I used to live in Texas. I lived in Austin, and I lived in Houston. I served, if that is the term, in the Army Corps of Engineers, defending Houston from the floods occurring from the torrential downpours and the sudden rising of the rivers, bayous, and sloughs. It was a different era, back when. But I enjoyed that period of my life and my time in the Lone Star State.
Two things always struck me about Texas. The first, and most important, is how easily Texas is misrepresented. Its artists and intellectuals are often overlooked. The average Yankee does not think of Texas as a particularly literate place or a place where you have passionate supporters of the arts. Texas moderates and liberals are ignored as the focus the responsible conservatives and the unpredictable extreme right wing fringe. All right, call them nut jobs.
The second thing that struck me in Texas is how it seemed any more traditional Texan can proudly boast with or without any prompting that when Texas seceding from the Union, in that War of Northern Aggression, better known as the American Civil War, it never officially returned to that Union. There was never a formal agreement, just acknowledgment by proxy that Texas was once again a part of the United States.
The impromptu Texas historians will wax on how Texas can print its own money if it wants and make laws that ignore or override Federal statutes. It is only by choice, they say, that Texas remains in the Union. Otherwise, should it decided and its Hasta La Vista, Baby, for the Lone Star State.
Okay, for decades this bit of rhetoric was mere conjecture. It was a mark of pride, that rugged individual spirit that allowed Texans to conquer the range, drill for oil, and construct sub-divisions on every foot of that formerly open range the blowhards still reminisce about. It was talk. It was the talk of guys with belt buckles the size of serving dishes and women with beehives and bras that stood in rugged defiance to gravity. It was harmless. Anyone who was forced to listen, nodded “Yeah,” and then went on their happy way.
Not now. Now there is actual talk of secession. That’s right, in case you hadn’t heard, and few haven’t, there are Texans making noises about leaving the Union once and for all. I would say these are unbalanced Texas, but one of the initial advocates or, more than likely, big talkers was Texas’ Governor, Rick Perry. Rather than accept that dirty federal bailout money, Perry threatened to lead Texas into a new era of independence. Rather than deal with the creeping tide of socialism, Perry proposed he pick up the Lone Star State and move it all the way back to Texas.
There are cheapest price for cialis jealt.mx very few reasons why you cannot have a successful love life. They have a faster absorption rate and take effect in as little as order viagra overnight 15 minutes. This condition has the risks of cialis without prescription calcification and ulceration. In overall, doing a distance learning jealt.mx viagra prices B. Sane people, albeit moderates and conservatives alike, all commonly bound by mutual recognition of common sense and sanity, looked askance at the Governor. Some questions, with Texas facing the same lousy economy as everyone else, why he would leave good federal money on the table. Socialist money or not.
Conservative politicians such as Kay Baily Hutchinson called for “more enlightened leadership in Texas.” She termed the secessionist issue “silly,” and said the party leadership is lacking and requires immediate change. Hutchinson also announced she was planning to run for Governor.
With all that being said, and with Hutchinson being a stalwart in Texas politics, you would think the secessionist nonsense would die down. It hasn’t. If anything it has grown stronger. It has provided living proof that nut jobs will gather around anything without forethought of consequence or the ramifications. There is now the Texas National Movement. There is a website, Texas Secede. There are any number of numb skulls thinking this is actually a solution to the economy and well being of the State and not merely a means of adding to the woe and dissolution.
What seems to be forgotten here is that the federal government already provides the State of Texas with a ton of money. The money is allocated for health and human services. There is federal money for education, for business development. There is federal money for the interstates and other road. There is federal money for the Texas National Guard. There is federal money for the legal system, for law enforcement, for fueling the Governor’s car as he prepares to embark on this intrepid journey.
The federal government has provided Texas in the year 2008 to 2009 with over $50 billion in funding. One could argue that this is money from the federal socialist program that would corrupt good old Americans who wish to live independently. But the sad fact remains that in the year 2006 to 2007 the federal government had the audacity to deposit some $49 billion in the Texas coffers. A dastardly move if there ever was one.
So for the blowhards and nut jobs that keep talking about secession, they should give this a moment’s thought. They should think about the money they would be losing and then concern themselves with maintenance and upkeep of their roads, communications systems, education systems, law enforcement, and military that, at least in part, anyway, fall under the federal purview. The Texas Nationalists what fate would have in store for a state too short sighted to realize the error of its ways.
I would not be the only one to predict that most people in Texas are far too sane to secede from the Union. Most thinking people do not to wish to return to a bygone era that is best left as a bygone era. Clearly, most Texans have attained a level of maturity to recognize a really bad deal when they see it. As for those who actually believe secession is a good idea, there is a lot of space still remaining in Texas. Obviously, in some cases that space rests between the ears.
