When I met Sen. John McCain a decade ago, his first words to me were: “You are the very personification of a maverick.” I’m pretty sure he meant that as a compliment. And I certainly took it as such, for the people I most admire are mavericks—the free spirits who defy the corporate order and carve out a new path, not just for their own gain, but for the common good.
Carol Ann Sayle is a prime example. When the Texas Department of Agriculture launched the nation’s first state-certified organic farm program in the 1980s, Carol Ann and her late husband Larry Butler were at the front of the line with their 5-acre urban farm, also pioneering in direct marketing and regenerative agriculture. They were wildly creative, joyous innovators, rebelling against chemicalized, conglomeratized, monopolized food. I loved them from the start.
WHAT’S IN A NAME? It’s widely known that “maverick” is another word for nonconformist, but few know that the term comes from a South Texas family by that name. Samuel Maverick immigrated to San Antonio in 1835 to seek fame and fortune, soon becoming a major landowner, cattle rancher, and political official.
As a rancher, he defied the norm by steadfastly refusing to brand his herd of some 400 cattle, asserting that he abhorred inflicting such searing pain on the animals. Thus, if an unbranded steer was found on the range, it was considered to be “a maverick,” and the word soon became a synonym for anyone who refuses to be branded by anyone else’s political-religious-ideological logos.
Wait, there’s more! Sam’s grandson, Maury Maverick, was a fiery progressive populist lawyer who was elected to Congress from San Antonio in the 1930s. He fought Franklin Roosevelt—from the left, deeming him too conservative and wedded to the moneyed powers! FDR retaliated by recruiting right-wing business interests to oppose and defeat Maury’s 1938 re-election bid. But the irrepressible Maverick quickly rebelled by getting elected mayor of San Antonio. Then, in an ironic political twist, Mayor Maverick used Roosevelt’s WPA Program to fund and build the now-famous San Antonia RiverWalk. [TIDBIT: In keeping with this column’s linguistic theme, Maury Maverick also coined the term “gobbledygook.”]
Coming full circle to my time in Texas politics, I knew and was influenced by Maury Maverick Jr., who served as a wild-assed, unabashed, gutsy progressive Texas legislator in the 1950s. Son of Maury, great-grandson of Samuel, he fought for labor, civil rights, and civil liberties during the horror of McCarthyism. When I met him in the 1960s, Maury Jr. had moved from politics to journalism, writing an uncompromising iconoclastic column for 23 years. A renown, crusty, red-hot Texas liberal, he was tough—inspiring a generation of political and journalistic disciples like Molly Ivins… and me. Indeed, when I was in office, he kept challenging me to get tougher.
He was, after all, a maverick.
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thanks for sharing this information. I wish we had more progressive mavericks! a detest holding my nose and voting for the less evil Corporate Democrat on the ballot
Thanks Jim. I really DID need to know that. I've been a Lowdowner since ???...??? geeze, decades anyway. A while back I mentioned the Aptil (Ooops, 1985) issue of the Oklahoma Union Farmer with your smiling countenance on the back page. I kept it because I bin a fan o' yerze a looonnnggg time.
Youv'e never bin branded either!!!