The Original Maverick
Samuel Augustus Maverick (July 23, 1803–September 2, 1870) was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. His name is the source of the term "maverick", first cited in 1867, which means independent minded. Maverick was considered independent minded by his fellow ranchers because he refused to brand his cattle. In fact, Maverick's failure to brand his cattle had little to do with independent mindedness, but reflected his lack of interest in ranching.
He is the grandfather of U.S. Congressman Maury Maverick, who coined the term gobbledygook (1944).
Who was that grandson again?
Fontaine Maury Maverick (October 23, 1895-June 7, 1954) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas from January 3, 1935, to January 3, 1939. He is best remembered for his independence from the party and for coining the term "gobbledygook" for obscure and euphemistic bureaucratic language.
He was elected to the Seventy-fourth Congress in 1934 with support from the Hispanic population of his district, and re-elected to the Seventy-fifth. In the House, he was an ardent champion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. He angered the conservative Democrats running the party back in Texas... He was defeated in the primary for a third term in 1938. He returned to Texas where he was elected Mayor of San Antonio, again with support from minority voters, serving from 1939 to 1941, when the conservatives labeled him a Communist and defeated him.
Mavericks for the ACLU
Maury Maverick, Jr. (January 3, 1921–January 28, 2003) was an American lawyer, politician, activist, and columnist from the U.S. state of Texas. A member of the prominent Maverick family, he was the great-grandson of Samuel Maverick, the rancher who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and famously refused to brand his cattle, and the son of Maury Maverick, Sr., a two-term member of the United States House of Representatives and one-term mayor of San Antonio, Texas.
After leaving the House, Maverick became an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, representing civil rights protestors, atheists, communists, and, during the Vietnam War, conscientious objectors and draft dodgers. In 1964, in Stanford v. Texas, he represented John W. Stanford, Jr., a bookstore owner and Communist Party USA member convicted of sedition for selling books authored by Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pope John XXIII, and Supreme Court Associate Justice Hugo Black. The case was eventually heard before the Supreme Court (including Black) and became a landmark free speech case. Another notable Maverick client was world-famous atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
from The New York Times:
Who You Callin' A Maverick?
...to those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive.
"I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick," said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.
Maury Maverick, Jr., was a firebrand civil libertarian and lawyer who defended draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society. He served in the Texas Legislature during the McCarthy era and wrote fiery columns for The San Antonio Express-News. His final column, published on Feb. 2, 2003, just after he died at 82, was an attack on the coming war in Iraq.
Considering the family’s long history of association with liberalism and progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, "is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase."
"He’s a Republican," she said. "He’s branded."
CONCLUSION: The real Maverick's refused to be "branded" by political parties, supported FDR's "New Deal" and the ACLU, and defended the Constitution of the United States of America by defending those outside the political mainstream.
So I guess today's "real Mavericks" are --- KOSSACKS---?
FAKE MAVERICK BOBBLEHEAD DOLLS: NOW HALF PRICE.
Hat tip to FRED EDWORDS of The American Humanist Association for linking me to the original New York Times article that prompted this week's diary subject.
NOTE: UPDATED with photos and conclusion.
ATHEIST RESOURCES ONLINE
POSITIVE ATHEISM
We will feature new links here on the main diary page, but most of our accumulated links have moved over to our BLOGROLL on the right side of the page.
Links to PREVIOUS EDITIONS of YOUR SUNDAY ATHEIST:
Please check out these earlier editions of the series. The list is getting long, so only some of the previous diaries are linked here. However, clicking on diary #9 will give you a list of links for diaries #1 through #8.
#9: Speaking in Tongues Edition
A closer look at the Pentecostal practice of "speaking in tongues" (a.k.a. glossolalia), a practice which is current in the Assemblies of God churches, where Sarah Palin spent twenty years as a worshipper.
#5: Dalton Trumbo Edition
Looks at the new documentary on writer Dalton Trumbo and the Hollywood blacklist.
#4: Child Abuse Edition
Discusses three award-winning documentaries exposing the abuse of children at the hands of preachers, evangelists, and Catholic priests.
As always, here is your Video Reward for making it all the way to the end.
Compared to What
I love the lie and lie the love
A-Hangin' on, with push and shove
Possession is the motivation
that is hangin' up the God-damn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut (everybody now!)
Tryin' to make it real — compared to what? C'mon baby!
Slaughterhouse is killin' hogs
Twisted children killin' frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs
Tired old lady kissin' dogs
I hate the human love of that stinking mutt (I can't use it!)
Tryin' to make it real — compared to what? C'mon baby now!
The President, he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We're chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God damn it!
Tryin' to make it real — compared to what? (Sock it to me)
Church on Sunday, sleep and nod
Tryin' to duck the wrath of God
Preacher's fillin' us with fright
They all tryin' to teach us what they think is right
They really got to be some kind of nut (I can't use it!)
Tryin' to make it real — compared to what?
Where's that bee and where's that honey?
Where's my God and where's my money?
Unreal values, crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kind of brings to mind ol' young King Tut (He did it now)
Tried to make it real — compared to what?!
NEXT WEEK'S EDITION OF YOUR SUNDAY ATHEIST (number twelve in our series) is tentatively entitled LIE TO ME. We'll see if I can fully develop that theme between now and next Sunday. Meanwhile, use some of those handy dKos tools, like SEARCH or SUBSCRIBE, and keep up to date on this series as new diaries are published.