Make trouble Standing up, speaking out, and finding the courage to lead

cecile Richards - the outgoing president of Planned Parenthood - may look calm and unflappable with her trademark blue suits and neat cap of golden hair, but she's a troublemaker from way back. As a sixth grader in Dallas she refused to say the Lord's Prayer in class. As a junior high schooler in Austin, she wore a black armband to express solidarity with the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, infuriating the principal. The restis history. "Make Trouble" takes us through Richards's life in activism and politics: Before Planned Parenthood, she had a full and varied career that included union organizing, starting the progressive organization America Votes and working for Nancy Pelosi. But there's lots more, including loving depictions of family and friends, from the legendary Texas journalist Molly Ivins to her mother, Ann Richards, the "frustrated housewife" who became the beloved first (and so far only) woman governor of Texas. Richards paints some vivid pictures of life in politics, too. For example, despite misgivings, she reached out to Ivanka Trump after hearing that she might want to help Planned Parenthood. They met at a Trump golf club in New Jersey, where Ivanka and her husband, Jared, offered her a deal: If Planned Parenthood stopped performing abortions, funding for birth control might go up. "Jared and Ivanka were there for one reason: to deliver a political win. In their eyes, if they could stop Planned Parenthood from providing abortions, it would confirm their reputation as savvy dealmakers. It was surreal, essentially being asked to barter away women's rights for more money." Books by public figures, especially when written with help from others - Lauren Peterson is a speechwriter - are often pretty deadly, but "Make Trouble" manages to be genial, engaging and humorous. ("It was almost like dealing with kidnappers," is how Richards describes the months of waking to find yet another doctored video claiming to prove that Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue.) She's good at sharing credit and giving praise - especially to her husband, the longtime labor organizer Kirk Adams, who was always game to move to a new city, take on a new adventure and pitch in with raising their three children. Her portrait of Nancy Pelosi as a nice person, a thoughtful boss and a brilliant strategist largely responsible for the passage of the Affordable Care Act (without the Stupak amendment that would have banned insurance coverage for abortion) is a pleasant corrective to the increasingly common view of her as an incompetent witch. As its title implies, this is not just a memoir but a call to action. Richards wants you to know that you too can make social change. She also wants you to know that a life of social activism is fun. She offers career advice ("never turn down a new opportunity") and even travel tips ("try to know where the best ice cream is in any given airport terminal"). Considering how often progressives are portrayed as joyless scolds, this is a message that needs to get out more. There's a lot of satisfaction in activism, even if you don't win every battle. Those battles are something I wish Richards had gone into more deeply. Although she opens with her appearance before the congressional committee investigating Planned Parenthood for profiting from fetal remains - the same committee that investigated Hillary Clinton over Benghazi, with as little to show for it - her take is basically upbeat. She and her daughter may curl up in bed and weep together on election night 2016, but a few pages later she's knitting a pussy hat for the women's march held the day after Donald Trump's inauguration. She doesn't spend much time analyzing the current state of reproductive rights in this country, the number of abortion clinics closing or the continuing threat to defund Planned Parenthood and cancel Obamacare's expansive birth control benefit (which has no co-pay requirement), to say nothing of the hundreds of state restrictions on abortion passed in the last few years. Richards is absolutely right that Planned Parenthood is popular - one in five American women has visited one of its clinics. Almost all women have used birth control at some point, and one in four will have had at least one abortion by age 45. Given those facts, I would have liked to read why she thinks the enemies of reproductive rights have been so successful. The once pro-choice Trump - who said Hillary was willing to "rip the baby out of the womb" right before birth - is in the White House. As a congressman, Mike Pence wanted to shut down the federal government in order to defund Planned Parenthood; today he's the vice president. She describes as a big win the storm of outrage that resulted when the breast-cancer charity Komén Foundation decided to drop Planned Parenthood from its list of recipients (it had to backtrack within days). But she doesn't say that the woman behind Komen's ill-fated plan, Karen Handler, defeated Jon Ossoff in a much-publicized Georgia congressional race. Nor does she mention the 2015 murder of three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic by a deranged abortion opponent. " For the first time in my life, I'm wondering whether my own daughters will have fewer rights than I've had," Richards writes. She's hardly the only one to have that fear: After the election, Planned Parenthood experienced a 900 percent increase in requests for IUDs from women looking for birth control that would outlast the Trump administration. It is not going to be easy to undo the damage that every day seems to bring to women's rights, status, opportunities and well-being, but if you're looking for books to fill you with energy for the long haul that lies before us, this one is a great place to start. After all, with a man in the White House accused of sexual harassment by over a dozen women and Health and Human Services staffed from top to bottom with opponents of reproductive rights, what better time to make trouble? KATHA POLLITT is an essayist, a poet and a political columnist.

