Molly Ivins died tonight after being defeated by her third go-round with breast cancer. She left the hospital to die at home. She was 62.
I have three women in my life right now who are undergoing biopsies on breast tissue. A fourth just had hers metastasize into lung cancer.
I don’t know what else to say.
I saw Molly Ivins speak once, at a Nation event. She was funny, she was smart, & she was a genuine populist. But she was also a bona fide political journalist. To lose a woman of her age, her experience, her seniority, when there are so few women working in political journalism… it’s such a loss, more gigantic than we can know right now. How long does it take for a woman like her to achieve the level of respect she got? A very, very long time.
Her final column is here. A bunch of her other columns are here.
But you know, what you want to do in her memory is raise some hell, or, in her own words:
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”