The Great State of Texas
This is an email I received today, and is one of the best emails I've ever seen. Hope you enjoy.
When you're from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like, Do you have any cows?" "Do you have horses?" "Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?"
They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They watched Dallas.
Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me 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 it 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 might get it maybe after a second or two, but who else would? And even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?
In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in a pickup. There is some little bit of Texas in everyone.
Did you ever hear anyone in a bar go, "Wow..so you're from Iowa? Cool, tell me about it?" Do you know why? Because there's no place like 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 instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom. We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie and Crockett and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to cross it and be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.
Texas is "Juneteenth" and Texas Independence Day.
Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest.
Texas is breathtaking mountains in the Big Bend.
Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields in the Texas Hill Country.
Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.
Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.
Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork.
Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.
Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome.
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Landry, Darrell Royal, Rick Husband, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sam Rayburn, George Bush, Lyndon B.Johnson, and George W. Bush.
Texas is great companies like Dell Computer, Texas Instruments and Compaq. And LOCKHEED MARTIN AEROSPACE, Home of the F-16 Jet Fighter and the JSF Fighter.
Texas is NASA.
Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.
Texas is skies blackened with doves, and fields full of deer.
Texas is a place where towns and cities shut down to watch the local High School Football game on Friday nights and for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, and for the Night In Old San Antonio River Parade in San Antonio. Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities.
If it isn't in Texas, you probably don't need it.
No one does anything bigger or better than it's done in Texas.
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, California, or Maine and your state flag, whatever it is, goes at 17 feet. You fly the Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview or anyplace else at 20 feet, the Lone Star flies at the same height - 20 feet. Do you know why? Because it is the only state that was a republic before it became a state.
Also, being a Texan is as high as being an American down here. Our capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in Washington, D.C. and we can divide our state into five states at any time if we wanted to! We included these things as part of the deal when we came on. That's the best part, right there.
Texas even has its own power grid!!
When you're from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like, Do you have any cows?" "Do you have horses?" "Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?"
They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They watched Dallas.
Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me 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 it 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 might get it maybe after a second or two, but who else would? And even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?
In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in a pickup. There is some little bit of Texas in everyone.
Did you ever hear anyone in a bar go, "Wow..so you're from Iowa? Cool, tell me about it?" Do you know why? Because there's no place like 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 instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom. We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie and Crockett and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to cross it and be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.
Texas is "Juneteenth" and Texas Independence Day.
Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest.
Texas is breathtaking mountains in the Big Bend.
Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields in the Texas Hill Country.
Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.
Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.
Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork.
Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.
Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome.
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Landry, Darrell Royal, Rick Husband, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sam Rayburn, George Bush, Lyndon B.Johnson, and George W. Bush.
Texas is great companies like Dell Computer, Texas Instruments and Compaq. And LOCKHEED MARTIN AEROSPACE, Home of the F-16 Jet Fighter and the JSF Fighter.
Texas is NASA.
Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.
Texas is skies blackened with doves, and fields full of deer.
Texas is a place where towns and cities shut down to watch the local High School Football game on Friday nights and for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, and for the Night In Old San Antonio River Parade in San Antonio. Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities.
If it isn't in Texas, you probably don't need it.
No one does anything bigger or better than it's done in Texas.
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, California, or Maine and your state flag, whatever it is, goes at 17 feet. You fly the Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview or anyplace else at 20 feet, the Lone Star flies at the same height - 20 feet. Do you know why? Because it is the only state that was a republic before it became a state.
Also, being a Texan is as high as being an American down here. Our capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in Washington, D.C. and we can divide our state into five states at any time if we wanted to! We included these things as part of the deal when we came on. That's the best part, right there.
Texas even has its own power grid!!
posted by Michael Pondrom at 4:57 PM
9 Comments:
"In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in a pickup. There is some little bit of Texas in everyone."
If that person was ever in me I shot him in the head long ago.
This list epitomizes everything that is Texas. Seperatism and Egos. We're better cause we're Texas. What a load of crap. What happeneed to being an American. If Texas wants to be it's own country I say let it. Then we wouldn't have hacks like George W. Bush running US into the ground along with them.
Tone-Loc
Some interesting stats on Texas:
As of year end 1999, there were 706,600 Texans in prison, jail, parole or probation on any given day. That is more than the entire population of Alaska, Vermont, Washington DC, or Wyoming. In a state with 14 million adults, this meant that 5% of adult Texans, or 1 out of every 20, are under some form of criminal justice supervision. The scale of what is happening in Texas is so huge, it is difficult to contrast the size of its criminal justice systems to the other states' systems it dwarfs (sounds like a great bunch of people. Anytime you go to the store you could run into 3 or 4 criminals).
Texas has a rate of 1,035 people behind bars for every 100,000 in the population. If Texas was a nation separate from the United States, it would have the world's highest incarceration rate--significantly higher than the United States (682), and Russia (685)Texas' incarceration rate is also higher than China (115). So you're telling me that Texas has more criminals per capita than Communist China? lovely. Makes me wish I was a cowboy. a WHITE cowboy mind you... cause if you were black you'd have even a 7 times higher chance of getting thrown in jail in Texas. Must not be one of those Equal Opportunity States.
Houston is the #1 fattest city in the nation. Also, Texas has 4 of the top 10 fattest cities in the nation. Everything is bigger indeed
Not to mention that Texas is the home of some of the worst criminals. Bonnie and Clyde, The Unicorn Killer, and Lee Harvey Oswald who made his home in Dallas.
