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 Pan-handle 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 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, lakes 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 the 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!!
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