A Good Woman

This is why I'll be leavin'....this is why - I can't stay here no more...



It's taken me days to work up the nerve to post a salute to this good woman. Back when I was a receptionist from hell in a government job in Texas, I dealt with every neanderthal in the system whenever something went wrong with the phones. Once, on a real special day - all the phones in the entire Capitol Complex would not dial out. Calls were coming in frenzied and every staff pee-on in the Senate was chewing a piece of my arse about something I knew zip about. Finally, some lady calls and says she needs someone to come over to the Capitol to look at their phones just as soon as possible. I, being an angry young woman with no class, responded, " I guess you think you're the only person in the State Offices who should have their phone working." A moment of silence followed and I, being a dumb young woman, thought I'd won. When she introduced herself, I envisioned myself sitting on the toilet for the rest of the day looking at help wanted adds in the paper. She laughed, accepted my frazzled apology, and even winked at me when we entered the building, my hands shaking and my animal senses screaming 'flight, you idiot, FLIGHT'. This is a dumb story but it is the only one I've got...and it doesn't even tickle upon the graciousness, dignity, and gentle way of this woman without whom, a large empty space will remain forever. Genetics, scienctific wonders, and the fertility of the human will never duplicate this human being.

Not just a great person, but a great governor. When Shrub ran for the presidency, everyone here in Maine said, no way will he win. But I knew he would. Because someone who could unseat a woman who set the record for hiring minorities and women (who, together, hold the majority vote in the state of Texas) in a previously white male institution, who could generate a non-oil entertainment based economy that brought jobs back to the rural poor of Texas, and who could set the school system straight - would have to be either a saint or a snake. SSSSSSSS! Shrub ran repeated ads on TV about Ann Richard's past issues with alcohol, even publicizing her records at treatment clinics. He painted her as a drunk on the edge of picking up the bottle any day and people fell for it. Now ya'll know why people were so upset when we found out he lied about a little DUI charge himself. On this issue alone, he so penetrated the Texan mind with fear and doubt, that he squeaked himself into the governorship.....sound familiar?

So, dear woman, I remember you today because you were strong, kind, funny, and that must have frightened the hell out of many people but you did it anyway and raised four kids and washed your own laundry to boot. Ride on.......