Ivins uses humor to discuss serious issues

Story by Carolyn Chapman

When most students hear the word “service,” the word “politics” doesn’t immediately spring to mind. But it should, said guest lecturer Molly Ivins, a nationally syndicated columnist and author who writes about Texas and national politics. She challenged William Jewell students to consider politics as a vehicle for positive change in her fall appearance on the Jewell campus, which was sponsored by the Midwest Center for Service Learning and Women’s Issues.

In her warm, southern style, Ivins used humor to engage students in a serious discussion about politics in America. She understands that many students are cynical and disgusted with politics.

“Money is out of control in politics,” she said. But the system is not corrupt enough not to get involved. “The problem isn’t with those people in Washington or Jefferson City,” she asserted. “We own this country; we run this country. Those people work for us. We are heirs to the most magnificent political legacy any people has ever received.”

The dream of freedom is so powerful that people all around the globe literally die for the chance to try to live that dream, she reminded her audience in Gano Chapel. Ivins, who wrote Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush and Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, began her journalism career at the Complaint Department of the Houston Chronicle. Next, she went to the Minneapolis Tribune, then back to Texas as co-editor of The Texas Observer, a publication devoted to covering Texas social and political events, including the Texas legislature. A number of her humorous anecdotes involved the Texas legislature. As an icebreaker, she told the crowd of a government cover-up when an Enron executive was appointed to a government committee. The appointee had to file paperwork, which became public record. As Ivins tells the story, “Question 17 had been whited out-- now this was a very sophisticated cover-up.” The question asked if the appointee had had any unfortunate encounters with law enforcement authorities. The media, “alert guardian watchdogs of democracy,” discovered that the appointee had accidentally shot a whooping crane, and accidentally buried said crane, while on a goose hunt. “The public decided that if he didn’t know a whooping crane from a goose that he didn’t need to be regulating public utilities,” Ivins recalled.

Ivins greeted well wishers in Yates College Union following her Gano presentation.

On a serious note, Ivins reminded her audience that as American citizens, they have more political power with their one vote than 99 percent of all people who have ever lived on the earth. “Don’t throw away that power because you’re bored or cynical,” she urged. Politics, she says, isn’t like a painting on a wall or a program on TV where a viewer can just say “I don’t care for that” and walk away. Politics covers virtually every aspect of a person’s life, “from how deep in the ground you can be buried when you die to what textbooks your children read to how qualified the person must be who prescribes your eyeglasses,” she said. Ivins encouraged her listeners to consider their roles as citizens equal to whatever else they do in life. “I am optimistic to the point of idiocy,” she said with a laugh. “I believe we can do better and become closer to the ideal of representative democracy,” she said. The key, in her opinion, is public campaign financing.

After taking a jab at the newly enacted Patriot Act, she encouraged students to have fun while fighting for freedom. She ended the evening with the following anecdote: An elderly lawyer who had fought a long and tough fight for freedom in the McCarthy and civil rights eras was awarded a lifetime award for his efforts. Being hospitalized, he asked a friend to accept on his behalf. When his friend asked him what to tell the audience, the ailing gentleman said, “Tell them how much fun it was.” Ivins concluded, “When I get to the end of my road and look at the next generation of freedom fighters, I want to tell them how much fun I’ve had.” Ivins greeted well-wishers in Yates College Union following her Gano presentation.