Tuesday, March 3, 2009

If anyone cares,...


...yesterday (March 2nd) was Texas Independence Day.

I grew up in Tarrant County, Texas (home of the Fort Worth stockyards) and studied Texas History during my senior year of high school.

Here is the text of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico and the signatures of all the men who signed it on March 2, 1836, in the town of Washington-on-the-Brazos.

And here is a transcript of an event held by The Texian Legacy Association on March 2, 1998, in Austin, and a speech entitled “The Myth and Meaning of Texas Independence” given by Dr. Stephen L. Hardin, Professor of History at Victoria College in Victoria, Texas. Careful readers of this blog will recognize Victoria as the birthplace of the mother of Pat - An Arkansas Stamper.

I am not really a Texan. I moved there when I was six and moved away when I was twenty. Think how insufferable I would be if I were a native.

Unlike every other state that entered the Union after the original thirteen, Texas was never a U.S. territory. After declaring independence from Mexico, Texas existed as an independent nation, the Republic of Texas, for nine years. It received diplomatic recognition as a sovereign nation from both Great Britain and France, and entered the United States in 1845 by an annexation agreement.

Here’s a little-known fact: Texas was considered to be so large at the time it was annexed into the United States as the 28th state that it retained the right in the annexation agreement to divide itself into as many as five states at any time it desired. But no one has ever been willing to give up the Alamo.


Alaska, of course, covers twice as much area as Texas, but when Alaska became the 49th state in 1959, no provision was made for splitting Alaska into ten states. If such provision had been made, we might today have the following:












Come to think of it, we seem to have that anyway.

So now you know all about yesterday. But some of you may be asking, “What about today?” I will now tell you about today.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, is the first day of the rest of your life.

8 comments:

  1. I care! And I am honoured to have left you (and your alter ego Billy Ray) an award over at my place. I would bring it to you if I could, but you have to collect it. The coast is clear, I've checked. No aliens between your blog and mine.

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  2. Mercy, mercy, me!!! You've (almost) outdone yourself! Are you intimating that native Texans are insufferable? Or, just that *you* would be insufferable? As a native Texan, I'd like to know.

    My mama briefly attended Victoria College. Thanks for the mention; you've got an excellent memory.

    I laughed outloud at your "what if" on Alaska. You're clever, you are! :)

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  3. Good grief! My brain is not functioning properly... yet. The sentence should have read: "Thanks for the mention; you have an excellent memory."

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  4. Carolina - Thanks again for your support! I would have been by to claim the award earlier but gremlins attacked my computer and I was OOB (out of business) for most of the day.

    Maybe you could get a patent on that alien sweeper thingy...

    Pat - I would never, ever, intimate that native Texans are insufferable. No way, Ho-zay. But let each person engage in self-examination from time to time....

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  5. i pick the girl in the red dress and not the others

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  6. Thanks for the Texas history lesson and The Alamo photo.....but, the others.....did you have to???

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  7. Mirror, mirror on the wall......

    There must be something clever to come up with in that vein to accompany Gov. Palin's gorgeous facial photos.

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  8. How about:

    "Mirror, mirror on the wall,
    Who is the most maligned of all?"

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...