According to one geographer, digging straight down from Austin will not get you to China but to Iraq. (Coincidence? I think not)
In Texas it's legal for a chicken to have sex with you (this one's just too crazy to touch)
And probably worst of all... Dr Pepper started in Texas and it's quite possibly the worst soft drink ever made. Beating out Crystal Pepsi, and New Coke.
In conclusion, I don't hate Texas. well, not all of it anyway. There are 5 or 6 people from Texas that haven't let it affect them too much. But it's just another state people. say it with me, Just... Another... State. Everyone born in Texas is an American just like anyone born in Oklahoms, Kansas, New York, or California. And they are no better or worse. If you want to be proud of something, be proud that you're American. And be proud that America didn't just let the Mexicans have you, think about who bailed you all out of that one before you go talking like you're so much better than the rest of the US. lol. Big Mike... Love ya, You're my boy.
Tone-Loc out
ugh... I agree with the diet. Diet is horrible. So horrible that I can't even count it as a soft drink. Pibb is good, never tried 7-up gold. Maybe my recollection of Crystal Pepsi was skewed due to the Saturday Night Live commercial for Crystal Gravy. Watching them poor this thick clear goo over mashed potatoes and eat it. GROSS. It looked like Karo Syrup.
oh and I love the smooth intriguing flavor of Vanilla Coke. MUCH better than Pepsi Vanilla. Really... Pepsi got the Cherry right, and that was it. Lemon Pepsi, Blueberry Pepsi, Vanilla Pepsi, they are all awful. AWFUL I tell you. Coke is better than Pepsi in every aspect EXCEPT Cherry. Even coke's root beer Barq's is better than Mug. And I love cherry coke, but cherry pepsi's got it beat.
Davy Crockett was from Tennessee.
William B. Travis was from South Carolina.
Sam Bowie is the special-ed basketball player who got drafted 2nd, right in front of Michael Jordan.
If you mean Jim Bowie, he was also from Tennessee.
Sam Houston? Tennessee.
The Spirit of Texas is claiming pride from Americans and Europeans who fought to a vicious end that eventually helped establish your statehood. Seeing as how Texas was under the authority of Taco Bell at the time, it shouldn't surprise anyone that damn near everyone involved in the Alamo from the American side was a settler from anywhere BUT Texas.
*America* is the Alamo. Texas soil is the frijole venue that it happened on.
And congratulations if you've named some high schools after Jim Bowie. You've named them after a man who smuggled fresh slaves into the United States after it was illegal! Yay for illegal slave traders!
Go Texas!
Nick of the great state of Kansas - "As big as you think it is!"
Sigh...
For the sake of friendship, I'll let most of this go. Though most of what you said is nonsensical rambling, that I would expect from fools. Especially most of what Tony said.
Question: What does Sam Bowie have to do with anything? He's not mentioned in here.
The first time around I swore the post said Sam Bowie!
I'm not necessarily anti-Texas, or pro-Texas for that matter. I just think Americans were responsible for what transpired at the Alamo, not typical "Texans."
The argument can be made that in the case of the Alamo, it was *Texan* independence that was being fought for, not American independence, therefore it has a purely Texan feel to it. BUT the truth of the matter is that immigrant settling began in 1821 and that independence occurred in 1836. That's a measely 15 years, hardly time to form your own national heritage. Hardly time to put a purely "Texan" stamp on things. The American Revolution? Landing on Plymouth Rock: 1620. Independence: 1776. That's 150 years -- enough time for generations to form a distinct culture and pride. In the case of Texas, 15 years is nothing -- it was clearly a revolt by American settlers on Mexican soil we call Texas. "TEXANS" were not fighting for independence -- American settlers were fighting to retain slave-ownership rights.
Want proof? What happens as soon as they win the revolution? They send a crew to Washington D.C. to ask to be annexed. AMERICANS win the Texas Revolution and then go to the AMERICAN capital to ask for annexation. If it was all about Texas and Texans, that NEVER would have happened. No autonomous nation would do such a thing. No one would fight for their own country, shedding blood and tears, and then just turn it over to ANOTHER country -- UNLESS -- the other country was their own heritage, their own country.
I'm not saying Texans can't be proud of what went down in their neck of the woods, but it's that stereotypical Texan mentality. It's all about Texas, not America, just Texas. We were our own Republic! We get to have our flags fly as high as the national flag! Get a clue, Texas -- Americans bought Texas with American blood. Texas wasn't its own awesome country or awesome "republic" -- Texas asked for American annexation and then had to wait in no-man's land while US Presidents weighed the consequences of claiming land that, by international law, still belonged to Mexico. Suddenly a 9-year holding pattern means Texas has a leg up on every other state? Ehh...
Nick
It never said Sam Bowie. I promise. I've never altered that post; it was just cut and paste. Put the crack pipe down.
Don't have time for a Texas History lesson today, but I'll give it to you someday. Good job as usual Nick, but some of your stuff is a little off.
Michael
Haha, Barry you're right! Driving through west Texas was one of the longest experiences of my life.
It's all becoming so clear now...
Nick
Does is always have to be about who's bigger & better?! Yes, this is a very male blog indeed.
I for one would put a bid in for appreciating the diverse history of all of our nation. Every state has skeletons in the closet & every state has accomplishments it can be proud of. The same is true for our nation as a whole.
That said, Texas sucks! ;) Robin
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