*Starred Review* Some people are hardwired to pursue their lives' passion. The daughter of Ann Richards, the firebrand feminist Texan politician, and David Richards, a landmark civil rights attorney, Richards learned about having the courage of one's convictions at an early age. She championed workers' rights for janitors and nursing-home staff and protested punitive voter restrictions wherever they occurred, experiences that would eventually put her on Capitol Hill working for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But it is her work as president of Planned Parenthood that catapulted her to national attention, especially in the wake of nearly constant GOP assaults to defund the organization during the passage of the Affordable Care Act and subsequent budget battles. As she speaks admiringly of her mother's trailblazing career and lovingly about the nascent political and organizing work of her three children, Richards makes clear that the life of a grassroots activist can be an all-consuming mission, but one that reaps untold personal benefits and results in unimaginable rewards for individuals and the nation. An intimate yet wide-ranging chronicle of a life in the trenches and at the pinnacle of her profession, Richards' enthralling memoir will provide rousing motivation for anyone passionate about social and political causes.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2018 Booklist

In this passionate self-portrait, activist Richards maps her road to success from union organizer to her tenure as president of Planned Parenthood, recalling the experiences that shaped her career. She opens with the 2015 congressional hearings in which Planned Parenthood faced fierce scrutiny from the heavily Republican committee, sparked by a smear video released by an anti-abortion group. The committee found no wrongdoing, and the outpouring of popular support led Richards to reflect on her career. From there, she goes back to her upbringing as the eldest child of politician Ann Richards, who later became the first female governor of Texas, and civil rights attorney David Richards. Their Dallas home was "the local gathering place for misfits and rabble-rousers." As Richards relays her college years and onwards, her focus remains squarely on human rights-she met her husband while working for the United Labor Union in New Orleans, and she moved back to Texas to start a family and launch the Texas Freedom Alliance to support public education and religious liberty. Richards's commitment to progressive values, particularly reproductive rights, is evident throughout this book. It serves as a call to action for women who are mobilizing to make a difference in government and healthcare policies. Photos. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Make Trouble Introduction "Little lady, you are just trying to make trouble." That was my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Powers, at University Park Elementary School in Dallas. She had spent the past fifteen minutes conducting an interrogation: Why was I refusing to recite the Lord's Prayer with the rest of the class? Mrs. Powers was a lifer at UPS, with permed helmet hair that was the fashion back then. She was a good old gal who probably smoked with the other teachers in the teachers' lounge. Looking back, I'm not even sure I knew that it was unconstitutional to have us start each day with the Lord's Prayer--but by God, we did, right after the Pledge of Allegiance. That morning, though, I just wasn't having it. When Mrs. Powers asked me why I wasn't participating, I said calmly, "We don't read the Bible in my house." Mrs. Powers's eyes flew open. I could see from her stricken look that she had taken my candor for cheekiness. I suppose in a way it was. We weren't a religious family, not in a traditional sense, but we did go to the Unitarian church, which was sort of a home away from home for progressive families like ours in Dallas--our own little bunker in the middle of the crazy culture war of the '60s, and the heart of the local anti-Vietnam War movement. Folks in our congregation were involved in everything from the United Farmworkers organizing to Notes from the Underground, Dallas's radical newspaper, which my dad happened to be defending in court. Religion was cool with me; it just didn't include the Lord's Prayer. It was pretty obvious from Mrs. Powers's reaction what she thought about that. There was no hope for me; clearly, I was headed for a life of crime. Up until then I was the classic all-A's first child. I lived to make my parents proud of me, which, given their relative youth and inexperience in child-rearing, meant adhering to certain rules. I was the kid who never got in trouble--a trait that annoyed my younger brother, Dan, to no end. I never forgot the shame and humiliation of being called out in front of my class at age eleven. But in that moment I realized something about myself: my parents weren't the only ones who didn't fit into the right-wing Dallas establishment. I too was an outlier. It was the first time I remember having to decide: Do I accept things the way they are, or question authority? I chose the latter, and from that point forward I was branded a troublemaker. Once the initial shock wore off, it became a badge of honor. I've been making trouble ever since--which, to