By James C . Moore
Ann Richards and the Lost Eagle , Part 3
Governor Ann Richards , 1992 . Photo by Kenneth C . Zirkel via Wikimedia Commons .
This is the final part of a three-part serial . James C . Moore has kindly allowed this piece to be reprinted from his Substack , “ Texas to the World : Dispatches from the Center of the Known Universe .”
The water level remained low , and the gentle rocking eastward afforded the time to look up at the canyon walls . Neither Jerry nor I needed to do much more than occasionally dip an oar to guide our raft . I realized , in my doldrums , I was looking for the eagle as much as I was scrutinizing the natural beauty of my surroundings . Even for a mighty raptor , this was a hostile environment at the edge of its North American habitat . Eagles migrated to Texas from lands as distant as Canada and the Northern Rocky Mountains , but , generally , found their winter nesting grounds along rivers lined with cottonwoods , oak , and cypress in the central parts of the state . They were never far from water .
I figured the freed bird might have been disoriented by the unseasonal heat and anomalous thermals and had instinctively turned to the north . There was no shortage of food , though ; the desert was populated with small critters like lizards and mice and snakes and horny toads . The diet might not have been what he was seeking , however . Really , these bouldered and barren flats did not offer a fine habitat for a creature as majestic as an eagle or even as mundane as a human . Surely , he had to be halfway to Amarillo , which in no way stopped me from contemplating his possible appearance over our heads , a speck or a shadow in the sky . To see any living being fly will always be a wonderment .
We came upon a narrow chute called Rock Slide Rapids , the only whitewater stretch offered by Santa Elena . Getting
through was a skill of properly aligning your raft and squeezing between boulders half-exposed above the waterline . Not much bouncing over rushing waves was included in the experience . Jerry and I pushed through ahead of the governor and turned the boat to get a shot of Steven Fromholz guiding his friend through the bubbling channel . Richards was smiling , arms up , almost giggling , as if she were rampaging through the standing waves of Taos Box Canyon .
My insights are often pedestrian , and many years unrolled before I became cognizant of the disparities extant between the roles that we expect our public servants to play and who they actually are as humans . Richards became an iconic example of this for me , and my education began with her attention to our daughter , Amanda Noelle .
The first Christmas she was living in the governor ’ s mansion , Ann Richards opened the annual media party to the families of reporters . Amanda was only three years old but was drawn to the dancing lady singing carols and leading children to join her in front of the towering tree . When she later began to understand that I encountered the governor on a frequent basis , and she saw her on TV , Amanda started asking questions . The concept of a campaign was not difficult for her to understand four years later as the governor ran against George W . Bush , and our little girl was horrified that her governor might lose the job .
Amanda was , admittedly , a bit politically prescient . The night Bill
Clinton made his acceptance speech at the ’ 92 convention in New York City and her father was away at that convention , she asked her mother for permission to stay up late to hear the future president . She was only five and had already stood in front of the screen lecturing Dan Quayle for how he spoke about journalists .
“ Oh yeah , mister !” she said . “ My daddy ’ s a reporter and so is his cameraman and all of our friends and they ’ re all nice people . So there !”
She was also watching the TV when the election returns declared Bush had defeated Richards to become the governor-elect of Texas . Our gentle child , who had never whined or wailed , was suddenly on her back when she understood the vote . Her arms and legs were swinging up and down , hammering on the floor .
“ No , no , no . It ’ s not fair . He doesn ’ t get to be governor .”
He did , though , and used the office as a platform to run for the Oval Office . Had Richards defeated Bush , we might never have invaded Afghanistan , a million Iraqis would still be alive , thousands of U . S . troops would not be horribly maimed or killed , and the Mideast might not have become almost completely destabilized by Bush ’ s wanton , military overreach .
No one was contemplating those eventualities that sunny morning , though , gliding between two countries on a river that literally sparkled in the new day sun . Richards was almost certainly trying to avoid thinking of the campaign challenges , attempting not to give it a thought in a place where the spiritual
10 Cenizo Summer 2023