[Anyone] the real mavericks:

[totem at laplaza.org]

Who You Callin’ a Maverick? 
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: October 4, 2008 
There’s that word again: maverick. In Thursday’s vice-presidential debate,
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the Republican candidate, used it to describe
herself and her running mate, Senator John McCain, no fewer than six times, at
one point calling him “the consummate maverick.”

Samuel Augustus Maverick 
But to those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a
bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit
offensive. 
“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita
Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that
has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early
ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the
rights of indentured servants. 
In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not
branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he
owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were
called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear
another’s brand.
Sam Maverick’s grandson, Fontaine Maury Maverick, was a two-term congressman
and a mayor of San Antonio who lost his mayoral re-election bid when
conservatives labeled him a Communist. He served in the Roosevelt administration
on the Smaller War Plants Corporation and is best known for another coinage. He
came up with the term “gobbledygook” in frustration at the convoluted
language of bureaucrats. 
This Maverick’s son, Maury Jr., was a firebrand civil libertarian and lawyer
who defended draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society. He served
in the Texas Legislature during the McCarthy era and wrote fiery columns for The
San Antonio Express-News. His final column, published on Feb. 2, 2003, just
after he died at 82, was an attack on the coming war in Iraq.
Terrellita Maverick, sister of Maury Jr., is a member emeritus of the board of
the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. 
Considering the family’s long history of association with liberalism and
progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that
John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, “is in no way a maverick,
in uppercase or lowercase.”
“It’s just incredible — the nerve! — to suggest that he’s not part of
that Republican herd. Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my
family shrink a little and say, ‘Oh, my God, he said it again.’ ”
“He’s a Republican,” she said. “He’s branded.”