It is with some great sorrow that I lament the passing of former first lady, and fellow Texan - Lady Bird Johnson. How sad that we live in a time when no one would dare be saddled with as quaint a nickname as "Lady Bird." Sad that we live in a time when wild flowers fall foolish in the glare of Global Climate Change.
This Lady knew a Texas scorched by sun and dust, beautiful with bluebonnet, sipping at the slow poison of segregation. In a time of hats and white gloves, soft voices and charm she stood solid behind her President as he signed the death nell of institutional racism. Campaigning by train through eight southern states to reelect her husband, the Secret Service had to sweep the tracks the bomb threats were relentless. "BLACK-BIRD GO HOME!" The signs read, their naked rage aimed at her. She stared them down and promised that all segregation could give the South was the swift delivery of its death in this latest birth of freedom.
May she lie in peace, daffodils, bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes.
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