There is an excellent above-the-fold front page article in today's San Antonio Express-News written by Amy Dorsett entitled A Maverick? Local family says McCain is no maverick.
Dorsett's article features the renowned long-time San Antonio Maverick family who have dedicated themselves to decades of public service, have truly stood up for the betterment of their fellow man, and have always exerted a liberal-based independence.
The term "maverick" is actually derived from their family name. As a result, the Mavericks are not happy that John McCain hijacked their family name to describe himself.
According to Dorsett:
The word maverick, you see, is a vestige of their ancestry, a lexicon remnant that connects them to the roots of their Texas Revolution heritage, specifically to Samuel Augustus Maverick, a 19th-century San Antonio mayor, signer of the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence and aggressive land baron.
Maverick also owned a herd of cattle that he allowed to roam and chose not to brand. And so, the term maverick — in its purest form, it means an unbranded calf — was born.
In addition to Samuel Augustus Maverick, several Mavericks committed themselves to public service with a liberal bent.
Maverick’s descendants continued his legacy of public service and bucking conventional wisdom. His grandson, Maury Maverick, was a U.S. congressman who returned to San Antonio to serve one term as a mayor and took pride in getting the River Walk built and La Villita restored.
His political career ended when he allowed members of the Communist Party, including Emma Tenayuca, a labor leader who advocated for pecan shellers, to meet at Municipal Auditorium. A lynch mob gathered outside the meeting and hanged Maverick in effigy.
Dorsett interviewed 90-year-old reporter Claude Stanush, who got his start in journalism at the daily newspaper The San Antonio Light and eventually moved up to a career with Life magazine. Stanush truly admired Maury Maverick and believes John McCain is merely "posing as a maverick. He added:
"I think people who seize on slogans do it for personal advantage. I don’t think a person who’s a real maverick brags about it — they just go about being a maverick."
True words, indeed.
Maury Maverick, Jr. also served as a three-term Texas Democratic House Representative who stood for organized labor, civil rights for African Americans, and firmly opposed McCarthyism. After his political career he joined the ACLU as an attorney and defended "civil rights protestors, atheists, communists, and, during the Vietnam War, conscientious objectors and draft dodgers."
Dorsett also spoke with various members of the Maverick family who are even more disgusted than Stanush that John Sidney McCain III has adopted their surname for his own political advancement. Here's what some of them had to say:
Julia Maverick:
"...(S)omebody has to pin him down about why he thinks he’s a maverick. Reaching across the aisle to the Democrats once in a while doesn’t make you a maverick."
Fontaine Maverick:
"McCain is a true conservative and he’s only broken ranks with Bush a few times — he’s gone lock step with the Bush administration."
Terrellita Maverick:
"We all cringed the first time he used it, and we have cringed every time since. He’s not a maverick in uppercase or lowercase. He’s got a brand on him, and it’s a red ‘R’ for Republican. We are just furious that he took our family name and that he used it to connote he’s independent or a freethinker."
Terrellita added:
"My blood pressure has gotten so high, I’ve got to calm down — I’ve got to be around to vote, because I’m mad as hell."
Be sure to check out Fontaine Maverick's website The Real Original Maverick: Taking Back the Family Name.