me, means taking on the powers that be, being a thorn in someone's side, standing up to injustice, or just plain raising hell. Sometimes being a troublemaker can be pretty damn awesome. After all, it was one of the great troublemakers of all time, Emma Goldman, who said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." Other times, it's scary and carries big risks--the risk of losing your job, your friends, your reputation, or all of the above. Over the years I've had the good fortune to meet troublemakers from all walks of life: nursing home workers in East Texas, janitors in Los Angeles, members of Congress, organizers and activists of every age on the front lines of the struggle for justice. I've watched in awe as my mother, Ann Richards, went from frustrated housewife to governor of Texas, defying convention and the political establishment. That was one of the things that drew me to Planned Parenthood: its history is the history of brave, troublemaking women (and a few good men) who risked their reputations and even their lives to change things. We fellow travelers have a way of finding each other, whether we set out to or not. This book is the story of the people who have taught me about courage and defiance and making change. It's also my story, which has been somewhat daunting to write. Like a lot of rabble-rousers (particularly rabble-rousing women), I'm a lot more comfortable talking about my work than myself. But now almost every day people come up to me, usually with a look of distress, to ask, "How are you doing?" They seem to think working for progressive causes is unpleasant or burdensome. The truth is, anything worth doing has its challenges. And, yes, fighting for what you believe in can be discouraging, defeating, and sometimes downright depressing. But it can also be powerful, inspiring, fun, and funny--and it can introduce you to people who will change your life. That's the message I want to spread far and wide. That's why I wrote this book. I started my career organizing women who were working for the minimum wage. There were women in New Orleans who cleaned hotel rooms or did the laundry because only white women got to work the front desk. Women in small-town Texas who used to joke that they'd stick around their job at the local nursing home until a Walmart opened nearby and they could move on to a better--or at least easier--job. Women who were earning a living and didn't have much choice about the kind of work they did. As for me, I know full well what a privilege it is to work for social justice. I've had the chance to work on historic political campaigns, go toe-to-toe with the Far Right in Texas, and come back years later to occupy the capitol in Austin as part of the fight for abortion rights. I've served the first woman to lead her party in the US House of Representatives and the 2.4 million people who count on Planned Parenthood for health care each year. I've seen generational progress through the eyes of my three incredible kids. Sure, there have been some brutal moments along the way--appearing before a certain belligerent congressional committee comes to mind, not to mention a couple of awful election nights--but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Maybe activism is your avocation, not your vocation. You might even be wondering if it's worth it--especially now, when nothing seems certain. For the first time in my life, I'm wondering whether my own daughters will have fewer rights than I've had. That alone is enough motivation for me to keep making trouble. Maybe you're thinking that any job that might involve sitting in front of a hostile congressional committee for the better part of a day just isn't your thing. Well, this book is for you too. You don't have to be a professional troublemaker to take a stand (though it's a terrific career path I highly recommend). This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment to decide who we are--as individuals and as a country. Unless we want to be defined by a stream of divisive late-night tweets (not to name any names), we're all going to have to be brave. Everywhere I look I see people who are stepping up to do things they never could have imagined. Showing up in a town hall meeting with a US senator, wearing a pink pussy hat. Publicly sharing a personal, intimate story about how Planned Parenthood made a difference in their life. Marching with their kids, grandkids, mothers, sisters, and brothers. Risking arrest to stand up for the rights of immigrants and refugees. Or turning their life upside down to run for office or become a grassroots organizer. If you're not scaring yourself, you're probably not doing enough. Maybe there's some injustice that's bothering you; maybe you see something in your community or at work that you want to change; maybe you're trying to get up the courage to share your beliefs with friends or family who see things differently; maybe you're worried about the world your kids will inherit. I hope this book will inspire you to get out there and do something about it. Just don't forget: to make a difference, you have to make a little trouble. Excerpted from Make Trouble: Standing up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead-- My Life Story by Cecile Richards, Lauren Peterson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.