Why I’m Happy To (Now) Be Texan

I’ve been sitting on this post for a week now.  (I’ve been too busy fighting to get out what even the conservative media won’t cover.)

But today I was accused libeled by Santorum supporting Texas Tea Partiers of being a Progressive and falsely attacking their candidate.  As I showed in a point by point rebuttal how ignorant they are both in their libelous accusations against me, but in their moronic defense of their candidate.

I guess they missed the THIRD POST OF THIS BLOG where I attended the first King Street Patriots (Houston Tea Party) Seder.  Or my FIFTH POST and live Twitter feed (inspired by King Street Patriots and The Jersey-Texan) where we had a rally against the Obama Administration’s appointee who banned the word “Jesus” or “God” at the Houston VA Cemetery.

And with the honor of being followed by a descendant of one of the ORIGINAL 300 Texas settlers, it seemed appropriate to post today.  My apology to @pmbasse for having a post I originally was going to dedicate to her, ruined by more of those supporters.

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My wonderful blogger friend Michelle calls herself The Jersey-Texan.  I guess I’m the Chicago-Texan.  One of us is more of an oxyMORON than the other. (Hint: Watch the Little Birdy!)

I’m told that one of the most popular bumper stickers in Texas is this:

And I’m getting one of those very soon.

Some wonder if I’m ashamed of my hometown Chicago because of it’s legacy of corruption and recent identity with our obfuscating President.  I’m not.  It is also where Milton Friedman did his best work and last year’s NBA MVP reigns while exhibiting wonderful humility, hard work and other virtues.  But I’m now a Texan.

I’ll admit.  The scenery is not as compelling as cinematographic California or as awe inspiring as Alaska.  But while not a desert, most of Northern Illinois, especially Kane and Cook County don’t offer more than corn fields in place of cattle ranges.  

There is another feature here though that is the most lavish landmark of any land.  It is Liberty.  In law and in it’s leaseholders.  Here are just some of the things I love about Texas freedom: (Footnotes 1, 2, 3, 4)

• Texas' State and Local Tax Burden Among Nation's Lowest.
• Texas' 2012 Business Tax Climate Ranks 9th.
• Texas has the 3rd highest GDP of any state.
• Texas has the 2nd largest population with 3 cities over 1 million (and 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas.)
• Texas Levies No Personal Income Taxes.
• Texas is a Donor State in Federal Money.
• Texas won it’s OWN independence and was once a sovereign nation (California declared independence but never had the nerve to follow through.)
• Texas is the only state to join the Union by TREATY instead of Annexation.
• Texas has the right to divide into 5 states if it chooses to.
• It’s one of the only self-sufficient states in agriculture, energy, research, etc.able to function without others.
•  You can legally shoot pigs from a helicopter.

It’s not perfect.  Aside from having to stomach the Astros and Rockets (let alone all the college football bigotry), freedoms here are not quite complete either.  The GOP isn’t as aggressive against growth and liberal trickery as they gave up on fighting the TSA, sanctuary cities and played into Holder’s hands on Voter ID.  Don’t forget.  Texas gave the country LBJ and George W. Bush.  (Although Bush 41 lived in Texas since 1948, he still grew up as a Northeaster.) Believe it or not you aren’t free to package AND serve beer from your brewery.  (See the Texas Beer Freedom movement.)

Yes, the women are are quite fetching and the men – for the most part – are straight shooters.  There is a lack of pretense with most native Texans you meet.   But more than anything there is an underlying fierceness about freedom.  The motto here should, “Don’t even THINK about treading on me.”

And in a worse case scenario of what could happen should Barack Obama decide to ignore the voters in 2012 or steal them, there is no other place from which I’d rather wage the war for freedom.  Because of this final Texas advantage:

• If you KNOW (and can prove) that you are innocent, you can defend yourself with firearms, even against law enforcement.

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An American Patriotic Seder?

I had the great misfortune of attending the Houston based King Street Patriot weekly meeting last night.  


I say 'misfortune' because instead of the normal Tea Party belligerence and self-congratulatory regimen I expected as we took back our country, I was uncomfortably thrust into my very first - and perhaps the first ever -  Patriotic Seder.

King Street, is the group started by Catherine Englebrecht, is best known for beginning the TRUE THE VOTE effort profiled here by BigGovernment.  Having been enormously successful in stopping the vote fraud avalanche in Harris County, they have of late been preparing other patriots in places like Wisconsin to ensure that "one person one vote" is enforced to overturn the mantra in places like Chicago where it is currently chanted, "how many votes do we need to win?" 

But I was totally unprepared for what happened last night.  It was something - I hope - that will be repeated once a year (preferably November 6th although the July 4th timing is apt) across our fruited plain.


