Texas, Yes, Our Texas
[Author unknown - Edited and link-enhanced by D. A. Sharpe]
Suzanne & D. A. Sharpe at the 2005 Texas Society's Black Tie & Boots Ball
in Washington, DC during Presidential
Inauguration week
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 most 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 a little bit of Texas in everyone.
Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 200+ 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 Davy Crockett, and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to cross it and be heroes.
Hollywood's offering of "The Alamo!" John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at San Jacinto after a decisive battle lasting only 18 minutes. That great military feat by a scraggley band of Texian volunteers is memorialized on that Battle Ground site with the 570 foot tall San Jacinto Monument dedicated in 1939. The Texans made sure it surpassed our Nation's star monument, the Washington Monument in Washington DC, completed in 1884, which only stands 555 1/2 feet tall!
The Texas Navy, a fierce fleet of four recruited sailing vessels commissioned to protect Texan land from the days of the 1836 Revolution through the end of the 1846 life of the Republic of Texas, is noted in military history in two ways.
And what about modern day Republic of Texas Admirals commissioned by the Governors of Texas? Bet you didn't know that the very first citizen commissioned by a Texas Governor was Miss Ginger Rogers, famous stage and film dance partner of Fred Astair!
In April 1843, two Texas Navy sailing ships (Austin and Wharton) arrived in the Gulf of Mexico off Campeche to confront Mexican steamships (Moctemzuma and Guadalupe) manned by British sailors. The three hour battle ended in a draw and the Mexican ships retreating. It marked the only time in world history that sailing vessels were victorious over steamships! The second way the Texas Navy is highlighted in military history is Samuel Colt's immortalization of the Texas Navy on its Colt Navy Revolver! It is believed that the Texas Navy was the first military organization to purchase Colt's fabulous new invention of a repeating revolver handgun.
Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett and Sam Houston 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 floating the rivers of the Hill Country on a hot summer day.
Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.
Texas is beaches you can drive on and have many memorable bon-fires with close friends.
Texas is that warm feeling you get when someone asks where you're from.
Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.
Texas is Fort Worth where the West began.
Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork.
Texas is Mexican foods like nowhere else, not even Mexico.
Texas is chicken fried steak and world famous Bar-B-Q.
Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome. (guess now the Reliant Stadium too).
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Michael DeBakey, Ann Richards, Denton Cooley, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Gene Autry, Audie Murphy, Tommy Lee Jones, Waylon Jennings, Farrah Fawcett, Janis Joplin, Sandra Bullock, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Landry, Eva Longoria, Darrell Royal, ZZ Top, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sam Rayburn, Howard Hughes, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Lyndon B. Johnson, and let's not forget GEORGE STRAIT- PANTERA, the Big Bopper, Tex Ritter, George Jones, Clay Walker, Mark Chestnut, to name ONLY a few.
Texas is great companies like Dell Computer, Texas Instruments, EDS and Compaq, Whataburger, Southwest Airlines, Bell Helicopter and LOCKHEED MARTIN AEROSPACE, Home of the F-16 Jet Fighter and the JSF Fighter, Valero.
Texas is NASA.
Texas is huge herds of cattle, beautiful horses and miles of crops.
Texas is home to the world famous King Ranch.
Texas is home to the most amazing sunsets of gold over an empty field.
Texas is hundreds of deer running around neighborhoods and fields.
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.
To drive across Texas is to drive about 1/3 the way across the United States.
Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities.
No one does anything bigger or better than it's done in Texas ..
Do you know where the premiere burial place is for notable Texans? It is the Texas State Cemetery. Click on its name for an excellent 30 minute educational & inspirational video.
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 can become a republic again at any time the voters of Texas choose, and we included these things as part of the deal when we came on. (Some people claim subsequent Supreme Court actions void this, but who am I to say?)
The town of West, Texas is not in West Texas. It is in Central Texas!! It's a community first settled in the 1840's and in the 1880's a large influx of immigrants from the Czech Republic came, growing into a dominat influence to shape the character of the community. They've been there so long that the history city cemetery is the largest collection in Texas of cancelled Czechs!
That's the best part, right there.
Texas even has its own power grid!! And don't even lie to yourself... Did I mention Live music capitol of the world?
If you are a REAL TEXAN, you won't even need to be told to pass this on.
GOD BLESS TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!