*Yes, yes she can. Ms. Ivins, who died in 2007 at the tender age of 62, was a Texan American whose nationally syndicated column was chock full of her wicked sense of humor, as well as her dedication to the rights of all Americans everywhere – even while (she worked in Minnesota, NYC and Colorado before returning to TX) her heart was 100% in the Lone Star State. Little known or remembered fact: while initially working for the New York Times, she wrote Elvis Presley’s obituary, in 1977. In case you’re wondering why that factoid stayed with me – well, hot damn, y’all – I love ELVIS!! She was assigned the obit because new on the job, with her Texas twang – and being female – they figured she was familiar with Elvis and all that jazz. She wasn’t, not particularly, but with this obit, she was launched.
Still, why run a bunch of quotes from a woman who, however famous and popular she was in her day, has been dead for almost 2 decades? Well, because this moment needs some Ivins’ prescient quotes and quips; also, because in researching politics for my next progressive opinion column, I came across a few quotes from Ms. Ivins that led me down a corridor leading to a whole new level of appreciation for her writing, her tenacity, her view of politics, and for her as a person.
All of the following are from her various columns or books. Here’s to you, Ms. Ivins, with renewed respect. Her wiki page is attached at the bottom if your interest is piqued.
This country is run by us, it is our deal, we run this country, we are the board of directors, we own it, they are just the people we’ve hired to drive the bus for a while.
I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.
When politicians start talking about large groups of their fellow Americans as ‘enemies,’ it’s time for a quiet stir of alertness. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country.
The only problem was, the founders left a lot of people out of the Constitution. They left out poor people and black people and female people. It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America. And it still goes on today.
I am not anti-gun. I’m pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We’d turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don’t ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives. (good gawd I love this one…reframing the argument humorously – genius!)
Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world.
We make the mistake of thinking that the political spectrum runs from left to right when in fact it is from top to bottom and the gap is getting broader every day…
One function of the income gap is that the people at the top of the heap have a hard time even seeing those at the bottom. They practically need a telescope. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt probably didn’t was a lot of time thinking about the people who build their pyramids, either.
This last one is me badly paraphrasing Ms. Ivins because I couldn’t find it anywhere (and then lost the original clip, my bad), after having heard it in an interview she did while journeying down my rabbit hole:
We all know shit runs downhill from the top to the bottom, and the people on the bottom, poor people, the disabled, the vulnerable – are drowning in it.