Considering myself an "adopted Jew" (aka as a Christian), the Seder has been a thing of fascination for me.  As best as I can understand from my Jewish brothers and sisters, it is one part history lesson, one part celebration, and one part communal affirmation.


What KSP did was ask the question, "What would a Seder for America's journey from tyranny to freedom look like?"


When we entered we each were given a tin with a yellow ribbon, lemon, 3 cups of tea and a cup of red dye.   The program wove the fundamental attributes of FAITH, LIBERTY and UNITY together against while retelling key points of history.  

One such chronicle was that of the yellow ribbon cast nonchalantly into the tree where they rebellious patriots were to "non-spontaneously" gather.  At one heart-stopping point the audience serially proclaims, "If King George would have..." followed by a explanation of why we arrived at revolution.  Insult upon insult built as you could nearly feel the resentment and frustration that grew over the tension of Christian obligations of patience and loyalty.  After each one of these, we dipped our finger into the blood-colored dyed and let a drop fall to the yellow ribbon.


"If King George would have not forced us to buy the King's goods instead of what we needed we would have not gone to war", made me wonder how close we would be if Obamacare was NOT overturned to the same resolution.


This was truly stirring.  We often forget the incredible deliberation and patience showed by our founders.  We often overlook the sense of a religious duty to free not just ourselves from oppression - but those we love and care for.  We certainly loose sight that the Revolution was not really about taxes, but about the frustration of being emotional and spiritually taxed from a loss of self-determination. 


My seder would encompass some things not part of the experience last night but is in no way superior.  I feel that these issues are often overlooked as we remember not just our fight for independence - but the "WHY" of at all.


FAITH.  As John Adams stated, our form of government is suitable for a just and moral people. It is wholely unsuitable for any other.  Even conservatives who are uncomfortable with the religious DNA of our founder's philosophies must at least be reminded that the ONLY reason, they were able to conceive of such a wonder, was due to their deep scholarship of Christian and Judaic scripture and a thorough knowledge of history.  The acknowledgments of Franklin, Jefferson, Adams and Washington to Divine Providence were not superstitious rhetoric, but first person testimony to numerous times our people and cause were delivered from certain defeat. 


COMMON SENSE.  Few remember that as a generally God fearing group of people, America truly was torn by an admonishment to "obey governing authorities," versus God's promise of freedom for His children.  It was the Thomas Paine booklet, COMMON SENSE which gave the average citizen a scriptural truth to help them decide not only what was in their selfish best interest - but what the will of God for them might be.  (It is a fascination that Paine himself was ostracized in his death as his views of scripture became abhorrent to the mainstream of Christian thought. But this fact and under-girding principle of America is that TRUTH - no matter who it comes from - will prevail and will not be co-opted by any personality or man made device.  Nor will we as a people exalt the infallibly of any man.)


CONVICTION.  In this day of convenience and instant gratification, it seems difficult to imagine the intense "win at any cost" devotion these men and women had for an ideal that might not even benefit them in their lifetime.  BRAVEHEART reminded us that not only are we to honor the sacrifice of those who made our lives better, we really can leave nothing to our children if we are not willing to do the same.


TRUE FREEDOM.  I must admit, I WANTED 'freedom' to mean my own self-determination without any oversight when I was even a young adult.  Rebellion has been so highly exalted in our culture that we have created an entire generation or two bankrupt of any ability to gladly cooperate with authority.  Had "Freedom" meant demanding our own selfish desires to be fulfilled at any cost, the revolution would have failed quickly and completely.  Submission to authority, discipline and judgement were the REAL standards of freedom.  Although not sexy enough for even a bumper sticker, it is THESE 3 ideals that allow trust and cooperation to be shared in self-government - leading us to understand better the earlier John Adams quote.


RESPONSIBILITY. I wish I could remember the quote and author of a banner hanging at the meeting.  What I took from it was that not only is the purchase of Freedom costly - it could only be maintained with a people circumspect in doing so.  As Christian conservatives have long realized, the abandonment of culture and government for "holier" efforts allowed a complete abdication of our school curriculum, bureaucracy and entertainment to forces more than eager to tantalize us with "fun" and "rebellion" in a Pinocchio-like tragedy.  I'm always reminded of Dr. Ted Baehr's lessons of how the blasphemous expansion of immorality coincidentally took hold within a few years of both the Catholic and Protestant film offices being closed.  Indeed, salt is needed to preserve as the efforts of groups like King Street Patriots is sure to do. 



I thought it poetic that the yellow ribbons we were given turned into the King Street Patriot colors of orange from the blood-like dye dropped like tears with each lament against the tyranny of government.


Perhaps it could be added to the mix of red, white and blue we will immerse ourselves in next week.   


And perhaps others will undertake their own seder of patriotism to not only remind us of what God has done in our past, but to strengthen us for the fight and victory ahead.     

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