Understanding Texas
Why outsider especially liberal Democrats will never understand Texas.
The liberal media is burning the keyboards proclaiming a crisis that our Governor, Rick Perry, mentioned secession during yesterday’s Texas Tea Party protest in San Antonio at the Alamo. Of course today the usual suspects in the liberal media are flashing the warning that the sky is falling because Gov. Perry said Texas might secede.
Almost from the day I was born I was a Texan. When you grow up in Texas you are exposed to a different cultural experience than there is in any other state. Remember that we are state that actually fought for our independence and then negotiated an annexation with the United States.
Texas pays more than its “fair share of income tax”, is the major exporting state, and holds more Fortune 500 companies than any other state. Our young men volunteer for military service per capita more than other state. We have no income tax and our state economy despite the severe economic downturn is about the healthiest around.
We have one of the most affordable and highly regarded public university systems in the world. Now, I am a bit prejudice because I am an Aggie but I hear that school in Austin is pretty good too.
There is a common saying when you grow up in Texas which is All Texans are Americans but not all Americans are Texans. Texas politics is mostly conservatives be they Republican or Democrat. We have a moment of silence for our children every morning in the public school after they say the pledge of allegiance first to Texas and then to America. We fly the Texas flag at the same height as the American flag.
Our public schools still have junior ROTC and they teach a thing called “abstinence”. We actually welcome the Boy Scouts in our state. We don’t play hooky from Sunday school unless the fishing is really good or the deer are in rut.
Texans pay their bills more than their brethren in California or Florida. Heck we did not have near the amount of foreclosures that many states had.
The Texas week has been pretty well defined for decades. Friday is high school football night but without the shenanigans you see on the television show of the same name. It is still hard to find liquor to drink on Sunday and you will find most folks going to church. Oh yah don’t forget some go to temple on Friday which is okay too. (During football season they go early so as not to miss the Cowboy game unless you live in Houston where the other team plays).
Of course, one of the funniest things Texans are famous for is telling a tall story. Nothing makes a Texan laugh more then when he tells some tin horn northerner a story and that northerner swallows it hook, line, and sinker. I think Gov. Perry and his fellow Texans now have a big smile.
Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Review
