i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

This is the first of many stories that I have written over the last month as part 14 Valentines, a project created by rageprufrock to promote awareness of women's issues through creative endeavors. Today's topic is Women In Academics, and you can follow that link to read Pru's insightful words on the topic, as well as find many other things that the fan community at large have created in honor of this project, but -- and, oh, how I hate that I can talk about this -- today, the first day of the two week project, I want to talk about something else.

Molly Ivins passed away yesterday, after a struggle with breast cancer. She was a champion of liberal causes, and of women's causes, for more than thirty years. She was everything I want to be when I grow up: passionate, outspoken, funny, and smart as hell. She hated the Bush Administration and she believed in democracy, and she was a bright light of hope, rational thinking, and righteous anger the last six years.

When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she wrote that she didn't want prayers, or thoughts, or cards -- she wanted every woman reading her columns to go out and GET. THE. DAMN. MAMMOGRAM. She never minced words.

Last Friday, her final syndicated column ran in more than 400 newspapers nationally. She wrote, Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!" Molly Ivins spent a lot of her career saying things that nobody else had the guts to say, and she made a lot of enemies that way, but she made even more friends, and admirers.

She was the kind of woman anyone should be proud to hold up as a role model. I'm proud that she lived long enough to see us put a woman as the Speaker of the House, because I know that Molly thought that was a hell of a thing. Give 'em hell up in Heaven, Molly -- I'll just be down here, banging my pots and pans and missing you.

Title: I'd Go Home If I Knew How To Get There
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: R
Spoilers: Through 3x10, "The Return Part 1".
Disclaimer: Cooper & Wright own 'em, not me. I'm having fun, not making a profit.
Summary: In which John keeps waking up with concussions, and Rodney keeps handing him glasses of water. 3200 words.

( The first time John woke up in the infirmary on Atlantis with a concussion (three weeks, two days, and 17 hours after arriving in the Pegasus Galaxy), McKay was sitting next to his bed, feet propped on a chair and laptop spread out in front of him. )