She Shook the Walls

Up to the walls of Jericho
She marched with a spear in her hand
Go blow them ram horns she cried
For the battle is in my hand

Molly,
I am shouting,
With two voices,
Walls come down!
Walls come down!
Walls come down!

Maya Angelou introduced her Washington Post appreciation of Molly Ivins with that poem, in Molly Ivins Shook the Walls With Her Clarion Call , saying:

The walls have not come down, but they have been given a serious shaking.

That Jericho voice is stilled now.

Molly Ivins has been quieted.

* * * *

The walls of ignorance and prejudice and cruelty, which she railed against valiantly all her public life, have not fallen, but their truculence to do so does not speak against her determination to make them collapse.

Paul Krugman also had a fitting tribute to Molly Ivins in his NYTimes op-ed piece, Missing Molly Ivins

Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the times when it’s most important to do just that. And the fact that she remembered these truths explains something I haven’t seen pointed out in any of the tributes: her extraordinary prescience on the central political issue of our time.

Reviewing several of her early Iraq war columns, Krugman observes that Ivins' predictions were prescient. Explaining why she saw what the rest of the media did not, Krugman states:

The administration’s exploitation of 9/11 created an environment in which it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.

Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.

(Krugman piece also available at Rozius)

There's also a humorous video, PBS Newshour Tribute Essay, featuring Molly Ivins on Texas art, via Tennessee Guerilla Women and my earlier post, Get Mad for Molly.

Tags: Commentary, Paul Krugman, Maya Angelou, Molly Ivins