U.S. House Representative Maxine Moore Waters
Queen Mother of Politics
When Deomcratic U.S. House of Representative Maxine Moore Waters spoke out about the George Floyd murder she spoke with with clarity and conviction:
We’re looking for a guilty verdict and we’re looking to see if all of the talk that took place and has been taking place after they saw what happened to George Floyd. If nothing does not happen, then we know that we got to not only stay in the street, but we have got to fight for justice,
It was a battle cry that was not only heard by the Black Lives Matter movement and by ‘woke’ communities in and outside of her state of California, but also by the Conservative Right Wing. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia rushed to introduce “House Resolution 327 – Expel Maxine Waters Resolution for Incitement of Violence and Rioting against the United States”. Obviously, the Resolution died in Congress.
The Native Missourians go West to California
No doubt her fierce independence and outspoken nature was learned at an early age. Born in St. Louis, MO August 15, 1938, Ms. Waters was the fifth child of thirteen children raised by her single mother. Her father deserted the family when she was two years old. In 1956, she married Edward Waters in Missouri and in 1961 they packed their belongings and moved to Los Angeles. In 1972, after earning a B.A. in Sociology, this mother of two divorced and later remarried in 1977. She would go on to serve in the California State Assembly from 1976-1991 and as an outspoken Democratic Representative for the state of California since 1991. Representative Waters has seniority over a dozen non-white women in Congress, and is second only to Nancy Pelosi in the California delegation.
Repeatedly Labelled “Firebrand”
In 1994, Waters received national attention, resulting from being suspended for a day from the U.S. House of Representatives. This outspoken firebrand had repeatedly interrupted Congressman Peter King as he spoke on the House Floor. She has been criticized and reprimanded for inciting rebellion and lacking tact by both parties. After the Rodney King verdicts, Waters chanted “No Justice, no peace.” What the media called rioting, Waters called, “a spontaneous reaction to a lot of injustice.”
Mincing words is not Representative Water’s style, consequently, people either love or hate her. She once declared,
I have a right to my anger… something’s wrong with me because I get angry?
Ms. Waters has drawn further ire when she criticized the U.S. Trade embargo against Cuba and praised Fidel Castro’s democratic efforts. Waters said,
The President (W. Bush) is a liar. Dick Cheney . . . is not only a liar, he is a thief.
Waters has also leveled her opinions at her own party. During a Congressional Black Caucus meeting, Ms. Waters berated the Caucus for not pressuring Obama more on social issues — she retorted “y’all love the President.”
She’s called out Trump as:
A bully, an egotistical maniac, a liar and someone who did not need to be president.
In 2018, pipe bombs were intercepted in route to two of her offices. However, one thing is clear to both the fans and detractors of Representative Waters, she will not be deterred from serving in her post and in doing so standing as a role model and Queen Mother to her community.
Cropped Photo by Gage Skidmore