Happy Birthday, Molly

Today, in Monterey, California, in 1944 Molly Ivins was born.

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.

What are we, the spiritual descendants of Puritans, to make this monument to materialism? So much stuff it makes you sick to look at, like eating too much cotton candy. Stores that sell only stuff to put your stuff in. Subspecialties of stuff beyond the wildest dreams of most of the world’s people. Should we not disapprove? Well, yeah. On the other hand, the Pyramids were built for pharaohs on the happy theory that they could take their stuff with them. Versailles was built for kings on the theory that they should live surrounded by the finest stuff. The Mall of America is built on the premise that we should all be able to afford this stuff. It may be a shallow culture, but it’s by-God democratic. Sneer if you dare: this is something new in world history.

more of her words here