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<DIV><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">REMEMBERING
ANN RICHARDS</SPAN><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">By Molly
Ivins AlterNet</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">September 15, 2006</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">AUSTIN, Texas --- She was so
generous with her responses to other people. If you told Ann Richards something
really funny, she wouldn't justt smile or laugh, she would stop and break up
completely. She taught us all so much --- she was a great campfire cook. Her wit
was a constant delight. One night on the river on a canoe trip, while we all
listenned to the next rapid, which sounded like certain death, Ann drawled, "It
sounds like every whore in El Paso just flushed her john."</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">She knew how to deal with
teenage egos: Instead of pointing out to a kid who was pouring charcoal lighter
on a live fire that he was idiot, Ann said, "Honey, if you keep doing that, the
fire is going to climb right back up to that can in your hand and explode and
give you horrible injuries, and it will just ruin my entire weekend."</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">She knew what it was like to
have four young children and to be so tired you cried while folding the laundry.
She knew and valued Wise Women like Virginia Whitten and Helen Hadley.</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">At a long-ago political do at
Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin' and
greetin' at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean
our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a
row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of
Bullock's personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas
politics, knew every sorry, no good sumbitch in the entire state. Some old
racist judge from East Texas came up to him, "Bob, my boy, how are
you?"</SPAN><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Bullock said, "Judge, I'd like
you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer."</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The judge peered up at me and
said, "How yew, little lady?"</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Bullock, "And this is Charles
Miles, the head of my personnel department." Miles, who is black, stuck out his
hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped
into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie's palm with one finger,
while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. "And who is
this lovely lady?"</SPAN><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Ann beamed and replied, "I am
Mrs. Miles."</SPAN><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">One of the most moving memories
I have of Ann is her sitting in a circle with a group of prisoners. Ann and
Bullock had started a rehab program in prisons, the single most effective thing
that can be done to cut recidivism (George W. Bush later destroyed the program).
The governor of Texas looked at the cons and said, "My name is Ann, and I am an
alcoholic."</SPAN><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">She devoted untold hours to
helping other alcoholics, and anyone who ever heard her speak at an AA
convention knows how close laughter and tears can be.</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">I have known two politicians who
completely reformed the bureaucracies they were elected to head. Bob Bullock did
it by kicking ass at the comptroller's until hell wouldn't have it. Fear was his
m.o. Ann Richards did it by working hard to gain the trust of the employees and
then listening to what they told her. No one knows what's wrong with a
bureaucracy better than the bureaucrats who work in it.</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The 1990 race for governor was
one of the craziest I ever saw, with Ann representing "New Texas."</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Republican nominee Claytie
Williams was a perfect foil, down to his boots, making comments that could be
construed as racist and sexist. Ann was the candidate of everybody else,
especially for women. She represented all of us who have lived with and learned
to handle good ol' boys, and she did it with laughter. </SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The spirit of the crowd that set
off from the Congress Avenue Bridge up to the Capitol the day of Ann's
inauguration was so full of spirit and joy. I remember watching San Antonio
Mayor Henry Cisneros that day with tears running down his cheeks because
Chicanos were finally included.</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Ann got handed a stinking mess:
Damn near every state function was under court order. The prisons were so
crowded, dangerous convicts were being let loose. She had a long, grinding four
years and wound up fixing all of it. She always said you could get a lot done in
politics if you didn't need to take credit.</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">But she disappointed many of her
fans because she was so busy fixing what was broken, she never got to change
much. The '94 election was a God, gays and guns deal. Annie had told the
legislature that if they passed a right-to-carry law, she would veto it. They
did, and she did. At the last minute, the NRA launched a big campaign to
convince the governor that we Texas women would feel ever so much safer if we
could just carry guns in our purses.</SPAN><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Said Annie, "Well, you know that
I am not a sexist, but there is not a woman in this state who could find a gun
in her handbag."</SPAN><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><BR
style="FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Molly Ivins
writes about politics, Texas and other bizarre
happenings.</SPAN></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>