Having lived in Texas all my life I’ve been subjected to an abnormal amount of state patriotism. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, for starters we’re the only state in the Union which possesses the right to not only fly our state flag at the same height as the United States flag but also completely independent of it. Early Texans made sure that little rule was accepted by the United States government before they abolished the Republic of Texas and entered the union.
We also have a large number of rednecks who still feel strongly Texas should have remained a sovereign nation. Man’s gotta dream, I always say.
Most people outside of Texas are familiar with the saying “Remember the Alamo.” In fact, right after 9/11 a wealthy businessman in south-east Texas bought several billboards and posted on them “Terrorists Don’t Mess With Texas: Remember the Alamo!” Am I the only person who sees the problem with this?
Folks, we lost at the Alamo. Sorry to break it to you. In fact, our defeat at the Alamo only ranked a single mention in the diary of Santa Anna. If you don’t believe me you can take your doubting behind up to UT Austin to the Benson Latin American library. They currently hold the original manuscript of Santa Anna’s military diary, and he could have cared less about the little barn his troops finally overran on March 6th 1836.
I think we should change the saying to “Remember San Jacinto!” We did much better in that one. I don’t think it’s all that healthy to dwell on our failures. Get over it and move on”¦that’s my motto.