I've always been interested in word origins. i saw this today and thought it was entertaining. I hope you all enjoy it too.

I'd heard the story of unbranded cattle being called mavericks in the past and knew that name was traced to a family. I didn't know this story though or that the family still existed.

You learn something every day. I thought I would share this with all of you.

PHOENIX - “He’s a maverick.” “He’s the consummate maverick.” “We’re a team of mavericks.” - You’ve all heard it time and again in recent weeks as Republican John McCain and fresh-faced running mate Gov. Sarah Palin slap on the maverick label to differentiate themselves from the GOP herd corralled inside the beltway in Washington.

But the New York Times reported on Sunday that the real Mavericks - a storied south Texas family with a long tradition in progressive politics - are not too happy about what they say is the misappropriation of their family name.

“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” the Times reported Terrellita Maverick, 82, saying. The San Antonio resident is the scion of a family which has been outspoken about liberal causes for generations, and has otherwise bucked conventions.

The family’s name crept into the language for Samuel Augustus Maverick, a rancher who became known for not branding his cattle in the 1800s. Any unbranded cows found out on the range were simply known as “Maverick’s.”

Ranching aside, the Times reported that members of the Maverick family also have a long history championing often unpopular civil libertarian causes — from the rights of indentured servants in long ago New England to defending the cause of “draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society” more recently in Texas.

Aside from an unbranded calf, the word maverick has come to mean a lone dissenter who takes an independent stand from his or her associates - a label handy for McCain, who has tried to distance his campaign from eight years of rule by the increasingly unpopular President George W. Bush. Nevertheless, the veteran Republican Arizona senator’s appropriation of the word still grates on the original Mavericks.

He “is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase,” the Times reported Terrellitta, 82, as saying.

“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.’ ”

just because the word came from an old dead family member doesnt mean you got rights to it,lol.


god let him call himself whatever he wants. lol

McCain is dangerous! Not a maverick.

Have you seen the new Keating video?

http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/keatingvideo

wow right off obama.com huh? ets believe THAT one right away,lol. lets all just stop and think for ourselves for a few shall we? theyre both awful candidates swarming with controversy and crooked deal after crooked pastor. ive decided to protest the election. lol

Watch the video and judge for yourself.
This is about the economy.

Obama didn't produce the video.

He is just airing it for those so ignorant of their and McCain's past they seemed determined to repeat it.

Oh, and thanks for your thoughtful comments on the article I posted.

what? that sounds just like when spike lee thought about suing the channel "spike" over the name, its in the dictionary, its not really a name anymore.

furthermore if its a video hosted on obama.com im sure its skewed a little, he doesnt have much for pro-mccain videos or even neutral ones. i watched it. whoop dee-do. still not going to vote. im sick of the lesser of two evils BS.

Thanks, Lynann. That's interesting.

I was wondering how many times Palin said maverick at the debate.

McCain is no maverick. Sheesh, look at how many times he voted with Bush.

You may be stuck on his pastor, but that doesn't mean everyone else is.

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
George Orwell


thanks for the post, it was very interesting.

This has nothing to do with Spike Lee.

Or Obama.com

I posted this because I liked the history, the word origin and the feisty attitude of the 92 year old Maverick woman.

I like hell raising old ladies and hope to be one when I grow up haha

i cant believe no one is going to acknowledge his reverend? even if you take that away. just toss it out, hes still not ready to be president imo.


as for the word its fine to post something funny. but that crazy old person cant monopolize the word,lol. and with respect to spike i was using it as a comparison. whatever,lol.