Uppity Women, Unite!
With Liz Carpenter, Celia Morris, and Liz SmithModerator: Linda Ellerbee
“How do you think it’s going to go?” author and political pundit Liz Carpenter asked, dressed in audacious red astride her equally audacious electric cart in the House Chamber. As the author of Start With a Laugh, a recently published book about how to give speeches, she was scheduled to take the stage as part of the TBF’s “Uppity Women, Unite!” panel with fellow authors and Texans activist Celia Morris (Finding Celia’s Place), journalist Linda Ellerbee (the Get Real series), and columnist Liz Smith (Natural Blonde). When the esteemed names of her colleagues were mentioned, she joked: “I’ll never get in a word edgewise!” Carpenter got in plenty of words, however, as did Ellerbee and Morris, who opened the panel and apologized for the absence of Liz Smith. Smith had taken ill the night before but then made a belated entrance into the chamber just minutes into the discussion amid heavy applause. Ellerbee moderated the panel, which was little more than extended introductions and humorous anecdotes by each plus some chitchat about Texas pride and the notion of being uppity.
“Uppity” was a most fitting assessment of the four, who have made careers out of being outspoken. Morris described her impetus for wanting to tell the stories of Texas women and how that led to her own autobiography while Carpenter rolled with her patented laughs: “I am proud to be one of the last standing Democrats in Bushwhacked, Texas.” There was also some witty commentary on the current election boondoggle; the red, white, and blue patriotism of the four Democrats waved like a flag. “Why don’t I let you take that, Liz?” Ellerbee said, as she opened the discussion about the election. Carpenter and Smith spoke at once, stopped, looked at each other, and then laughed in tandem. “Last time that happened was with Queen Elizabeth,” Smith quipped. Ellerbee later noted just how relative success is. “When my first book hit number three on the bestseller list, ABC News fired me,” she said. Smith got the biggest applause as she recalled an incident on a publicity tour. “At a booksigning in Seattle, a woman said, ‘I want to give you something.’ She gave me a beautiful enamel pin I thought was the seal of the State of Texas. But on the inside it said, ‘If You Ain’t Texan, You Ain’t Shit.'” Uppity, indeed. These four just did what women have always sought to do: speak their minds in an atmosphere of respect and camaraderie. And that’s what they got.
This article appears in November 17 • 2000.