I got this, and just had to pass it on to you guys here.. TEXAS 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, ZZ Top, 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, lake s 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 t! he 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!! If you are a REAL TEXAN you won't even need to be told to pass this on!
In High School, my teacher went for a weekend to Dallas. The day he came back, he was in class talkin about it - i asked him if Dallas was a big city compared to Vancouver - his response: "Son, there ain't nothin bigger than Texas."
Awesome. I've always thought that one of the original Texas flags pretty much summed up the state and how we Texans feel about it:
Texas would be a lot better split into 5 states. Why should Rhode Island get two senators, and Delaware, too? That sucks. We need at least 10 Texas senators. Schools and roads would be better decentralized. Odessa, El Paso, Dallas, Corpus, Beaumont - those ARE absolutely different areas, with competing political agendas. Yeah, it's great being "Big" and all, but it's also pretty stupid.
Damn you guys are making me homesick It's true though, no other state invokes the kind of meanings and images as Texas. No other people may be as prideful but also justified in feeling so. The Texas flag is flown everywhere in the Lone Star State, car dealerships, libraries, schools, everywhere. I lived in PA for three years and I never once saw the flag. I had to look it up in a book to see what it looked like. GOD BLESS TEXAS!!!!!
I might be a lil fuzzy on this, but wasn't California a republic for about 10 days or so before it was a part of the US?
I love it how people glamourize the fight for independence as a fight for freedom when it was really a fight for the freedom to own slaves which was illegal in mexico.
Good lord, son. Go get a history book. Texas was fought for due to a border dispute. We said it was the Rio Grande. They said it was another boundary. (Guadelupe, or Colorado)
Uh, you ought to take your own advice dude. While it was definately not the only reason, the right to own slaves was one of the reasons Texas wanted independence from Mexico.
Agreed. But, that really isn't the point of Texas pride. I would hope NO ONE was proud of our desire to own slaves, but we all should be proud of the fact that we are now one of the most diverse states in the country. We're big enough to not only admit our mistakes but learn from them.
Please show me which accredited book states this. As of 1994, the last time I took a collegiate Texas History class, this wasn't even a topic of discussion.
There was a short revolt in California but those revolting joined the US because the Mexican-American War was starting. They didn't actually separate from Mexico as their own republic as Texas did.
