Molly Died Fighting

I had to work all day, but seeing as I haven't posted in so long, I decided to give a recently deceased writer some props by reprinting her last published words.

Why does it hurt so much more when we lose our people when we need them most?

We needed Molly Ivins to stick around for so much longer.

Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins (August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007) was an American newspaper columnist, political commentator, and best-selling author from Austin, Texas.

Stand Up Against the Surge

The purpose of this old-fashioned newspaper crusade to stop the war is not to make George W. Bush look like the dumbest president ever. People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they bought into the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb was the Egypt-Suez war? How massively stupid was the entire war in Vietnam? Even at that, the challenge with this misbegotten adventure is that WE simply cannot let it continue.

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

—Molly Ivins published this call in her column on January 11, 2007

On January 31, she died after a long battle with breast cancer. This was her last column.