Posted on 04/10/2002 5:49:46 AM PDT by serinde
When you're from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like....
"Do you have any cows?" It's nice to be able to say yes.
They ask you, "Do you have horses?" Yup.
"Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?" Of course.
They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They watched "Dallas."
Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Heck, yes you have.
Look at Texas just for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will be.
As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at that they know what it is. It's TEXAS. Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of Texas in the dirt, and he'll know what it is.
What happens if I show you a picture of any other state? You'll get it sooner or later, but who else in the world would? Even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?
In every man, woman and child on this little rock the Good Lord put us on, there is somewhere in them a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride in a pickup or dance at a dance hall. Did you ever hear anyone say, "Wow ... so you're from Kansas. Cool. Tell me about it."?
There is some bit of Texas in everyone. Do you know why? Because Texas is Texas.
Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing thousands of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save themselves, but stayed.
We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and Bowie and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is Texas.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Anna at San Jacinto.
Texas is Juneteenth and Texas Independence Day. Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crocket National Forest.
Texas is breathtaking mountains in Big Bend.
Texas is shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas. Texas is the uniqueness of Austin.
Texas is a world record bass from places like Lake Fork.
Texas has the best colleges around; from Austin to Lubbock and everywhere in between.
Texas is Mexican food like nowhere in the world, even Mexico.
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Willie Nelson and Buddy Holly, Earl Campbell and Nolan Ryan, Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey, Lyndon Johnson and two George Bushes.
Texas is great companies like Texas Instruments, Dell Computer and Compaq.
Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.
Texas is skies blackened with doves and fields full of deer.
Texas is the best barbecue anywhere. Period.
Texas is the nicest people you'll ever meet. Anywhere. Not to mention, the prettiest girls.
Texas is a place where the streets are deserted during church.
Texas is the best music, with the best musicians in the world.
Texas is beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies.
If it isn't in Texas, you don't need it. No one does anything bigger or better.
By federal law Texas is the only state in the U.S. that can fly its flag at the same height as the U.S. flag. Think about that for a second. You fly the Stars and Stripes at 20 feet in Maryland, or California, or Maine, and your state flag, whatever it is, flies at 17 feet. You fly the Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview at 20 feet, and the Lone Star flies at 20 feet.
Do you know why? Our capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in D.C. We signed that and the flag height in as part of the deal when we came on.
That's the best part right there ... when we came on, Texas was its own country. The Republic of Texas.
Aren't you proud to be a Texan?
I am a Texan first and foremost, then an American. I think that is the proper order of things.
Some wise-assed member of either the house or senate (can't remember which) made the comment, intended as derisive, that there wasn't anything to worry about "...because all those Texas red-necks with guns in their pickup trucks will never allow anyone invading from the south to get as far north as Austin!"
This politician was trying to insult Texas, but you know what, he was right, and I'm damned proud of the fact! Texas is a state of mind!!
No it doesn't. It depends on the reader having enough common sense to understand and comprehend what they're being told.
LBJ a man of honor? This may be the first time LBJ and honor were ever used in the same sentence. Nobody ever accused him of being a man of honor, or whatever it may have been you were trying to infer from the posted comment. Larger than life? Absolutely. There is no "depends on your definition" b.s. about it.
He earned his place in Texas folklore and history just like Racehorse Haynes, Cullen Davis, Clayton Williams, the Bass Bros, Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, Judge Roy Bean, and John Wesley Hardin. Notorious? With a doubt. Scoundrel? It goes without saying. The stuff that legends are made of? You bet.
He brought Nasa to a struggling Houston economy, did more for civil rights than Lincoln, picked his dogs up by their ears, cussed like a sailor, drank like a fish, and received more votes from dead people than from living people. He made it onto the ticket with Kennedy because Kennedy couldn't have won Texas or the election without him, and because he knew more about dirty politics and vote rigging than any man alive at the time. If all of that wasn't enough, he would still be remembered in Texas history books as being the husband of one of the most respected women in the history of Texas.
Depends on your definition of "Larger-than-Life."?
Only to foreigners from Tennessee or some place, where they don't have the common sense of road kill.
I'm not a Texan. I'm not an American. [Pause for effect] I'm a citizen of the world. [Pause for effect] And I just can't believe what the citizens of the world are doing to each other. It's just an opinion."
Americans and Texans treat each other different than the citizens of the world do. The citizens of the world strap explosives to them selves, hijack airplanes to crash or plot terrorism on others.
Sing Jimmy, Sing. Leave you weak political opinons at home as not to loose your fanship.
Another good show is "Texas!" in Canyon each summer. A great summary of the history of Texas.
I can't believe that the people of North Carolina cannot fathom farms and rural land in New York.
Don't know of another state where people are as universally proud of where they are from as Texans are. in many states people would be hard pressed to describe their state flag - not in Texas though. When the American flag is flown in Texas, almost always the Texas flag is right next to it. Until post Sept. 11th, it was easier to find a Texas flag in the store than an American flag - not for lack of American flags, but for the popularity of Texans flying the Texas flag everywhere.
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