner to represent Albuquerque at the World of Women (WoW) national poetry slam in Chicago this October. A hot night to be sure. Not to be missed.



Tuesday, March 6, 6 pm, the NHCC is hosting Women in Action, a panel discussion of local women activists, artists, and entrepreneurs, also as part of Women & Creativity. This one's near and dear to my little political heart. The panel includes:

• Dory Wegryzn, who was instrumental in forming the Sawmill Community Land Trust,
• Sandra Montes, who's fought tirelessly for the rights of Pajarito Mesa residents in Albuquerque's South Valley,
  
• Joann Bejar, who's done everything from being a filmaker, labor organizer, to mom,
  
• Naomi Natale, who created the Cradle Project -- an art project that calls attention to and raises funds for children orphaned by disease and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa,
• Myra Murphy-Jacob of Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance, which trains and sends leaders to other countries, where they help train others as leaders in sustainable, eco- and community-friendly business practices, and
  
• Margo Ganster of Green It!, a local company that helps other companies to incorporate ways to be "green," adding to the sustainability of our economy & our environment

In between all that, I'll be finishing an anthology of Voces students work for UNM Press and putting together an anthology of ABQ Slam poets w/ fellow IPI members Danny Solis, Susan McAllister, and Don McIver.

Oh, and planning a wedding.

Busy? Me? No.....

Lord help me the day I slow down long enough to really soak in the news from around the world. It's not looking good, but I'm trying to do what I can to support good things in my community. In the seconds between whirling from event to event, I wish peace for us all.

Honoring Molly Ivins

Maggie says:
Molly Ivins died today after a long struggle with cancer. Hearing the news on NPR tonight, stuck in traffic making my way up to Bernalillo, I started crying. It was an emotional day already, but in the cold air with brake lights reflecting all around me, the news of her passing struck me to the bone. I was inconsolable, because just knowing Molly was in our world was always a comfort. She was proof that talking back is always a good idea, proof that real smarts come from the heart, proof that positive change could and would come one day. And it will.

I became hooked on Molly Ivins in high school, an ultra-serious girl who saw that Molly's true power was not in how fast she could make my head spin, but in just how hard she could make me laugh. And oh, she made me laugh. She was a firecracker with a red-hot brain, a gracious lady with compassion for miles, a down-home woman who could take me back home with her expressions in a second, a no-nonsense stalwart who could tell you before you knew it was happening that you're full of shit and here's why...

I liked to imagine that Molly and my Grandma Jessie Mae were cut from the same cloth, women who could burst in from the fields and put fresh coffee on while dismissing the administration-sponsored newscast playing in the kitchen with a shrug and slice of wit. Guests in their kitchens were leveled with their signature blends of gravitas and ease, a mix that made you feel comfortable but left no question whose home you were in, whose table you were sitting at. Molly's words sat me right down at her kitchen table, offered up a seat in her Austin office, and maybe even a glass of sweet tea on the front porch if I was lucky enough. Molly was the kind of writer whose words came straight from her heart, who didn't want to believe the realities she was writing about, if only they weren't so predictable. After all, this is the old boys' club at work again; this is a system that rewards the most uncreative and unrewarding men alive with the most powerful job in the world...

As I've been lucky enough to see at countless points throughout my life, there is no power like that of a formidable woman who can make you feel at home. Molly took us home in every column.

Today's populist tinge of activism and local roots politics is Molly Ivins through and through. Molly always spoke truth to power. She always identified with the underdog, and she didn't stop at the party line to do that. Right was right and wrong was wrong, no matter who was bombing innocent civilians or cutting single mothers off of the government aid that was their lifeblood. Molly Ivins' politics ran deeper than the current election cycle, her reach much farther than a city whose favorite pastime is patting itself on the back.

As Molly proved, the biggest influence you can have has nothing to do with Capitol Hill. It's in the appeal that grabs us where our hearts are, in the places we shape our lives.

Thank you, Molly, more than you will ever know. Maybe one day we'll meet to talk and laugh over grits and eggs. I'll make the coffee. Grandma Jessie Mae will handle the grits, cooked in the same pan as the sausage in that way that only she knows how. You and Ann Richards can decide who's in charge of the eggs.

And oh, how we will laugh.