18 January 2004, 01:55
Big-EdThis is for those of you that are Texans either by birth or by choice. It is not funny, but Texas Braggin' is so cliche this seems the appropriate spot to post it.
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 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.
If you travel the USA, especially since 9/11, you see a lot of American
flags. But in no other state do you see as many state flags as you do in
Texas - the pride that Texans have in their state is matched only by their
pride in America.
Texas has existed under the flags of more nations than any other state:
Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of
America, and The United States of America.
Our capitol is the largest of all state capitol buildings, is second in
total size only to the National Capitol in Washington, D.C., and in fact is
seven feet taller than its Federal counterpart.
The Congressional bill annexing The Republic of Texas stipulated that we
could divide into five states at any time we want to. Although that law
appears to conflict with Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, it
has never been contested. Plenty of Northern states, who opposed annexing
Texas due to its position on slavery, had the opportunity to do so at the
time, but didn't.
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, San Jacinto Day, 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 Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.
Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, The American Airlines Center,
Jones Hall, Gruene Hall, Billy Bob's Texas, Gilley's, The Ballpark in
Arlington, Texas Stadium, and the Astrodome.
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon
Jennings, Bob Wills, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, ZZ Top, A.J Foyt, Ben
Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gordon Wood, Doak Walker, Tom Landry, Tex Schramm,
Darrell Royal, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sid Richardson,
Denton Cooley, Michael DeBakey, Judge Roy Bean, lawmen of the Texas Rangers,
Sam Rayburn, Lyndon B. Johnson, George Bush, and George W. Bush.
Texas is great people doing great things to make great companies -- like the
personal computers of Dell and Compaq, the commercialization of the
transistor and the invention of the integrated circuit at Texas Instruments,
the domination of the air travel business by American Airlines, the design
and construction of the world's most powerful warplanes at Lockheed Martin
Aerospace, and the staff of the world's largest medical complex, the Texas
Medical Center in Houston, who see 125,000 patients each day. Texas, by
itself, is the world's fifth-largest producer of petroleum, and the nation's
largest producer of natural gas. With the most farms and the most farmland
in the USA, Texas produces more sheep, cattle, and cotton than any other
state. If Texas were a nation, it would rank eighth in the world in GNP,
second in the world in GNP per capita, and its economy would be three times
the size of Russia's.
Texas is NASA. The first word spoken by a man from the Moon was, "Houston."
Texas is skies blackened with doves, geese, and ducks, fields full of deer,
quail, turkey, and pheasant, and lakes like Lake Fork full of world record
bass.
Texas is a place where cities shut down to watch the local High School
Football game on Friday nights, the Cowboys or Texans on Monday Night
Football, T-OU Weekend, and the Night In Old San Antonio River Parade.
Texas is Aggies, Red Raiders, Horned Frogs, Mustangs, Bears, Owls, and
Longhorns.
Texas is ocean beaches and mountains, deserts and lakes and rivers, forests
and prairies, one-horse towns and modern cities, urban gridlock and lonely
backroads, "ozone alerts" and night skies so clear you can't count all the
stars.
Texas is big! It's as large as all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and North Carolina combined. Forty-one of Texas's 254 counties are
each larger than Rhode Island. Texas has more lakes than Minnesota.
Franklin Mountains State Park is the largest urban park in the nation,
covering some 37 square miles, all within the city limits of El Paso. If you
could average 50MPH, and could travel Texas's 300,000 miles of public roads
without back-tracking, it would take you almost seven years of continuous
driving. It's farther from Brownsville to the top of the Panhandle than it
is from there to Canada; it's farther from El Paso to Texas's Eastern border
than it is from that border to the Atlantic, or from El Paso to the Pacific.
Wherever you're going, once you leave Texas, you're half-way there.
Texas even has its own power grid!
If it isn't in Texas, you don't need it. No one does anything bigger or
better than it's done in Texas.
Texas is friendly people -- the state's name came from an Indian word for
friends, the state's motto is "Friendship," and signs all along the nation's
largest highway system advise motorists to "Drive Friendly."
Say "Howdy!" to someone today.
Dutch. (A&M '91).